LIFE OF WILSON. h 



but less covered with woods. On reaching Hartford, I waited on Mr. G., a 

 member of congress, who recommended me to several others, particularly a 

 Mr. W., a gentleman of taste and fortune, who was extremely obliging. The 

 publisher of a newspaper here expressed the highest admiration of the work, 

 and has since paid many handsome compliments to it in his publication, as 

 three other editors did in New York. This is a species of currency that will 

 neither purchase plates, nor pay the printer; but, nevertheless, it is gratifying 

 to the vanity of an author — ivhen notlihig better can he got. My journey from 

 Hartford to Boston, through Springfield, Worcester, &c., one hundred and 

 twenty-eight miles, it is impossible for me to detail at this time. From the 

 time I entered Massachusetts, until within ten miles of Boston, which distance 

 is nearly two-thirds the length of the whole itate, I took notice that the prin- 

 cipal features of the country were stony mountains, rocky pasture-fields, and 

 hills and swamps adorned with pines. The fences, in every direction, are com- 

 posed of strong stones ; and, unless a few straggling, self-planted, stunted apple 

 trees, overgrown with moss, deserve the name, there is hardly an orchard to 

 be seen in tan miles. Every six or eight miles you come to a meeting-house, 

 painted white, with a spire. I could perceive little diflference in the form or 

 elevation of their steeples. 



"The people here make no distinction between town and toionship; and 

 travellers frequently ask the driver of the stage-coach, ' What town are we 

 now in ?' when perhaps we were upon the top of a miserable barren mountain, 

 several miles from a house. It is in vain to reason with the people on the 

 impropriety of this — custom makes every absurdity proper. There is scarcely 

 an}^ currency in this country but paper, and I solemnly declare that I do not 

 recollect having seen one hard dollar since I left New York. Bills even of 

 twenty-five cents, of a hundred diiferent banks, whose very names one has 

 never heard of before, are continually in circulation. I say nothing of the 

 jargon which prevails in the country. Their boasted schools, if I may judge 

 by the state of their school-houses, are no better than our own. 



"Lawyers swarm in every town, like locusts; almost every door has the 

 word O^ce painted over it, which, like the web of a spider, points out the 

 place where the spoiler lurks for his prey. There is little or no improvement 

 in agriculture ; in fifty miles I did not observe a single grain or stubble field, 

 though the country has been cleared and settled these one hundred and fii'ty 

 years. In short, the stead// habits of a great portion of the inhabitants of 

 those parts of New England through which I passed, seem to be laziness, law 

 bickerings and * * * *, A man here is as much ashamed of being seen 

 walking the streets on Sunday, unless in going and returning from church, as 

 many would be of being seen going to a ***** *. 



" As you approach Boston the country improves in its appearance ; the stone 

 fences give place to those of posts and rails ; the road becomes wide and spa- 

 cious; and everything announces a better degree of refinement and civilization. 

 It was dark when I entered Boston, of which I shall give you some account 

 in my next. I have visited the celebrated Bunker's Hill, and no devout pil- 

 grim ever approached the sacred tomb of his holy prophet with more awful 

 enthusiasm, and profound veneration, thair I felt in tracing the grass-grown 



