Wednesday 26th. Mercury at 70 in the Morning—at Noon 80 and 80 at Night. Calm, Clear & pleasant all day.
Mr. Herbert, Colo. Ramsay, Colo. Allison and Mr. Hunter dined here and returned in the afternoon.
One Edwd. Moystan who formerly lived with Mr. Robt. Morris as a Steward, & now keeps the City Tavern in Philadelphia came here to consult me on the Propriety of his taking the Coffee Ho[use] in Alexandria, i.e., on the prospect of its answering his purposes for keeping Tavern.
Having fixed a roller to the tale of my drill plow, and a bush harrow between it & the barrel, I sent it by G. A. Washington to Muddy hole and had the intervals betwn. the corn which had been left for the purpose sowed with Turnips in drills and with which it was done very well.
The coffeehouse in Alexandria apparently did not answer Moyston’s purposes, for he was still in Philadelphia in April 1787 when he wrote GW to urge that he and his acquaintances stay in his City Tavern in Philadelphia while attending the Constitutional Convention (Edward Moyston to GW, 4 April 1787, DLC:GW). Moyston had become the proprietor of the City Tavern in Philadelphia on Second Street above Walnut in 1779 (Pa. Mag., 46 [1922], 75, n.162). The Alexandria Inn and Coffeehouse, which had been managed by Henry Lyles until his death in April 1786, was being advertised for rent in the summer of 1786 (Va. Journal, 27 July 1786).