121 
J 821.J Letter from an Emi< 
(The superscription is thus ) 
For 
Mr. J\l< Concanen, at 
Mr. Woodward’s, at the 
Haife-moon in. Ffleet-streete. 
London. 
The foregoing letter was found about 
the year 1750, by Dr. Gawin Knight, 
first librarian to the British Museum^ 
in fitting up a house which he had 
taken in Crane-court, Fleet-street. The 
house had, for a long time before, been 
let in lodgings, and, in all probability, 
Concanen had lodged there. The ori¬ 
ginal letter has been many years in my 
possession, and is here most exactly 
copied, with its several little peculiari¬ 
ties in grammar, spelling, and punctu- 
ation. M. A. 
April. 30, 1766. 
This memorandum is followed by an 
additional annotation, with which the 
MS. concludes: 
44 The above is copied from an in¬ 
dorsement of Dr. Mark Akenside, as is 
the preceding letter from a copy which 
was lent (o me bjr George Stevens, esq. 
which copy he had transcribed from 
one given‘by Dr. Akenside to Thos. 
Tyrwhitt, esq. AH the peculiarities 
above mentioned are here carefully 
retained. Edmond Malone. 
London. March 15, 1778. 
Should this MS. prove to be an 
unpublished letter of the celebrated 
Dr. Warburton, I am sure you will 
have pleasure in giving it to the public. 
■——♦- 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
letter from the northern states 
of AMERICA. 
Merrimac , county of Hilshorough, 
State of New Hampshire. 
A T length I take my pen to write 
^to you from this side of the ocean. 
1 did not write before as I wished to 
give you all the information 1 could. 
We left Northampton on the 18th of 
June, and after a disagreeable voyage 
on the canal in Pickford’s boat, we ar¬ 
rived at Liverpool, took lodgings till 
the 1st of July, and then went on board 
the ship Wallace, Captain Hickney, for 
Boston. At the end of forty days 
we were only half way on our voyage, 
our provisions nearly exhausted, and 
the crew also upon short allowance. 
The eldest child I did not expect to 
iive a day; the two youngest were 
scalded by the upsetting of a kettle of 
coffee running under them as they sat 
on deck ; all frequently crying for vic¬ 
tuals and water, and scarcely anv to 
Monthly Mag. No. 358. 
I rant in New Eng/and. 
give them. I had nothing several days 
but a little biscuit which the men gave 
us out of their scanty allowance, and 
the cook’s slush (poUiquor.) A por¬ 
poise we caught made all hands sick 
besides these we saw a few whales; but 
in our greatest distress, we happily met 
some British transports from Quebec 
with a regiment on board; from one of 
these we got some provision, and now 
depended upon catching some cod on 
the Newfoundland banks, but unfor¬ 
tunately we. took but one. After being 
sixty days at sea we landed at Boston 
Sep. 7* When 1 left Boston with Mr. 
P. in a chaise, I was delighted with 
the appearance of the country; the 
thousands of apple-trees, loaded with 
fruit, the ground covered with wind¬ 
falls, and hogs eating, I was almost 
inclined to get out and fill the chaise 
with these apples. Small waggons from 
fifty to 70 tons are in common use 
here. At Hollis I worked for Mr. Paul, 
and resided in a house which he had 
formerly occupied ; but not liking this 
place and having a number of invita¬ 
tions, we left it to go to Merrimac in 
November. We have now a comfort¬ 
able dwelling and two acres of ground 
planted with potatoes, Indian corn, 
melons, &c. I have two hogs, one ewe 
and a lamb ; cows in the spring were as 
high as thirty-three dollars." but no 
doubt I shall have one in the fall. 
Half my land, which was wood, I have 
cleared this spring. I have now a great 
deal of work at my trade; have kept 
one man in the house a considerable 
time, and hare turned several cus¬ 
tomers away. Next year I hope to 
save something worth while: but as 
money is scarce, we have what we 
want in lieu of it. Most people pay in 
kind, and this is generally the way in the 
newly settled places. Labourers get a 
dollar per day, and 75 cents in winter. 
To form a just idea of this country, you 
must consider that 200 years ago it was 
all wood; a man buys three”or four 
hundred acres of land; the neighbours 
turn to and build him a log house about 
24 feet square; here he lives till he 
can clear land enough to maintain a 
family. He may next build a barn, 
stable, &c. and if industrious he may 
build a good frame house clap boarded, 
all of Avood, excepting the brick chim¬ 
ney ; another does the same, and thus 
you find all the country covered, not 
with villages, but single houses scat¬ 
tered over it. Thus our town is 
reckoned twelve miles by six, with 
Q about 
