lay often with your grandmamma
[Maria Hester Monroe]. Can you believe that a vivid memory
can turn back so many years? Ask your mamma to favour me and
come yourself to see

Yours very truly,

JULIA LAWRENCE.

1829 G Street,
Tuesday morning.

An old family friend of Mrs. Lawrence and her daughter, the late Dr.
Basil Norris, U.S.A., a native of Frederick, resided in the Ricketts
home, and I am certain that his memory is still revered in the District.
When Mrs. Ricketts, upon her husband's death, broke up her Washington
home, Dr. Norris went to San Francisco to reside. A daughter of mine on
her way to join her husband in Honolulu was taken seriously ill in that
city and was attended by him with consummate skill. He was then on the
retired list of the Army, but had a large and fashionable practice in
his newly adopted home.

In connection with Mrs. Lawrence my memory brings vividly before me my
old and valued friends, Mrs. Maynadier, widow of General William
Maynadier of the Ordnance Department of the Army, and her witty sister,
Kate Eveleth. To render acts of kindness seemed their natural avocation,
and I never think of them without recalling Sir Walter Scott's
description of a ministering angel. I have heard Mrs. Maynadier say that
at the time of her marriage her husband, then a young officer, was
receiving a salary of only six hundred dollars; and yet she reared a
large circle of children, her daughters marrying into prominent families
and her sons becoming professionally well known. Their father was Aide
to General Scott in the Black Hawk War and performed similar duty under
General Alexander Macomb. Their mother lived to see the fourth
generation of her descendants, many of whom still reside in the
District.

When I returned to Washington, I found the old Decatur house facing
Lafayette Square owned and occupied by General and Mrs. Edward F. Beale,
who had recently returned from a long residence in California. Mr.
Gouverneur had known the General--"Ned" Beale, as he was usually
called--in other days and I soon derived much pleasure from Mrs. Beale's
acquaintance. She was a woman of the most aristocratic bearing and was
especially qualified to meet the exacting requirements of the most
exclusive society. The household was rendered additionally brilliant by
her two daughters, both of whom were then unmarried. The sparkling
vivacity of the elder, Miss Mary Beale, w