deliver at the Ships side. You will therefore Insure that Quantity
and dispose of them in the best manner for Our Interest. If Captn.
Talman uses that Dispatch in Loading of his Vessell, which I am sure
he now has in his power to do this Tobo. wl come to a very good
market, I hope.

It is almost as much trouble and expense getting Goods from any of
the Rivers round to Potomack as the Original Charges of Shipping them
amount to, unless they are committed to the charge of very careful
Captains who has an Interest in forwarding. I should be glad
therefore if you would take the oppertunity of some Ship to that
River of sending my Goods for the Future.

Your favour of the 6th Augt. I have had the pleasure of receiving,
and acknowledge myself particularly obliged to you for your polite
Congratulations on my Marriage, as I likewise am for your Dispatch of
my Goods.

I am Gentn.[35]

[Illustration: A Suffer to Pass of the ship Polly and Nancy of
Alexandria; John McKnight, Master. Signed by George Washington.
(Courtesy Mount Vernon Ladies' Association)]

An invoice of goods of earlier date sent by the same firm for the use of
George Washington contained 194 items. Wearing garments, ornaments for
the chimney place, busts, drugs, sugar, carpenter's and plowman's tools,
candy, a case of pickles containing anchovies, capers, olives, "salid
oyl" and a bottle of India mangoes; tea, harness, saddles, corks, six
pounds of perfumed powder, three pounds of the best Scotch snuff,
ribbons, gloves, sword belt, nine dozen packages of playing cards, paint
and brushes, one and one-half dozen bell glasses for the garden; one
mahogany closet stool case in the newest taste, with place for chamber
pot, etc.; soap, garden seeds, nuts and condiments, locks and two dozen
H&L hinges and three pounds of bird lime, were but a few of the items
listed.

In addition to his own orders, the General supervised the shopping for
the two Custis children and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Dandridge. Not only
were clothes and materials ordered, fine ivory combs, stockings, etc.,
but toys. Here is a selection made by the Cary firm--a child's fiddle, a
coach and six in a box, a stable with six horses, a toy whip, a filigree
watch, a neat enameled watch box, a corner cupboard and a child's huzzit
[housewife].

General Washington was a Virginia gentleman who lived in a fashion
similar to his neighbors; like orders, we