During the summer of 1843, while Mr. and Mrs. Peyton and the entire family were outing, on his Jackson river estate, called Isleham, or the "upper farm," for he owned another estate lower down the Jackson river, he accompanied, on horseback, a surveying party, engaged in locating or rectifying certain lines. At many points on their route, the surface was rough and hilly, and near the high banks of the river overgrown with brush. While riding up one of these steep banks, through undergrowth and brambles, his horse, a spirited animal, was beset by a swarm of bees. The animal began to plunge and soon became unmanageable, and rushing through the trees and brush, either dragged Mr. Peyton off or he was thrown, falling heavily to the ground, stunned and helpless. It was thought at the time that he was fatally injured, but after being removed to the dwelling, he revived, after one of his tenants, Mr. Meadows, had drawn from his arm a quantity of blood. Dr. Payne, of Covington, an old friend and skillful physician, was by his bedside in less than two hours, and through his care and attention, Mr. Peyton was enabled to return to Montgomery Hall within a fortnight, and soon resumed his ordinary life. It is supposed that this accident was the beginning of the end, the commencement of his decline, that he never fully recovered from his injuries, which affected the hips and spinal cord. The following summer he was prostrated by an attack of apoplexy, but such were the recuperative energies of his vigorous constitution, that he recovered from it, and attended the next session of the Senate after having made a visit to Col. Wm. M. Peyton, in Roanoke, where he was extensively and elegantly entertained and where it is thought he may have indulged imprudently--in his then state of health, in the luxuries of the table. The writer was with him on this visit, and remembers well the numerous and splendid dinner parties given him by General Edward Watts, George B. Tayloe, Mr. Oliver, Mr. Bowyer, Mr. Preston, of Greenfield, Mr. Langhorne, Mr. Burrell, Colonel Lewis, Dr. Griffith, Mr. Johnston and others. His friends in the Senate, saw with pain and regret his declining health, and Mr. Peyton himself realizing it determined to abandon all public employment. Accordingly in the month of December, 1843, he announced in the following letter his purpose to retire: Richmond, Dec. 1843. TO THE PEOPLE OF AUGUSTA AND ROCKBRIDGE. _Fellow Citizens_: The term for which I was elected your senator is drawing to a close, and as it is not my intention to become again a candidate for your suffrages, I feel it a duty incumbent on me to apprize you of it thus early, that you may have full time to select for yourselves a suitable successor.