In one letter she declares: "The partridge, the woodcock and the pigeon are too great temptations for the sportsman to withstand!" And please don't forget for one moment that this was at Charlton and Varick streets! The House on the Hill was the home of quite ceremonious entertaining in those days.

John Adams, in another land, would surely have been a courtier--a Cavalier rather than a Roundhead.

John T.Morse, Jr., says that the Vice-president liked "the trappings of authority." The same historian declares that in his advice to President Washington, "...

he talked of dress and undress, of attendants, gentlemen-in-waiting, chamberlains, etc., as if he were arranging the household of a European monarch." Gulian C.Verplanck (sometimes known by the nom de plume of "Francis Herbert"), wrote in 1829, quite an interesting account of Richmond Hill as he personally recalled it.

He draws for us a graphic picture of a dinner party given by the Vice-president and Mrs.Adams for various illustrious guests.
After entering the house by a side door on the right, they mounted a broad staircase with a heavy mahogany railing.