Life of Count Ruinford. 289 



shall offer of giving you the most convincing proofs of my grati- 

 tude, as well as of the unfeigned regard and esteem with which 

 I am, my dear Friend, 



41 Most affectionately Yours, 



"RUMFORD. 



" The Hon b ! e Col. LOAMMI BALDWIN. 

 ("Received April 21, 1798.") 



This " long epistle," as the Count well describes it, 

 can hardly have failed to engage the attention of the 

 reader as giving hints and intimations of some of those 

 traits in the writer which express his real character. He 

 evidently cherished a serious intention of at least mak- 

 ing a visit with his daughter to his native country, if 

 not also of taking up his permanent residence here. 

 His fame was now well established in America, and 

 many friends and correspondents whom he had here 

 were prepared to welcome him with pride and gratitude. 

 I have come upon many contemporary evidences that 

 several of these friends were engaged in selecting for 

 him a desirable estate, which he might purchase and 

 improve, and had written to him very freely upon the 

 subject. It was just at a period when some of the 

 most extensive private domains were purchased at small 

 cost by gentlemen rich for those days, who built upon 

 them substantial mansion-houses, and introduced some 

 of the earlier improvements of agriculture. Count 

 Rumford would have been a conspicuous example 

 among this class, and would surely have signalized 

 his renewed citizenship in Massachusetts by building a 

 stately mansion, adorning pleasure-grounds, and man- 

 aging a farm. It would seem as if the region which 

 drew the preferences of his friends and advisers was in 

 the neighborhood lying between what are now known 

 as North Cambridge and Belmont. 

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