Mary Elizabeth Wilson Sherwood

“ Seaton, and when I was there later, in a snow-storm, I wondered if the once soft, Southern climate of Washington was one of the vanished pleasures of youth, like a good appetite and a love of balls. Washington is a garden of delight in spring. I think Proserpine sets her blessed foot here earlier and more charmingly than anywhere else; but even in winter she used to throw us out a rose or two. ”

“ Rome, like Washington, is small enough, quiet enough, for strong personal intimacies; Rome, like Washington, has its democratic court and its entourage of diplomatic circle; Rome, like Washington, gives you plenty of time and plenty of sunlight. In New York we have annihilated both.
So my early Washington recollections became crystallized. ”

“ The life in New England was a studious one, but not gay, although the irrepressible spirit of sixteen got some dancing out of it. The vision of Washington to come was a not ungrateful one, and, although I have referred to it before, I may be allowed to speak for a moment of the political situation which obtained when I exchanged New England for Washington. My father had always been very kind and familiar in his talks with his children about politics as well as everything else. ”

“ One of our gentlemen attendants, looking at his coat, said: "Spermaceti is very expensive. I have paid ten dollars for less than a pound." However, we enjoyed the crowd, the dance, and the novelty. Had the grippe been the fashion I should have died then and there, and you would have been spared these rambling recollections. But we never seemed to take cold in those days. Washington was cold and dreary in winter then; the houses were insufficiently heated, the hotels abominable. ”

“ It was through the friendship of one of these dear Southern friends that I was smuggled in to a dinner at Mrs. Polk's, just before she left the White House. I remember how very long it seemed and how dreary — state dinners at sixteen are dreary. The dinner was a very elegant one, and I can now see Mrs. Ashley's plumes across the table. Mrs. Ashley was a very handsome widow with a very handsome daughter, Miss Wilcox. Mrs. Ashley was afterwards the wife of the Hon. J. J. Crittenden. She was a most amiable woman, who always called every man colonel or general. ”

“ It was a highly exciting, agreeable, improving life for a New Hampshire girl. We saw Mr. Webster every day, often dined with him, and spent a winter at the National Hotel, dining usually at a "mess" with Mr. Clay. I saw General Taylor inaugurated, and during the winter of his short reign saw much of Mrs, Bliss at the White House. She made a charming hostess. We went very often to the House and Senate in those days. Can it be possible that the little room now devoted to statuary, with its beautiful clock, was once that immense space? The modern Capitol confuses me. ”

“ But these great topics are beyond the meaning and the purpose of these rambling recollections. A young girl listening to a giant was not thinking of the past or the future; she was probably very much more interested in her own present. ”

“ Cameo-like, they stand out clear and distinct. I see again that great straggling outline so little filled up, a collection of houses here and there, and then great empty spaces. I see, in my mind's eye, the Capitol and the White House, and the distant view of Arlington and Georgetown, almost a distant city. For a picnic on a June afternoon we would drive through deserted lanes to Kalorama, now, I believe, in the middle of the city. Then we had always a delightful treat in visiting Brentwood, at that time kept up with true Southern hospitality; Silver Springs, most beautiful ”

“ George Wood, who wrote Peter Schlemihl; or, The Man without a Shadow. Mr. Wood used to take us to see Mr. King's pictures, and he introduced us to charming, quiet people, who were the citizens of Washington, mostly Southern by descent, and those ladies would sit in plain black silks and dark gloves to receive their guests. It was a splendid distinction then, as now, to be asked to the White House to dine, and it was one we looked forward to once a winter ”

“ Speaking of portraits of Mr. Webster, the earliest one, by Chester Harding (that man of genius who used to make Gilbert Stuart jealous, as his young fame in 1823 made the older man ask, "How rages the Harding fever?") , is, I think, in the Boston Athenæum. They are all good. I sat to Harding in my girlhood. He used to talk to me of Webster as of a man whom he really worshipped. He had a thorough comprehension of his subject, for he was a great man himself. ”

“ Washington in the Forties — General Franklin Pierce — The Mexican War — John Quincy Adams, Lincoln, Calhoun, Benton, and Clay — A Sight for Northern "Doughfaces" — The 7th-of-March Speech — Chester Harding — Two Stories of Webster — President Tyler's Inauguration — State Balls and Dinners — The Society of the Capital Half a Century Ago. ”