Friday, April 19, 2024
Desire to Escape the City
The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. Edited by Lester J. Cappon (1959; rpt. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987), p. 255 (Adams to Jefferson, May 11, 1794):
For the sentiment see also p. 176 (Adams to Jefferson, March 1, 1787):
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If I had Your Plantation and your Labourers I should be tempted to follow your Example and get out of the Fumum et Opes Strepitumque Romae ["the smoke, the wealth, the din of Rome"] which I abominate.The editor doesn't identify the source of the quotation, which is Horace, Odes 3.29.12.
For the sentiment see also p. 176 (Adams to Jefferson, March 1, 1787):
If it lay in my Power, I would take a Vow, to retire to my little Turnip yard, and never again quit it.and p. 228 (Abigail Adams to Jefferson, February 26, 1788):
I have lived long enough, and seen enough of the world, to check expectations, and to bring my mind to my circumstances, and retiring to our own little farm feeding my poultry and improveing my garden has more charms for my fancy, than residing at the court of Saint James's where I seldom meet with characters so innofensive as my Hens and chickings, or minds so well improved as my garden.
