Your favour of the first ultimo was received just as I was about to leave Lancaster on the sixth; Since that time I have been so constantly engaged that have not had an opportunity to reply to it. I am extremely sorry to hear such bad news of Mrs. Tyler's health. I hoped that the warm weather would restore her to at least her usual health and strength. The thought of leaving this world even by that lingering and painful disease, Consumption, I am sure would not have any [unclear: remorse ] for her, but Mrs. Rochelle must feel it deeply. I can hardly conceive a severer trial than to see the daily, hourly inroads of that horrible disease on one we love, I trust that Mrs. Rochelle may be spared this trial. You ask me to teach you my mode of pressing flowers, it is extremely simple; most that preserve I press in my diary as it is always convenient, those that I preserved in Charleston I placed between course paper and placed under a weight sufficiently heavy to bring every part of [of] the flower in contrast with the paper, but heavy enough to crush it, I frequently took them out to look at them, this was an advantage to them as I have since learned, the great secret, an old friend of mine in Wheeling

is to change the paper frequently. My curiosity caused me to move those which I preserved from one part of the paper to another and I thus obtained some better specimens than I expected. A florist in Charleston told me that the coarsest paper (straw paper) was the best. You are wrong in your notions with regard to Lancaster county Pa [Pennsylvania]; the surface of that county is generally undulating, in some places rising by easy slopes so the height of four or five hundred feet. There are some spurs of the Blue Ridg [Ridge]which the natives dignify with the name of mountains but the [the] higest [highest] of them will not much excuse that above mentioned. Altogether Lancaster is one of the most beautiful portions of our beautiful country that I have seen it is justly called the garden of America. The population is very dense, the county alone constitutes a congressional district, and after the census if the apportionment was not changed would have to spare about one third of its number to another district. It is also wealthies [wealthiest] agricultural district in the United States with all [all] these advantages, however the people are the most illiteral that it has been my lot to meet with. I was verry [very] soon disgusted with them and on the sixth of July left there with the sincere hope that if I ever see it again, it may be on my way to some other place. From Lancaster I went to Balt [Baltimore]. where I spent the Sabbath, and the next day went on to Washington after attending to some business

I left there on the ninth and the same evening after an absence of nearly eleven months I reached home. I staid from the ninth to the twenty second with my parents and sisters and at that time started for this place. You will no doubt be surprised to hear that I am still in the service of the [unclear: monument ], as you heard me express myself so strongly against the service last fall. The Board being anxious to retain me however, I have taken the tenth district of this state, and shall probably, for the purpose of spending the winter in the south take the Savannah district in Georgia . If I should do so, and I think there is not much doubt that I shall, I promise myself the pleasure of a visit to Jerusalem in the spring. My trip to Wheeling, and down the Ohio on Mississippi was verry fatigueing [fatiguing]. At Wheeling I saw some of my old friends and spent the short time I staid there quite pleasantly. Once on the river my toil began, the river was so low that it was impossible to see over the banks, and before we got to Cincinnatti [Cincinnati] I was quite sick, and continued so till we reached cairo at the mouth of the Ohio. In consequence of my sickness I had no chance to look about the cities of Cincinnatti and Louisville or any of the towns on the river. I have never been on any river the banks of which ever as devoid interest as the Mississippi that portion of it which I saw is remarkable for nothing but its verry muddy water. You may form some idea of it by looking into a pig sty (one that has no floor) after a rain of a weeks continuance; it will not be more muddy than the father of waters.

Please present my regards to Mrs. Rochelle Mrs. Tyler and [unclear: all hey ms. ] Tell Mrs Tyler that I hope to make amends in the spring for not calling on my return last May and I hope to make due her and her little blossoms in the enjoyment of health and every other blessings which they so sickly deserve. My Mother and sisters were so glad to see that they forgot to scold me about the Charleston joke.

Verry Respectfully and Sincerely Your friend

Daniel Douglass

[added: Miss Sarah J. Armstrong

Jerusalem Virginia

]