JOURNEY THROUGH JERSEY 41 



Princetown. From Rocky Hill, where I broke the 

 thread of the narrative, the road lay for some distance 

 over a sandy-loam, and through long reaches of woods. 

 The red soil appeared again only in the neighborhood 

 of Princetown, 8 miles this side. The whole way I 

 missed the smilax, which about New York takes pos- 

 session of all open land.* Princetown is a little country- 

 town of only one considerable street in which few houses 

 stand, but its elevated site makes the place especially 

 agreeable, the view from it being splendid, out over the 

 lower country as far as the Neversinks and other parts 

 of the coast. There could, I thought, be no finer, airier, 

 and pleasanter place for the seat of the Jersey Muses 

 for in 1746 under Governor Belcher, an academy was 

 established in this province, and given the privilege 

 of bestowing the same degrees as Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge. The College, a not uncomely building, stands 

 in the middle of the town, but is at this time in bad 

 condition. The British troops, in the winter of 1776, 

 used it for stalls and barracks, and left a Presbyterian 

 church near by in a state equally as bad. At the pres- 

 ent time only 50-60 young students are in residence, 

 partly within, partly without the College ; and only 

 humaniora and philosophy are taught. Among the 

 professors is Dr. Witherspoon, a Scottish clergyman, 

 widely known not only for his. learning but for the zeal 



* About York several sorts of smilax grow with extraordi- 

 nary vigor. These are so lasting and pliant, bear cutting so 

 well, and grow together in such an impenetrable shrubbery 

 that certainly nothing better could be found for live hedges 

 around fields. They keep their leaves late into the fall, and 

 would be an ornament as well. The only objection is they 

 spread too fast. 



