(^l)c Jarincr's itlontl) lii lljgitor. 



183 



tlic prices rif liibor in llie c.oiintriHS named, birt 



iilso I Ik; |)iice of liroiid, iiii-al, butter, cIicl'Sc, &(;. 

 It is true tb(; breiiil is slated by ibe lli. iiisteiiil ol' 

 j!r;iin by tbe biisiicl, but ns tbe flour of n biisbd 

 of uhe-it, sny 40 lbs., will make fnmi (i:{ to (J5 

 His. of bre;i(l, an estiiii;ile may easily be iiiaile of 

 the (|iiniitity of wbeal or litnir a man in any of 

 till' coiiiilries Dallied, would receive lor a week'.s 

 uoils. Tlie laborer ill llii.s eoiiiilry wlio receives 

 bis biisliel of wlieat a (lay, or otiier articles in 

 |ir.j|iorlioii, will readily roiiceivc tbe mea<fre fare, 

 and slender clianee of " l.iyinir by aiivtliiii!.' " 

 w biih must alteiiil llic forii^jn aL'ricnIlinMl laborer. 

 Ill .all Ibese (toiiiilries it will be seen ibi' value of 

 provisions is at least as ^reat as bere, and in some 

 instances mncli jrreater. It is only liy Ibe coin- 

 p.irisons wliicdi siicb aiitbeiilic statements enable 

 tliem to make, lliat ibe fn'e laborers. ll"' farmers 

 or ineeliaiiics of ibis cmiiiiry, (•.■m fully appreci- 

 ate tbe •■idvanta^'cs of tlieir posilion.— WZ/ji/hi/ 

 Ciilliviitnr. 



COiNCOKD, K. H., DECEMBER 31. IMS. 



Count Rnmford and his Daughter. 



Tbe return of ibe daiif.'bler and only ebild of 

 Beiijainiii Tlinmpson, better known liy ibe title 

 of Ooiiiit Riimlbrd, after .in ab.sence in b2iiidpe 

 of ei}.'lit years, will brin^' tlii! elder portion of our 

 native iiiliabitaiils ba(d< to llieir most (list.inl 

 points of reeolleetion. In virtue of tbe riybt of 

 iier motber, slie iiiberits tbal portion of tbe beau- 

 tiful position on Merrini.iek river, in Concord, 

 near tbe "eleven lots," tbrmerly known as tbe 

 Rolfe estate, on wliicb llie mansion bouse was 

 situated. Tbe editor of tlie Visitor lias in bis 

 |iossession tbe i|iiarto bible eontainiiii; tliu entire 

 service of tbe l'',piscopal (,'biireb, printed a biiii- 

 drcd years aco, wbicb Uirnierly beloii!,'ed to tliis 

 family, to^jctlier witb an ancient lookiiig-gl.as.s, in 

 its oriuinal malio;L'any franu!, and maliogany 

 chairs, wbicb, vvitli tlieir worn-ont b.iir bottoms, 

 bad been thrown aside in tbe garret of the old 

 mansion for years. When at home in oiir own 

 sleeping room, at early dawn of tbe mornini:, the 

 old mirror is loidied tiiroiigb lor tbe adjustment 

 of the collar and cravat, and the iii.dioj.'any 

 chairs, repaired witb new Ijair botloms, iire the 

 e.-isy aids for ilressiii!:, and nndiessing i;<iiiig to 

 and rising from bed. These liltle items, eoslmg 

 lint a trille at the sale directed by the Coiiiiless 

 after the death of the entire family of her elder 

 li:ilf brother, the late Col. Paid Kolfe, really bet- 

 ter pli'ase our fancy than would more spleinliil 

 minor and (diairs which had cost ten times as 

 mucli. 



Near the time of the C(uiimcucement of [lie 

 l.ate ri'vobitioii, lieiij.imiu 'I'hompson re.sided in 

 Concord (at first named Rinnford) as an insliiic- 

 lor of yonili. lie had receiveil his educ.ition in 

 wiiide or in part at Harvard, ,'md was intiin.ite 

 with the tiimily of the elder Timothy Walker, the 

 lust sittleil minister of (j^oncord. The father of 

 the late (,'(d. Rolfe was a surveyor of lands, and 

 .secured by puicli;ise Large tracts of the unseiiled 

 p.irls of ilie town. lie married a danghler of 

 the tiiv-l Timothy Walker — she became a widow 

 after the birth of her son in 1771, and in a ye.ar 

 or [\\(i afterwards married IMr. Tliompsfui, who, 

 ill snbseipieiil \ e.ars lu'canie so distiiiiuiished <as 

 a practical civilian and phdo.sopber in Europe. — 

 The Countess (if a single woman will excuse us 

 for speaking of her age) wjis probably born in 

 the year 1774 or '5, and is now seventy or seven- 

 ty-one years of age. Like the ladies of France, 

 among vvhoiii she has long lived, she apfiears 

 ninidi younger than Amciicau ladies of her age : 

 she w.dks as erect as a lady of thirty. It is in 

 vain that we attempt to read in the lineaments of 

 her lace the char.icler of her liitlier — she seems 

 at this lime id' life to be every inch a Walker, ;i 

 name so well known to be shrewd and saga- 

 cious. 



At an unfavorable season the Countess return- 

 ed to ns for the purpose of taking up her future 

 residence at the place of her nativity. It was at 

 the time of the iietu' ;ipproa(di of cold weather: 

 the house had been Icuatilless for a year past in 



llie expectation of her speedy retiirii— the gnr- 

 deii and givninds about it had been neglected : — 

 tall weeds usurped ilic place of the useful vege- 

 tables. She came sii.ldenly and without notice, 

 bringing with her- the adopted child and daugh- 

 ter, who in an .aibatice of from twelve to twenty 

 years in the liishionable city of I'^irope had ad- 

 ded to a lino face the polish of P.irisiau inan- 

 niu'S. 



When the writer left home three weeks ago, 

 tin; Countess w.is biilaucing in her mind wbetber 

 to stay and cnilure a winter in the interior of 

 New i'bigl.ind, whose severity she had ne\er en- 

 conntered in l^iirope, or to take up her residence 

 in one of the cities where intense cold is less 

 felt. 



Tin; ('(Mintcss returns witb many memorials 

 of the fither whose memory she cherishes, and 

 of whose history she yet intends to give sncli 

 new accounts as will be iiileresling to all those 

 who are proud of nativi! American genius. She 

 h.as in her possession .lieveral paintings of the 

 likeness of the (^oiiiil, her tiither — bis picture, in 

 Hritish nuiliirm when knighted in I'^ngland, and 

 his likeness taken when at the court of JS.ivaria, 

 about to be sent ;is ambassador to Kngland. She 

 has likewise tiie original drawn likeness by Kel- 

 lerbotf, taken in 17'.)5, of Charles Theodore, 

 then Elector of Saxony — also an orieinal 

 likeness of Maximilian .losepb, Duke of Denx 

 I'onts, father of tbe present king of Bavaria. — 

 Her own likenes.s, painted by Kellerhoff about 

 the year 17!H), when she was twenty-two or 

 twenty-three years of age, also adorns the col- 

 lection. 



Tbe estate fronting our own ferry-plain lot in 

 the bend of the Merrimack river, on which we 

 think we hiive done the cause of agriculture 

 some service, having been distinguished ;is the 

 residence seventy years ago of a man whose 

 name has since resounded through Europe for 

 deeds wliiidi richly entitle him to a civic crown 

 — deeds mori; honornbh; than those acquired by 

 ihe warrior — we will take the present occasion 

 to give him a more extended notice than we 

 iniglit have done if bis representative had not 

 come among us, with whose deniisn bis name 

 and relationship, so fin- as respects New Hamp- 

 shire will become extinct. 



Benjamin Thompson was born in tlte town of 

 Wobiirn, ten miles out of Boston, in the old 

 connnouwealth of Massachusetts, in the year 

 175-2 : this would make him only about twenty- 

 three years of age ;it the breaking out of the rev- 

 olution ill 177.5. He was not at that time known 

 within the limits of Concord to have embraced 

 either side of the cause which animated all 

 hearts. The town at this time, with not more 

 than two or thiee exceptions, was unanimous in 

 declaring aL'aiiist British aggression. The ori-gi- 

 ii.d paper pliMlging to each other the lives and 

 the fintunes of the inlialiiiants, is to be Ibuud in 

 the olbce of the Secretary of State; and it is re- 

 markable that every man of every fimiily aoiild 

 then legibly write hisowii name. Many of these 

 ill the contests which afterwards succeeded, 

 proved to the enemy that they knew .also liow to 

 make their mark. Of the long list of several 

 hundreds, a large portion were living when the 

 editor of the Visitor first came to Concord in 

 le'O'J — now scarcely an individual of the whole 

 number survives. In some respects it seemed 

 to be imfnrtiinate that i\lr. Tliompsou happened 

 to pitidi upon the siih; adverse to the families in 

 New Hampshire to whom his marriage bad con- 

 nected him. If be bad remained in the country, 

 he might have been distinguished, bul his talents 

 would have liinud a ililVercmt theatre. Born of 

 one of Ihose New England families who unani- 

 mously denied all sympathy for tbe British cause, 

 association fen- the" monieiil must have turned 

 his mind into a diflereut channel. From the 

 scanty biography of him now at baud, we learn 

 that he. was a major of militia, probably deriving 

 his commission li-om the last Gov. Wentworlh : 

 soon alter his marriage he lel't the StaJe never to 

 return to it— went to England, where he obtain- 

 ed a situation in the foreign office under George 

 Gi-rmaine. Towards the close of the revolution- 

 ary war be reliirned to America, and in the State 

 of N(;w York be was a colonel of a British regi- 

 ment of dragoons. He went back to England at 

 the close of tbe revolutionary war — waslsnighted 

 by George the third, and was sometime an under 

 Secretary of State. For some of tliil services 



which he rendered the ^British governiiient, the 

 (.'Oiintess, WB believe, still receives a pension. 



Had (ainut Riindord taken the siile of the 

 patriots of the revolution, Ills industry, his excel' 

 lout common sense, his tact and tident for phi- 

 losophical investigation and his aptitude for the 

 best observation of all the common events of 

 life, might have made his American reputation 

 great like that of Franklin ; but he was unfor- 

 tunately on the wrong side, and was great as ii 

 courtier rather than a rcpulilican in the halls of 

 European princes. 



Tarrying not a long time in England, he went 

 to Bav.aria, one of the largest kingdoms- of the 

 German States, where, by permission of the 

 British sovereign, he engaged in the scMvice of 

 the Elector I'alaline, reigning Dnke <d' Bavaria', 

 "particularly in arranging bis military idfairs, and 

 introducing a new system of order, <liscipline 

 and economy among his troops." 



" To facilitate and promote these iinport.int 

 objects (says the f^ount in one of his essay.s,) to 

 establish a I'e.'iiectable standing military fijrce 

 which should do the least possible harm to the 

 population, mor.als, manuliictnres and ag-riculturc 

 of the country, it was necessary to make soldiers 

 citizens, and citizens soldiers." The moral rev- 

 olution effected tit once by the individual' iiitlii- 

 ence and exertions of a single Anglo-American 

 stranger^ — stranger to the manners, the religion 

 and the [irejiidices of the people — and by a sim- 

 ilar means, has no parallel iir the history of the 

 world. His scheme for the suppression of men- 

 dicity was entirely successful. Of" this we will 

 have more to say before closing this notice. The 

 Dhke of Bavaria maile him lienteniurt-general 

 and comtnauder of his armies, and mnferred on 

 him vjirious orders of knighthood. He was sent 

 to England as ambassador, and in 1791) Psok up 

 his residence in that country. The RoyaMnsti- 

 lution at London originated at his suggestion : — 

 to this he was a frequent contributor of the re- 

 sults of many e;>peiimciits in science tind the 

 various arts. itis simple improvement in the 

 (•oustrnction of chimnies was introduced by ma- 

 ny of the nobility and commoners in and about 

 London — a jirinciple so easy to he understood 

 that we have always" considered it a matter of 

 surprise that every [M'tictical master mason did 

 not at once instruct his apprentice how to make 

 a flue that would not spoil a bouse with smoke. 



Ill 1802, Count Rnmford removed to Paris. — 

 Although retaining his Britisb predilections, and 

 entertaining liltle sympathy for the French revo- 

 lution, he preliirred that as the better climate, 

 and the people of France as better suiting bis 

 taste for science. Here he soon married the 

 widow of tbe great chemist Lavoisier, and pur- 

 chased a be.aulif'nl seat at Anteiii'l, fmir miles 

 fioni Paris. His marriage was unlbrtniiate, 

 niether party siiiiiiig tbe taste of the other, — 

 With this second wife he lived but a short (jme. 

 He enjoyed fiom the Duke of Bavaria a pension 

 of Ji 1200, eipial to .'fitJOOO [leraniHim: he must 

 also have hiid a |>eiisioii of half pay from the 

 British government. A man of so imich system, 

 a philosophical economist, must have had abnn- 

 daiil iiietms of living at baud, and the good t'ov- 

 lune to acciunulatc an estate. The means at 

 hand at the time of this writing, away from 

 home, for ascertaining the amount of bis accn- 

 mnlaiion and the disposition of bis property be- 

 fore his death are nnfoitunately i'uw. The 

 Countesi^, who contemplates presenting to llie 

 public now facts in relation to her (iitlier, may in 

 due time, gratify the ptiblic curiosity in regard to-- 

 a man so distinguished who resided amongst us 

 at a period so remote as not to be within the 

 personal recollection of half a dozen people 

 within the limits of the town. That he bad a 

 regatil lor this place of his short residence, Sm . 

 evident from the liict that be chose the aiiciciit 

 name of the town as the cognomen by which he 

 was known mi Europe — the title under which he 

 best bears a scientific reputation, exceeded by 

 few of the savans of the last century. He spent 

 his lime in Frani-e in cultivating and adorning 

 his domain, and in numerous philosophical ex- 

 periments and inventions, the results of which 

 were generally commnnicated to the world 

 through the published proceedings of the French 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died in 

 August 1814, having resided twelve years in 

 I'^rauce. 



The estrangeiiieiit to his native country which 



