Memoirs of Anne C.L. Botta,: written by her friends. With selections from her correspondence and from her writings in prose and poetry.

anne C. Z. 3otta
we cannot get grates made and set. We have indeed come into a
new country."
You must keep this to yourself, and, when asked how I like it, say
that I write you the situation is beautiful, which is true. The house is
made habitable, but there is not a single apartment finished, and all
withinside, except the plastering, has been done since Briesler came.
We have not the least fence, or yard, or other convenience without;
and the great unfinished audience-room I make a drying-room of, to
hang up the clothes in. The principal stairs are not up, and will not be
this winter. Six chambers are made comfortable; two are occupied by
the President and Mr. Shaw; two lower rooms, one for a common parlor,
and one for a levee room. Up-stairs there is the oval room, which is
designed for the drawing-room, and has the crimson furniture in it. It
is a very handsome room now; but when completed, it will be beautiful.
If the twelve years in which this place has been considered as the future
seat of government, had been improved as they would have been if in
New England, very many of the inconveniences would have been removed. It is a beautiful spot, capable of every improvement, and the
more I view it, the more I am delighted with it.
MRS. ADAMS TO MRS. SMITH.
WASHINGTON, November 2r, i8oo.
.. Two articles we are much distressed for; one is bells, but the
more important one is wood. Yet we are surrounded with trees. No arrangement has been made yet, but promises never performed, to supply
the new-comers with fuel. Of the promises, Briesler had received his full
share. He had procured nine cords of wood; between six and seven of
that was kindly burnt up to drythe walls of the house, which ought to have
been done by the commissioners, but which, if left to them, would have
remained undone to this day. Congress poured in, but shiver, shiver.
No woodcutters or carters to be had at any rate. We are now, through
the first clerk in the Treasury office, indebted to a Pennsylvania wagon
to bring us one cord and a half of wood, which is all we have for
this house, where twelve fires are constantly required, and where, we
are told, the roads will soon be so bad thatit cannot be drawn. Briesler
procured two hundred bushels of coals, or we must have suffered. This
is the situation of almost every person. The public officers have sent
to Philadelphia for woodcutters and wagons.... The ladies are impatient for a drawing-room; I have no looking-glasses but dwarfs for
this house; nor a twentieth part lamps enough to light it.
In the open square, opposite the President's house, is about
to be placed the equestrian statue of Jackson) in bronzes This
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