Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

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voice for singing, his great talent for acting, mimicry and dancing. An
old lady has described his appearance when she danced with him at a Com-
mencement ball : during the ball he appeared in two different costumes,
which showed his elegant form to perfection—one a complete suit of black
satin, with small-clothes and silk stockings, the other also of satin, but
in light, fanciful colors. He had passed middle age when the writer first
remembers him, in her childhood. He was then still a man of fine figure,
slender, erect, very graceful, elastic and full of movement, with a finely
shaped head, handsome features and large brilliant black eyes, but pale
and hollow-cheeked ; and entertaining, witty, and quick to use his wit
to the discomfiture of the relatives who disapproved of him. He was
always kind to the writer, and she recalls no unkind or bitter word, or
reproach, of himself or others.
In due time he became the owner of his father's house, and the estate
belonging with it, at Lyme ; and married the lady who was his wife—of
the good family of Colts of Lyme, from which sprang the Hartford family.
She was educated in Hartford, and Mr. George Griffin of New York, as
good a connoisseur of fine women as he was Judge of good law, used to
say that, for elegance of person and manners, he had never known a lady
who was her superior. But Mr. Griswold's wife did not bring to him her
heart ; and habits begun in the convivial society of his youth became con-
firmed in domestic life. She finally left him, with the consent and respect
of all his family, and Hved to old age in Wilkesbarr^, Pa., a life of refined,
literary seclusion.
His property gradually fell away from him, and for years he was
supported by his brothers. For many of his last years the Hartford
Retreat was selected as his boarding-place. After his death Dr. Butler
wrote to the writer that, in his late years, there had come over him a great
change, which he believed to be a religious one.
What a life to recall in old age !
tunities, of failure to do life's work !
Yet
Seventy-seven
years of lost oppor-
we hope he was received at last,
entering the vineyard at the eleventh hour. We give his history with the
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