Ixxxiv 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
hundreds of them may he seen, on a court day, hanging their heads from 
morning to night, in deep cogitation, ruminating perhaps on the long-expected 
return of spring and green herbage. The country people, to their credit be 
it spoken, are universally clad in plain homespun; soap, however, appears to 
be a scarce article ; and Hopkins' double cutters vrould find here a rich harvest, 
and produce a very improving effect. Though religion here has its zealous 
votaries, yet none can accuse the inhabitants of this flourishing place of 
bigotry, in shutting out from the pale of the church or churchyard any human 
being, or animal whatever. Some of these sanctuaries are open at all hours, 
and to every visitor. The birds of heaven find a hundred passages through 
the broken panes ; and the cows and hogs a ready access on all sides. The 
wall of separation is broken down betv^een the living and the dead; and dogs 
tug at the carcass of the horse, on tlie grave of his master. Lexington, how- 
ever, with all its faults, which a few years will gradually correct, is an honor- 
able monument of the enterprise, courage, and industry of its inhabitants. 
Within the memory of a middle aged man, who gave me the information, there 
were only two log huts on the spot where this city is now erected ; while the 
surrounding country was a wilderness, rendered hideous by skulking bands 
of bloody and ferocious Indians. Now, numerous excellent institutions for 
the education of youth, a public library, and a well-endowed university, under 
the superintendence of men of learning and piety, are in successful operation. 
Trade and manufactures are also rapidly increasing. Two manufactories for 
spinning cotton have lately been erected; one for woollen ; several extensive 
ones for weaving sail-cloth and bagging; and seven ropewalks, which, accord- 
ing to one of the proprietors, export, annually, ropeyarn to the amount of 
150,000 dollars. A taste for neat, and even elegant, buildings is fast gaining 
ground; and Lexington, at present, can boast of men who do honor to science, 
and of females whose beauty and amiable manners would grace the firet circles 
of society. 
" On Saturday, April Uth, I left this place for Nashville, distant about 200 
miles. I passed through Nicholasville, the capital of Jessamine county, a 
small village begun about ten years ago, consisting of about twenty houses, 
with three shops and four taverns The woods were scarcely beginning to look 
green, which to me was surprising, having been led by common report to 
believe that spring here is much earlier than in the lower parts of Pennsyl- 
vania. I must further observe, that, instead of finding the woods of Kentucky 
covered with a profusion of flowers, they were, at this time, covered with 
rotten leaves and dead timber, in every stage of decay and confusion ; and I 
could see no dilFerence between them and our own, but in the magnitude of 
the timber, and superior richness of the soil. Here and there the white blos- 
soms of the Smujuhinria canadensis, or red root, were peeping through the 
withered leaves; and the buds of the buckeye, or horse chestnut, and one or 
two more, were beginning to expand. Wherever the hackberry had fallen, or 
been cut down, the cattle had eaten the whole bark from the trunk, even to 
that of the roots. 
"Nineteen miles from Lexington, I descended a long, steep, and rocky 
declivity, to the banks of Kentucky river, which is here about as wide as the 
