This was only one of many instances in which his wit, his eloquence, his good sense, his leadership and his unquestioned personal daring served his country and served her well.

When Washington moved his headquarters to the Roger Morris house near the Point of Rocks, a period of comparative mystery descended for a time upon Richmond Hill.  During the ensuing struggle, and before the formal evacuation of New York, the house is supposed to have been occupied off and on by British officers.  But in 1783 they departed for good! and in 1789, Vice-president John Adams and Mistress Abigail came to live there.

We have already read two examples of Mrs. Adams’ enthusiastic outpourings in regard to Richmond Hill.  She was, in fact, never tired of writing of it.  A favourite quotation of hers she always applied to the place: 

                     "In this path,
    How long soe’er the wanderer roves, each step
    Shall wake fresh beauties; each last point present
    A different picture, new, and each the same."

That entire neighbourhood was rich in game,—­we have already seen that the Dutch farmers thought highly of the duck shooting near the Sand Hill Road, and that Minetta Brook was a first-class fishing stream.  Birds of all sorts were plentiful, and the Adamses did their best to preserve them on their own place.  But too keen sportsmen were always stealing into the Richmond Hill grounds for a shot or two.  “Oh, for game laws!” was her constant wail.  In one letter she declares:  “The partridge, the woodcock and the pigeon are too great temptations for the sportsman to withstand!”

And please don’t forget for one moment that this was at Charlton and Varick streets!

The House on the Hill was the home of quite ceremonious entertaining in those days.  John Adams, in another land, would surely have been a courtier—­a Cavalier rather than a Roundhead.  John T. Morse, Jr., says that the Vice-president liked “the trappings of authority.”  The same historian declares that in his advice to President Washington, “... he talked of dress and undress, of attendants, gentlemen-in-waiting, chamberlains, etc., as if he were arranging the household of a European monarch.”

Gulian C. Verplanck (sometimes known by the nom de plume of “Francis Herbert"), wrote in 1829, quite an interesting account of Richmond Hill as he personally recalled it.  He draws for us a graphic picture of a dinner party given by the Vice-president and Mrs. Adams for various illustrious guests.

After entering the house by a side door on the right, they mounted a broad staircase with a heavy mahogany railing.  Dinner was served in a large room on the second floor with Venetian windows and a door opening out onto the balcony under the portico.  And then he gives us these vivid little vignettes of those who sat at the great table: