She is said to
have been beautiful, brilliant and fascinating even from her babyhood,
and certainly the way in which she took charge of Richmond Hill at the
age of fourteen would have done credit to a woman with at least
another decade to her credit.
Burr had a beautiful city house besides the one on the Hill, but he
and Theo both preferred the country place, and they entertained there
as lavishly as the Adamses before them. Burr had a special affection
for the French, and his house was always hospitably open to the
expatriated aristocrats during the French Revolution. Volney stopped
with him, and Talleyrand, and Louis Philippe himself. Among the
Americans his most constant guests were Dr. Hosack, the Clintons, and,
oddly enough, Alexander Hamilton! Hamilton, one imagines, found Burr
personally interesting, though he had small use for his politics, and
warned people against him as being that dangerous combination: a
daring and adventurous spirit, quite without conservative principles
or scruples.
Burr is described by one biographer as being "a well-dressed man,
polite and confident, with hair powdered and tied in a queue.
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