432 A VISIT TO THE ILLINOIS. 



fortunes, and his death occurred in circumstances little less lamentable 

 than that of his unfortunate neighbour. 



About two miles westward from Albion, is the village Prairie,, the 

 property of another wealthy speculator from the city of London. This 

 gentleman had been a merchant tailor in the city, who, being known to 

 the family of Mr. B., and an admirer of one of his accomplished daugh- 

 ters, conceived the romantic notion of going out with the party to 

 America, in hopes of being rendered happy in her possession, in the 

 tranquil solitudes of the Illinois. For some time after his arrival upon 

 the Prairies, the worthy man prosecuted his enclosures of land and his 

 suit with the fair lady with uncommon perseverance, not perceiving 

 how common it is for weak-minded men to be led about the world in 

 triumph by feeble-minded women. After some months, an accidental 

 circumstance opened the eyes of the astonished gentleman from London. 

 A party had been formed for the purpose of visiting Vincennes, an 

 ancient French settlement, about twenty- five miles from the English 

 Prairie, in which were included Mr. L. and the lady of his love. Dur- 

 ing the ride, the usual course of indifferent civility had been manifested 

 by the lady, when, upon arriving at the tavern at Vincennes, and the 

 party being dispersed into the different apartments of the house, L. 

 overheard the damsel of his heart inquire from another lady of the party, 

 " I wonder what that tailor follows me about so for ?" And oh ! what 

 a thunderbolt was that ! In three days poor L. disappeared from the 

 Prairies, travelled with all haste to New York, and embarked for Eng- 

 land, where he is cutting cloth to this day in the city of London. His 

 enclosures, garden, and frame-buildings were all deserted, and left to 

 the wolves and the backwoodsmen, and the cause of the disappearance 

 of L. from the Prairies was long a secret of state. It was afterwards 

 maintained that L. was a greater man than Lord Byron, for when Byron, 

 upon a similar occasion, overheard the contemptuous expression about 

 "the lame boy," it appears that he only ran to Newstead, whilst L. ran 

 a thousand miles across the continent of America, and clear, across the 

 great Atlantic Ocean. 



Scattered round the various Prairies, were many other English settlers 

 of note, amongst whom was Mr. Hunt, brother to the member for 

 Preston. Unlike his brother, he had the misfortune to be dumb from 

 his infancy, but was a man of tremendous muscular power, and a scien- 

 tific bruiser. Among the backwoodsmen, the superiority of the system 

 of boxing, over their ferocious method of gouging and biting, was much 

 disputed, and a trial with Mr. Hunt was very eagerly coveted by " the 

 best men" amongst these worthies. One day, a very famous man of 

 this description, in passing near the cabin of Mr. Hunt, perceived him 

 in the act of ploughing in a neighbouring field, and thereupon he got 

 across the fence, for the purpose of provoking a quarrel. As he ad- 

 vanced, it happened that some derangement in the tackle of his plough, 

 compelled Hunt to stop the team, and being a man of a very passionate 

 temper, he was seen to level one of the horses with a blow of his fist. 

 Upon this, the backwoodsman hastily turned back, and re-crossed the 

 fence ; and from that time it was observed, that nothing more was said 

 upon the superiority of the gougers. Hunt soon afterwards died at this 

 settlement. 



About nine miles from Albion, and upon the Wabash river, was the 

 town of Harmony, a German settlement, under the direction of the Rev. 



