us languages, debating, writing, and athletics. At the age of sixteen he fell in love with and became engaged to a girl named Elmira Royster. While away at college, he wrote her frequently but her father intercepted the letters. Edgar was upset when he did not receive any replies. In addition to this disappointment, life at the school was chaotic and dangerous. There were fights with students throwing bricks and bottles at professors and problems with students gambling. Edgar described one situation in a letter to John Allan in which he stated that one student was struck on the head with a large stone and in response he pulled out a pistol. On another occasion he wrote about a student that had bitten another student, which Edgar described as, "it is likely that pieces of flesh as large as my hand will be obliged to be cut out" (Anderson).
             So, John Allan sent him to the University of Charlottesville to study law in February of 1826 to study law. While away at his new school, Edgar obtained large gambling debts and blamed John Allan for not providin
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