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during my residence with them. Capt B. was at the
time I went to write in his office, about 50 years of age
inclining to corpulancy - was certainly one of the last
& altogether the laziest man I ever saw. he was an
inveterate smoker & had a great repugnance to locomotion.
He went to the town of Winchester, every
Saturday, to "see company", except that, he scarcely
ever went off the place or even on it. He had
a small but very good tract of land, & a few very
mean Negroes to cultivate his farm. They raised
plenty of corn, but he was no farmer - & did not
keep an overseer - raised but little stock. Perhaps
pork enough to supply the white family. The Negroes
(poor Devils) did not get much. Mr. & Mrs. B. were
cousins. He (I think) was raised in Hanover County,
Virginia. She in Charlottesville, Albermarle County.
Her name was Moore, she was the sister of Sen Colo.
Crockett of Jessamine, & of McCalla of Lexington
Genl. John M. McCalla, at present (March 1848)
one of the Auditors of the Treasury of the U.S.
is her nephew. Wm. H. Moore of Talladega, is
also a nephew. I never saw a man & wife so
well matched - so perfectly congenial in their
dispositions. She too was a "great smoker" and
they spent the principal part of their time in
smoking & conversation. They were perfectly contented
& happy - lives in an indifferent cabin
in a plain, simple manner - their diet was of
the most common kind - meat, corn bread
& milk being almost the only articles - tea & coffee
were unknown. They had seven children, two sons
and five daughters - the eldest son (James P.) is
I presume, the present Clerk of the County Court of
Clarke County. They did not educate their children
but I never could account for it, particularly as
he was himself a well educated man. He was
a first rate Greek & Latin scholar, the consequence
was , when his children grew up, they labored
under great disadvantages - his daughters did
not marry well. His stingyness might have