In 1802 Gadsby entered into a new lease with Wise for fifteen years. In the indenture, reference is made to a three-story brick house and a two-story brick house, a brick kitchen and several wooden houses. Gadsby at this time was granted permission by Wise to erect at his own expense a brick stable one hundred feet long and twenty-seven feet wide and of a suitable height. He was also given permission to erect at his own expense another brick house forty-five feet long and fifteen or sixteen feet wide and two stories high, finished in a neat and decent manner so as to be habitable, and he also agreed to extend a wall thirty feet long and of the same height. The annual rent was to be two thousand dollars, and Gadsby agreed to paint the three-story brick house and the two-story house outside and inside, and he had permission to remove what wooden buildings were necessary and to keep the remainder in good repair. [Illustration: In the ballroom the musicians played from the balcony suspended from the ceiling. This is the restored ballroom] That Gadsby did not desire to keep the tavern so long is borne out seven years later when on November 13, 1809, John Wise, N.S. Wise, and R.I. Taylor leased the tavern to William Caton for three months and then for nine years for two thousand dollars a year, and stated the tavern was "formerly occupied by John Gadsby."[107] But the following year Caton had had enough and the _Alexandria Gazette_, on March 9, 1810, carried the following advertisement: To the Public The Subscriber has taken for a term of years that noted and eligible establishment known by the name of the City Hotel, and once occupied by Mr. Gadsby whose distinguished abilities as a Publican gave it an eclat which the subscriber hopes to preserve by his unremitting exertions.... James Brook. [Illustration: Ballroom fireplace containing original grate before which the gentry were wont to stand on winter nights] In 1811 an Englishman traveling incognito, put up at the tavern, formerly Gadsby's, became ill, and after it was discovered that he belonged to the Masonic fraternity, he was nursed by the gentlemen of the Alexandria lodge. Making a happy recovery, the gentleman departed, and apparently that was the last of him. Four years passed. One day there arrived by ship an enormous packing box for the lodge. It contained twenty-five hundred pieces of cut glass, decanters of all sizes, and glasses for any liquor distilled. The bottom of each piece was engraved with the Masonic emblem and the initials and number of the lodge. The enclosed card read simply: "From an English Gentleman and Brother in appreciation for fraternal courtesies." One hundred and seventy-five pieces remain in the Masonic Museum today, after more than a hundred years of use, and excellent crystal it is.