72 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



them for the sick. At the time I saw the house several 

 rooms were fitted as a hospital for women lying-in &c. 

 This building also is not complete, standing as two 

 separate wings, with adjuncts, between which the corps 

 de logis is to be raised. 



The two buildings last mentioned stand a little way 

 from the city on the so-called ' Commons,' a region in- 

 cluded by the plan in the proposed limits of the city. 

 Formerly this Common was the property of the Penn 

 family which leased the ground, little by little, neces- 

 sary for the building of these houses ; and so, as late 

 as the year 1778 the tract was a desolate pasture grown 

 up in bush. But since the independent state has taken 

 over the proprietary rights, these Commons have been 

 divided into lots and sold, the necessary streets having 

 been indicated. The lots are for the most part en- 

 closed and for the time, are cultivated in vegetables and 

 grain ; here and there preparations are going forward 

 for raising houses on these lots, so soon, apparently, as 

 a peace shall be declared. Formerly as many as 200- 

 300 houses have been built in a year : house-building is 

 carried on rapidly and lightly, so that now and then 

 there may be seen two-storeyed houses conveniently en 

 promenade on rollers, brought from one end of the city 

 to the other, according as it seems best to the owners 

 to live in this quarter or that. 



North of the city, in a part corresponding to Third- 

 street, stand the barracks * built by the English gov- 



* No American city has walls and ramparts ; before the war 

 Philadelphia was not in any way fortified. Nor do there exist 

 the drawbridges and gates shown in Plates 6 and 12 of the 

 All gem. hist. Taschenbuch for 1784. 



