CLIMATE, SEASONS, ETC. 



1818. 



Feb. 12. Harrisburgh. Never saw such profusion. I have 

 made a bargain with the landlord : he is to give me 

 a dish of chocolate a day, instead of dinner. Frost 

 but mild. 



13. Rain A real rain, but rather cold. 



14. A complete day of rain. 



15. A hard frost ; much about like a hard frost in the 

 naked parts of Wiltshire. Mr. HULME joined me 

 on his way to Philadelphia from the city of 

 Washington. 



1 6. A hard frost. Lancaster is a pretty place. No 

 fine buildings ; but no mean ones. Nothing splendid 

 and nothing beggarly. The people of this town 

 seem to have had the prayer of HAGAR granted them : 

 &quot; Give me, O Lord, neither poverty nor riches.&quot; 

 Here are none of those poor, wretched habitations, 

 which sicken the sight at the outskirts of cities and 

 towns in England ; those abodes of the poor crea 

 tures, who have been reduced to beggary by the 

 cruel extortions of the rich and powerful. And, 

 this remark applies to all the towns of America that 

 I have ever seen. This is a fine part of America. 

 Big Barns, and modest dwelling houses. Barns of 

 stone, a hundred feet long and forty zoide, with two 

 floors, and raised roads to go into them, so that the 

 waggons go into the first floor up-stairs. Below are 

 stables, stalls, pens, and all sorts of conveniences. 

 Up-stairs are rooms for threshed corn and grain ; 

 for tackle, for meal, for all sorts of things. In the 

 front (South) of the barn is the cattle yard. These 

 are very fine buildings. And, then, all about them 

 looks so comfortable, and gives such manifest proofs 

 of ease, plenty, and happiness ! Such is the country 

 of WILLIAM PENN S settling ! It is a curious thing 

 to observe the farm-houses in this country. They 

 consist, almost without exception, of a considerably 

 large and a very neat house, with sash windows, 

 and of a small house, which seems to have been 

 tacked on to the large one ; and, the proportion they 

 bear to each other, in point of dimensions, is, as 

 nearly as possible, the proportion of size between 

 a Cow and her Calf, the latter a month old. But, 

 as to the cause, the process has been the opposite 

 of this instance of the works of nature, for, it is the 

 large house which has grown out of the small one. The 

 father, or grandfather, while he was toiling for his 

 children, lived in the small house, constructed 

 chiefly by himself, and consisting of rude materials. 



2S 



