Ixxvi 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
these invaders of the sanctuary. Just about the town the pas- 
ture fields and corn look well, but a few miles off, the country 
is poor and ill cultivated. 
“ The literati of New Haven received me with politeness 
and respect; and after making my usual rounds, which occupi- 
ed a day and a half, I set off for Middletown, twenty-two 
miles distant. The country through which I passed was gene- 
rally flat and sandy — in some places whole fields were entirely 
covered with sand, not a blade of vegetation to be seen, like 
some parts of New Jersey. Round Middletown, however, 
the country is really beautiful — the soil rich; and here I first 
saw the river Connecticut, stretching along the east side of the 
town, which consists of one very broad street, with rows of 
elms on each side. On entering I found the street filled with 
troops, it being muster day; and I counted two hundred and 
fifty horse, and six hundred foot, all in uniform. The sides of 
the street were choaked up with wagons, carts and wheel-bar- 
rows, filled with bread, roast beef, fowls, cheese, liquors, bar- 
rels of cider, and rum bottles. Some were singing out, “ Here’s 
the best brandy you ever put into your head!’’’’ others in do- 
zens shouting, Here’s the round and sound gingerbread! 
most capital gingerbread!” In one place I observed a row of 
twenty or thirty country girls, drawn up with their backs to a 
fence, and two young fellows supplying them with rolls of 
bread from a neighbouring stall, which they ate with a hearty 
appetite, keeping nearly as good time with their grinders, as 
the militia did with their muskets. In another place the crowd 
had formed a ring, within which they danced to the catgut 
scrapings of an old negro. The spectators looked on with as 
much gravity as if they were listening to a sermon; and the 
dancers laboured with such seriousness, that it seemed more 
like a penance imposed on the poor devils, for past sins, than 
mere amusement. 
“ I waited on a Mr. A. of this town; and by him I was in- 
troduced to several others. He also furnished me with a good 
deal of information respecting tlie birds of New England. He 
