As for the rest, the ten buildings on the right and left are not at all regularly built, but each of them in a different manner, so that there is no harmony in the whole, which prevents it from having a beautiful and majestic appearance.
The garden walls of the lateral building are also in crooked lines, which gives them a singular but handsome appearance. The buildings have been executed according to Mr. Jefferson’s plan, and are his hobby; he is rector of the University, in the construction of which the state of Virginia is said to have laid out considerable sums of money.
We addressed a gentleman whom we met by chance, in order to get some information, and we had every reason to be satisfied with his politeness. It was Dr. Dunglison, professor of medicine. He is an Englishman, and came last year with three other professors from Europe. He showed us the library, which was still inconsiderable, and has been provisionally arranged in a lecture room; it contained some German belles lettres works, among others a series of Kotzebue’s calendar of dramatical works. It was said a great quantity of books was coming from Europe.
The university is situated on a hill in a very healthy situation, and there is a very fine view of the Blue Ridge. President Jefferson invited us to a family dinner; but as in Charlotteville there is but a single hackney-coach, and this being absent, we were obliged to go the three miles to Monticello on foot.
We went by a pathway, through well cultivated and enclosed fields, crossed a creek named Rivanna, passing on a trunk of a tree cut in a rough shape, and without rails; then ascended a steep hill overgrown with wood, and came on its top to Mr. Jefferson’s house, which is in an open space, walled round with bricks, forming an oblong, whose shorter sides are rounded; on each of the longer sides are portals of four columns.
The unsuccessful waiting for a carriage, and our long walk, caused such a delay, that we found the company at table when we entered; but Mr. Jefferson came very kindly to meet us, forced us to take our seats, and ordered dinner to be served up anew. He was an old man of eighty-six years of age, of tall stature, plain appearance, and long white hair.
In conversation he was very lively, and his spirits, as also his hearing and sight, seemed not to have decreased at all with his advancing age. I found in him a man who retained his faculties remarkably well in his old age, and one would have taken him for a man of sixty. He asked me what I had seen in Virginia. I eulogized all the places, that I was certain would meet with his approbation, and he seemed very much pleased. The company at the table, consisted of the family of his daughter, Mrs. Randolph, and of that of the professor of mathematics at the university, an Englishman, and of his wife. I turned the conversation to the subject of the university, and observed, that this was the favourite topic with Mr. Jefferson; he entertained very sanguine hopes as to the flourishing state of the university in future, and believed that it, and the Harvard University near Boston, would in a very short time be the only institutions, where the youth of the United States would receive a truly classical and solid education. After dinner we intended to take our leave, in order to return to Charlotteville; but Mr. Jefferson would not consent to it. He pressed us to remain for the night at his house. The evening was spent by the fire; a great deal was said about travels, and objects of natural history; the fine arts were also introduced, of which Mr. Jefferson was a great admirer. He spoke also of his travels in France, and the country on the Rhine, where he was very much pleased. His description of Virginia is the best proof what an admirer he is of beauties of nature. He told us that it was only eight months since he could not ride on horseback; otherwise, he rode every day to visit the surrounding country; he entertained, however, hopes of being able to re-commence the next spring his favourite exercise. Between nine and ten o’clock in the evening, the company broke up, and a handsome room was assigned to me.
The next morning I took a walk round the house, and admired the beautiful panorama, which this spot presents. On the left, I saw the Blue Ridge, and between them and Monticello are smaller hills. Charlotteville and the University lay at my feet; before me, the valley of the Rivanna river, which farther on, makes its junction with the James river, and on my right was the flat part of Virginia, the extent of which is lost in distance; behind me was a towering hill, which limited the sight. The interior of the house was plain, and the furniture somewhat of an old fashion. In the entrance was a marble stove with Mr. Jefferson’s bust, by Ceracchi. In the rooms hung several copies of the celebrated pictures of the Italian school, views of Monticello, Mount Vernon, the principal buildings in Washington and Harper’s Ferry; there were also an oil painting, and an engraving of the Natural Bridge, views of Niagara by Vanderlin, a sketch of the large picture by Trumbull, representing the surrender at Yorktown, and a pen drawing of Hector’s departure, by Benjamin West, presented by him to General Kosciuszko, finally, several portraits of Mr. Jefferson, among which the best was that in profile by Stuart. In the saloon there were two busts, one of Napoleon as first consul, and another of the Emperor Alexander. Mr. Jefferson admired Napoleon’s military talents, but did not love him. After breakfast, which we took with the family, we bid the respectable old man farewell, and set out upon our return on foot to Charlotteville.
Mr. Jefferson tendered us the use of his carriage, but I declined, as I preferred walking in a fine and cool morning. In the afternoon we left Charlotteville, in a tolerably good stage, in order to go to Richmond, the chief town of Virginia, distant eighty miles. A student was our travelling companion, and so we had plenty of room. But the stage went only ten miles to a small tavern situated in a wood, and kept by Mrs. Boyd. We passed by not far from Monticello, crossed the Rivanna at a rather deep ford, and remained for some miles on its left bank. The banks were high and rocky in some places. The road was, for the greatest part, through a wood, hilly and rough; in some places it was what they call causeway.
On the 28th of November we set out at half past two o’clock in the morning, by moonlight and very cold weather, and went seventy miles to Richmond. The stage was better, and the road was also better than formerly. Notwithstanding that the country continued hilly, a considerable portion of the road was causeway, for the greatest part of logs, and the country uninteresting. When we approached James river, along the banks of which we went for some miles, the country grew finer, and had it been more settled I would have compared it with that on the Elbe, above Dresden. The ground was in the beginning loamy, then sandy. We changed horses at isolated taverns. Gordonsville and Goochland were the only villages through which we passed, and in these villages too the houses were very scattered, and almost all of them of wood. We rode on the left bank of James river, and passed by a navigable canal, which is said to extend in land about eighty miles above Richmond, and appeared to have been constructed with great care; the wooden bridges were neatly constructed and solid; an aqueduct of two arches, which conducted the canal over a brook having high banks, was well built. About eight o’clock in the evening we reached Richmond, a town of about seventeen thousand inhabitants of both colours. To judge by the houses, Richmond must be a wealthy place. We took our lodgings in the Union Hotel, a large and well-furnished inn. I felt really happy at finding myself once again in a considerable place, as I was almost unaccustomed to such a sight.