Life of Count Ritmford, 513 



favorable to her wishes, and she was ready before I could 

 scribble this line. They are now both waiting, and the morn- 

 ing lowering. I must defer my observations on the feeling you 

 express in inhabiting your new mansion. I hope, and still 

 think you will prefer Woburn, for to spend half the year at 

 least. 



" I am, my dear Countess, 



" Yours sincerely, 



"LOAMMI BALDWIN." 



In a letter from Concord, to a female friend in 

 Boston, dated November 5, 1801, referring to her good 

 purposes of industrious occupation for that winter, 

 Sarah writes : " I should not so much mind spend- 

 ing my time idly, if I had no one to please but my- 

 self. My father is very active himself, and usefully 

 active; and he highly disapproves of the manner in 

 which I pass my time. He has proved a kind, good 

 father to me, and in return for his kindness I ought 

 to do everything in my power to please him. He is 

 extravagantly fond of drawing, and thinks if I have a 

 talent for anything it is for that ; and often reproaches 

 me for not attending to it more than what I do." 



Readers, I feel sure, will not expect or desire from me 

 any apology for the use which I am now to make of 

 some very miscellaneous papers that have fortunately 

 come to my hand, from various sources, filled with 

 details of more or less interest as contributions to a 

 biography. In one point of view some of the contents 

 of these papers are trivial, and may seem in their re- 

 hearsal to be below the dignity that should invest our 

 subject. But in another aspect they will engage the 

 reader as really instructive in themselves, and, in fact, 

 as specially essential to our knowledge of Count Rum- 

 33 



