An old book, "Richmond in By Gone Days," says that John Marshall was noted in Richmond for his unpretending manner. "His dress was plain even to negligence. He marketed for himself and might be seen at an early hour returning home with a pair of fowls, or a basket of eggs in his hand, not with ostentatious humility, but for mere convenience." It is related by Flanders that Marshall "was one morning strolling through the streets of Richmond, attired in a plain linen roundabout and shorts, with his hat under his arm, from which he was eating cherries, when he stopped in the porch of the Eagle Hotel, indulged in some little pleasantry with the landlord, and then passed on." Just then a man from the country, who wished a lawyer to appear for him in court, was referred by the landlord to Marshall, as the best advocate he could have, but the countryman declined to have anything to do with the careless young man. In court he asked the clerk for a lawyer, and was once more recommended to take John Marshall. Again he refused. Just then a dignified old man in powdered wig and black coat entered. He was at once engaged, on his appearance. After a time the inferiority of the black-coated lawyer was so apparent that the countryman sought Marshall, told him of the mistake he had made, said that he had left but five dollars of the one hundred dollars he had set aside for lawyers' fees, and asked Marshall if he would assist on the case. The lawyer laughingly agreed. In 1781, when Marshall was twenty-five years old, he walked from Virginia to Philadelphia, to be inoculated for smallpox. "He walked at the rate of thirty-five miles a day. On his arrival, such was his shabby appearance, that he was refused admission into one of the hotels; his long beard, and worn-out garments, probably suggesting the idea that his purse was not adequate to his entertainment. And this in the city which had seen much of the young man's heroic services during the Revolution!" Before the close of the war, while visiting his father, Colonel Marshall, who was the commanding officer at Yorktown, Virginia, he met Mary Willis Ambler, a daughter of Jacqueline Ambler, the treasurer of Virginia. "She was just fourteen years of age at the time, and it is stated to have been a case of love at first sight." Even when Marshall called to see her he was not prepossessing in appearance, yet he was well received, "notwithstanding his slouched hat, and negligent and awkward dress," for his amiable manners, fine talents, and especially his love for poetry, which he read to them with deep pathos, led them to forget his dress. The young people were married on January 3, 1783. After paying the fee of the minister, the groom's sole remaining fortune was a guinea!