Adams Family Correspondence, volume 8
I should have addressed your excellency sooner, but that my mind, which is the weakest—(or, as I had rather settle your excellency's
idea of it, the most delicate)—thing in the world, has been
for sometime suspended between the contrary fears—of trespassing upon your more
important attentions, on the one hand, or against the obligations of gratitude &
decorum, on the other: The last has, finally, prevailed; and I will now submit to be
thought as “impertinent” as your excellency pleases, provided I may be acquitted of the
“ingratitude”:
But, in presenting me with the “Defence of the political constitutions of America,”
what did you, my dear madam, but make me your debtor for one of the greatest pleasures
of my life? Should I 88(then) withhold acknowledgements which it is even
duty to make; or should I dare apprehend, from a noble
American Matron, such coquetry of benevolence, as first to
excite the sensibilities of a gratefull heart, and then either to refuse, or contemn,
it's humble returns?
This delightfull season being so far advanced, I begin to fear that I may not enjoy the
promised pleasure of attending your excursions into this part of England: May I presume
to intimate, that the accomodations of my cottage, though humble, and (what is worse)
not yet hallowed by the arrangements of a prudent “Goody Baucis,”1 are not despicable; and that it's deficiencies
can be supplied by very excellent inns: The expectation of entertaining (though but for
an hour) the father of American Liberty, will stimulate my
endeavours to make that entertainment agreeable;— The remembrance of such an honor will
amply reward them: I would by way of inducement, add, but
that his excellency already knows it (perhaps better than myself) that, to say nothing
of the amusing varieties of Devonshire in general, we have
in this town in which I live, some capital peculiar manufactories; and that those of
wool, and thin cloths, about Exeter, are also of great consideration:2 But one hint more will I dare give— “You shall
be as public, or as private as
you please.”
I shall be highly obliged to you, madam, or to mrs. Smith, for any information relative
to our friends at home—I mean America. Be persuaded,
nothing can be trivial, to me, that comes from those friends, & that country.
Pray accept my respectfull compliments of thanks & good wishes, for yourself & for doctor Adams and mr. and mrs. Smith; and permit me, madam, to have the honor of confessing, and on every occasion demonstrating, myself to be / Your Excellency's / obliged, faithfull / humble servant
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “for Mrs Adams.”; endorsed: “J Cranch june 13 / 1787.”
In classical mythology Baucis and Philemon were an elderly couple who offered
hospitality to the gods Jupiter and Mercury when others refused to do so. They were
rewarded by having their cottage transformed into a temple (Brewer, Reader's Handbook
).
Jonathan Swift celebrated “Goody Baucis” in his poem, “Baucis and
Philemon.”
Textile making was the dominant industry of southwestern England. Axminster and
Exeter were known especially for their cloth finishing. By the end of the eighteenth
century, Axminster had achieved a worldwide reputation for its carpets though the
cloth-finishing industry itself was in decline (W. G. Hoskins, Industry, Trade and People in Exeter, 1688–1800, Manchester, 1935, p. 37;
Geoffrey Chapman, A History of Axminster to 1910,
Wilmington, 1998, p. 108–109).