Webster, Daniel (1782-1852) to Harriette Story Paige
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01946.45 Author/Creator: Webster, Daniel (1782-1852) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 29 December 1850 Pagination: 4 p. ; 24.9 x 19.9 cm. Order a Copy
Writes to his sister-in-law on the subject of tripe. States that Harriette's husband, James William Paige, remembers Mrs. Hayman, who previously served as cook for Webster's friends Sarah and George Blake. Compares the cooking skills of Monica McCarty, his cook and servant, to Hayman.
Washington Decr.29.'50
Dear Mrs Paige
I sit down to write a letter, partly Diplomatic & partly Historical. Its subject is Tripe, T. R. I. P. E. Your Husband remembers Mrs Hayman, who was Mrs Blakes cook. Excelling others in all things else, she excelled herself in a dish of Tripe. I do not know that her general genius exceeded that of Monica Mc.Carty, but in this production she was more exact, more artistical; she gave to the article, not only a certain gout, which gratified the most fastidious, but an expression, also, an air of haut ton, as I lay presented on the table, that assured one that he saw before him something from the hand of a marter.
Tradition, it is said, occasionally [2]hands down the practical arts with more precision & fidelity, then they can be transmitted by Books, from generations to generation; & I have thought it likely that your Lydia may have caught the tacht of preparing this inimitable dish & entertain this opinion on two grounds; first, because I have been acquainted with very respectable efforts of hers, in that line: second, because the known, Mr. Paige's admirable connoisseurship & can determine, by her quick eye, when the Dish comes down from the Table, whether the contents had not his approbation.
For these reasons, & others for which it is not necessary for the "undersigned" [3] to enlarge he is desirous of obtaining Lydias receipt for a dish of Tripe, for the Dinners.
Mrs Hayman's is before my eyes. Unscathed by the frying pan, it was white as snow: it was disposed in squares, or in paralelegrams, of the size of a small sheet of Ladie's note paper: it was tender as jelly: beside it, stood the tureen of melted butter, [struck: a] dish of mealey potatos, & the vinegar cruet. Can this spectacle be exhibited, in the vine Cottage, in Louisiana Avenue, in the City of Washington?
Yrs truly always
Daniel Webster
To Mrs Paige
Tripe: The Etymon is the greek word "Tropo," to turn, to wind, from its involutions: not the same as "Tripod," which means "having 3 feet." nor the same as trifu, which [4] is from the Latin, "tripudione" - to strike the feet upon the ground & sometimes to "stumble." sometimes, to go nimbly - to "trip it on the light fantastic toe" -
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