ALEXANDER WILSON. 
liii 
to our view. In two hours more we landed, and, by the stillness 
and solemnity of the streets, recollected we were in New England, 
and that it was Sunday, which latter circumstance had been almost 
forgotten on board the packet-boat. 
“ This town is situated upon a sandy plain, and the streets are 
shaded with elm trees and poplars. In a large park, or common, 
covered with grass, and crossed by two streets and several foot- 
paths, stands the church, the state house, and college buildings, 
which last are one hundred and eighty yards in front. From 
these structures rise four or five wooden spires, which, in former 
times, as one of the professors informed me, were so infested by 
Woodpeckers, which bored them in all directions, that to preserve 
their steeples from destruction, it became necessary to set people 
with guns to watch and shoot these invaders of the sanctuary. 
About the town the pasture fields and corn look well ; but a few 
miles off, the country is poor and ill cultivated. 
“ The literati of Newhaven received me with politeness and 
respect ; and, after making my usual rounds, which occupied a 
day and a half, I set off for Middleton, twenty-two miles distant. 
The country through which I passed was generally 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 Middleton, however, the country is really beautiful ; the 
soil rich ; and here I first saw the river of 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 
streets filled with troops, it being muster-day. The sides of the 
street were choaked up with wagons, carts, and wheelbarrows, 
filled with bread, roast beef, fowls, cheese, liquors, barrels of cider, 
and rum bottles. Some were singing out, “ Here ’s the best 
brandy you ever put into your head !” Others in dozens shouting, 
“ Here’s the round and sound gingerbread! most capital ginger- 
bread ! ” 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 
