The weather to day —
but what shall I say of the weather? we have had "very cold," "extremely
cold," " excessive cold," and "exceeding cold," as
says this Book now, none of these separately is sufficient to convey the idea
of the temperature of this day — it needs more than the superlative degree, it
would take a super-superlative degree if there is such an one, for it is very
extremely excessive cold, in short, they say that it has not been so cold since
that winter the ox was frozen on the river. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, George,
Betsey & Anna Guest, Anna Clifford & I, dined at Mrs. T. Clifford's.1
After dinner A. C. and I went home and drank Tea alone, but in the evening the
above company spent with us. Dunce! how could it be "the above
company" when they are at the bottom of the other side? well Mr. Critic,
you know what I mean!
_______________
1 Thomas Clifford, son of an Englishman, of
the same name, was a native of Philadelphia. He married Aunt Guest, of
Burlington, the aunt of the Misses Guest (daughters of Jonathan G.) so often
mentioned. Mr. Clifford was an eminent merchant before the revolution, and one
of those who signed the non-importation agreement. He and his family were
members of the Society of Friends, in whose burial ground he was interred in
1793. His wife was buried in the same ground in Nov. 1803. Their children were
Thomas Clifford, who married a Miss Dowell, of Bristol, England, and had two
daughters. John Clifford, who married Anna Rawle, and had Rebecca, who married
John Pemberton. Elizabeth, who married William Smith (the Mr. and Mrs. Smith,
of the "Journal"). And Anna (Miss Eve's particular friend), who
married in Oct. 1773, Jacob Giles, of Maryland.
Miss Ann Guest died
unmarried.— C. R. H.
SOURCE: “Extracts
from the Journal of Miss Sarah Eve,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1881), pp. 25-6
