as there's a very agrewable Young Lady lives in the same house where I
reside (Colo George Fairfax's Wife's Sister) that in a great Measure
cheats my thoughts altogether from your Parts I could wish to be with you
down there with all my heart but as it is a thing almost Impractakable
shall rest myself where I am with hopes of shortly having some Minutes of
your transactions in your Parts which will be very welcomely receiv'd."


Who this "Low Land Beauty" was has been the source of much speculation,
but the question is still unsolved, every suggested damsel--Lucy Grymes,
Mary Bland, Betsy Fauntleroy, _et al._--being either impossible or the
evidence wholly inadequate. But in the same journal which contains the
draughts of these letters is a motto poem--


"Twas Perfect Love before
But Now I do adore"--


followed by the words "Young M.A. his W[ife?]," and as it was a fashion
of the time to couple the initials of one's well-beloved with such
sentiments, a slight clue is possibly furnished. Nor was this the only
rhyme that his emotions led to his inscribing in his journal: and he
confided to it the following:


"Oh Ye Gods why should my Poor Resistless Heart
Stand to oppose thy might and Power
At Last surrender to cupids feather'd Dart
And now lays Bleeding every Hour