The Youth of Jefferson

First published in 1854, this anonymous work may have been written by John Esten Cooke (1830-1886). It begins: "On a fine May morning in the year 1764, -that is to say, between the peace at Fontainebleau and the stamp act agitation, which great events have fortunately no connection with the present narrative, -a young man mounted on an elegant horse, and covered from head to foot with lace, velvet, and embroidery, stopped before a small house in the town or city of Williamsburg, the capital of V