for he was said to lay out about 33,000 dollars every year in new purchases. He possessed 500 slaves, built brigs and schooners, worked iron mines, converted the iron into ploughshares, —and all this was done by the hands of his own subjects. He had a splendid house at Mount Airy, with a property round it of 8,000 acres, and a house at the Federal City; and he told me that he raised about twelve bushels to the acre of the best land. Mr. Carrol, of Annapolis, grandfather of Lady Wellesley, the Duchess of Leeds, and Lady Stafford, was said to be still more wealthy, having, besides great accumulation in the funds, 15,000 acres of the best land in Frederic county, and several other estates."

Since Sir Augustus wrote we need not say how all this has changed. The division of property among children, and the absence of all habits of thrift, has in many instances transferred the estates to strangers; but the fine old mansion houses generally remain, and attest the hospitality and elegance of the times to which our author has reference.

THE LADIES AND PEARL-POWDER.

The following will interest the ladies; "Most of the members of Congress, it is truc, keep to their lodgings, but still there are a sufficient

number of them who are sociable, or whose families come to the city for a season, and there is no want of handsome ladies for the balls especially at George Town; indeed, I never saw prettier girls anywhere. As there are but few of them, however, in proportion to the great number of men who frequent the places of amusement in the Federal City, it is one of the most marrying places of the whole continent-a truth which was beginning to be found out, and became, by and by, the cause of vast numbers flocking thither all round from the four points of the compass. Maugre the march of intellect so much vaunted in the present century, the literary education of these ladies is far from being worthy of the age of knowledge, and conversation is apt to flag, though a seat by the ladies is always much coveted. Dancing and music served to eke out the time, but one got to be heartily sick of hearing the same song everywhere, even when it was 'Just like love is yonder rose.' No matter how this was sung; the words alone were the men traps; the belle of the evening was declared to be just like both -and people looked round as if the listener was expected to become on the instant very tender and to propose and sometimes such a result does in reality take place, and both parties, when betrothed, use a great deal of billing and

cooing; eat out of the same plate, drink out of the same glass, and show off their love to the whole company. Between these young ladies, who are generally not only good looking but good tempered, and, if not well informed, capable of becoming so, and the ladies of a certain time of life, or rather of the seconda gioventu, there is usually a wide gap in society, young married women being but seldom seen in the world; as they approach, however, to the middle age, they are apt to become romantic; those in particular who live in the country, and have read novels, fancying all manner of heroic things, and returning to the capital determined to have an adventure before they again retire, or on doing some wondrous act which shall make them be talked about in after times. I, myself, in vain reasoned with a very beautiful lady to try to persuade her not to cut off a head of hair, one of the finest I ever saw, of an auburn color, which she used to take the greatest pains to curl and keep in order, and had been evidently proud of; but it was all useless; she found out one day that it was a vanity, and vanity was a sin, and off she cut it and put it into the hands of her astonished and despairing husband. Others I have known to contract an aversion to water, and as a substitute, cover their faces and bosoms with hair powder, in order to render the skin

pure and delicate. This was peculiarly the case with some Virginian damsels who came to the balls at Washington, and who, in consequence, were hardly less intolerable than negroes.

There were but few cases, however, of this, I must confess; though, as regards the use of the powder, they were not so uncommon; and, at my balls, I thought it advisable to put on the tables of the toilette room not only rouge, but hair powder, as well as blue powder, which had some customers.

MUD.

In going to assemblies, one had sometimes to drive three or four miles within the city bounds, and very often at the great risk of an overturn, or of being what is termed 'stalled,' or stuck in the mud, when one can neither go backwards nor forwards, and either loses one's shoes or one's patience. . . . Cards were a great resource of an evening, and gaming was all the fashion, at brag especially, for the men who frequented society were chiefly from Virginia or the Western States, and were very fond of this, the most gambling of all games, as being one of countenance as well as of cards. Loo was the innocent diversion of the ladies, who,

when they were looed, pronounced the word in a very mincing manner."

RELIGION.

He does not seem to have been impressed with the devotional habits:

"Church service can certainly never be called an amusement; but, from the variety of persons who were allowed to preach in the House of Representatives, there doubtless was some alloy of curiosity in the motives which led one to go there. Though the regular chaplain was a Presbyterian, sometimes a Methodist, a minister of the Church of England, or a Quaker, and sometimes even a woman, took the Speaker's chair, and I do not think there was much devotion among the majority. The New Englanders, generally speaking, are very religious; but though there are many exceptions, I cannot say so much for the Marylanders, and still less for the Virginians."

NOT SO BAD A PLACE AFTER ALL.

But, dull as he found the place on his first arrival, he speaks more favorably of it after he had visited other parts of the Union. He then says: "in spite of its inconveniences and desolate aspect, it was, I think, the most agreeable town to reside in for any length of time. The opportunity of collecting information from Senators and Representatives from all parts of the