"Since ... the middle of September last, he [the General] has been without his baggage, and on that account is unable to receive company in the manner he could wish. He nevertheless desires the Generals, Field Officers and Brigadier-Major of the day, to dine with him in the future, at three o'clock in the afternoon." It was from Emlen House that Washington gave the first intimation that he knew of the infamous attempts to discredit and displace him which later became known as the "Conway Cabal." To General Conway himself he wrote saying that he had heard of Conway's letter to General Gates in which he had said, "Heaven has been determined to save your country, or a weak General and bad counsellors would have ruined it." A few glimpses of the awful condition of privation that were to prevail that winter at Valley Forge were given on November 22: "The Commander-in-Chief offers a reward of ten dollars to any person, who shall, by nine o'clock on Monday morning, produce the best substitute for shoes, made of raw hide." The movement to Valley Forge was begun on December 1. The army went by way of "Sweeds" Ford (Norristown), where, as the quaint diary of Albigence Waldo says: "A Bridge of Waggons made across the Schuylkill last night consisted of 36 waggons, with a bridge of Rails between each. Sun Set--We are order'd to march over the River. The Army were 'till Sun Rise crossing the River--some at the Waggon Bridge, & some at the Raft Bridge below. Cold and Uncomfortable." XL SWEETBRIER-ON-THE-SCHUYLKILL, PHILADELPHIA THE HOME OF THE FATHER OF THE FREE SCHOOLS OF PENNSYLVANIA When Samuel Breck was fifty-eight years and six months old--on January 17, 1830--he wrote: "My residence has been ... for more than thirty years ... on an estate belonging to me, situated on the right bank of the Schuylkill, in the township of Blockley, county of Philadelphia, and two miles from the western part of the city. The mansion on this estate I built in 1797. It is a fine stone house, rough cast, fifty-three feet long, thirty-eight broad, and three stories high, having out-buildings of every kind suitable for elegance and comfort. The prospect consists of the river, animated by its great trade, carried on in boats of about thirty tons, drawn by horses; of a beautiful sloping lawn, terminating at that river, now nearly four hundred yards wide opposite the portico; of side-screen woods; of gardens, green-house, etc. Sweetbrier is the name of my villa."