owd of
legislators and gentlemen assembled for the races, which are to
commence tomorrow. The races amidst the ruins and desolation of
Washington.

These gentlemen used to ride to and from the capitol in a large
stage-coach with seats on top called the "Royal George."

Among the other notable guests of the old hostelry were Louis Philippe,
Jerome Bonaparte, Talleyrand, ex-Bishop of Autun when he was driven from
France, John Adams, when as President in the early summer of 1800, he
came down to look over his new field; Anthony Merry, Minister from
England to the United States; Washington Irving, Count Volney, Humbolt,
the geographer; Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat; Lorenzo
Dow, the eccentric preacher; several young naval officers from the
Tripolitan War; and John Randolph of Roanoke. I wonder if it was from
this old tavern that that brilliant but erratic statesman went out
across the Chain Bridge to fight his duel with Henry Clay? It is
recorded by a marker, just at the end of the bridge on the Virginia
side, and reads thus: "Near here Henry Clay and John Randolph of Roanoke
fought a duel April 8, 1826. Randolph had called Clay a 'Blackleg' in a
speech. Both men were unhurt, but Randolph's coat was pierced by a
bullet."

John Randolph spent the night before the duel in quoting poetry and
playing whist while his will was being amended.

John Randolph must have liked George Town, for years afterwards when he
lay very ill in his boarding place on Capitol Hill, he insisted on his
body servant, Juba, getting him some water from George Town, no other
would do. He called it "The water of Chios."

Joseph Crawford, the proprietor of this hotel, was the principal manager
in the unloading of the records and furniture belonging to the
government when the ships bringing it from Philadelphia docked at Lear's
Wharf. Abraham Bradley, who, as Assistant Postmaster General, had charge
of the removal of that department, and Joseph Nourse, who was Registrar
of the Treasury, may also have stopped at Crawford's until settled in
their homes.

Just opposite on the southeast corner of Bridge (M) and Washington
(30th) Streets stood, until 1878, the Presbyterian Church, whose
founder, Dr. Stephen Bloomer Balch, was its pastor for fifty-two years.
When it was first built in 1782, it was only about thirty feet square.
In 1793 it was enlarged by extending the north front. In 1801-'02, it
was further enlarged by extendi