1799-] 
wool (called in the North mort wool) was 
firft ufed upon a wool hat. That muft be 
feme time fince, and the probability is 
that the name has been changed. I re- 
colleét no fuch name in that country, 
though fome of your correfpondents may 
inform me, from which we may, grada- 
tim, develope its hiftory. Another kind 
of ftuff hats are alfo called Carolines and 
Caftors, the laft name evidently from the 
caftor or beaver, the fine hair of which 
animal covers the outfide ofthe hat. But 
why the former? 
In Whitaker’s Hiitory of Manchefter, 
p- 304 and 305 of the firft volume, we 
have the following account : 
‘¢ The Britons in general did not adopt 
the Roman pileus or petafus, as a covering 
for the head; but continued their own kap- 
pan, hata, or boined, in ufe, as they have 
tranfmitted them and their appellations to 
us. Vid. Suetonius, p. 82, ‘* Solis—-ne 
hiberni quidem patiens (Auguftus) dbmi 
guoque non nifi petafatus fub dio fpatiabatur;” 
and Montfaucon, plate 15, tom. 3. L’Ant. 
Expliquée. 
Your’s, &c. 
Newcafile, Feb. 8, 1799. 
eee 
Yo rhe Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Ban a conftant reader of your va- 
luable mifcellany, and highly gra- 
tified by your correfpondent J. 8.’s topo- 
graphical information relative to the 
cities of New York and Philadelphia, [ 
here inclofe you a brief but accurate and 
impartial account of a fhort tour which I 
undertook through a part of New Eng- 
land, in the United States of America, 
fome little time ago. If you think it 
worthy of infertion, I fhall confider my- 
felf as highly flattered. 
Having previoully vifited Philadelphia 
and New York, I failed, in the autumn 
of 1795, from the latter place in a packet 
floop for Newport, on my way to Bofton, 
the capital of New England. Tohere is 
a regular ftage which daily pafles be-. 
tween thefe places, (diftant about 270 
miles) ; but as the roads are but indit- 
ferent for carriage conveyance, and the 
coach was, ftrictly emer a heavy 
caravan, carrying eleven paffengers be- 
fides the driver, 1 preferred the veffel as 
the leaft evil of the two, although not at 
all partial to the watery element. I foon 
found I had chofen right, at leaft if I 
might judge from the number of paffen- 
gers bound on the fame expedition. This 
decided preference, however, was not un- 
attended with its diladvantages, as the 
Munnoa. 
Recent Tour in New England. 
£27 
captains of packets, in this refpect much 
like the drivers of fhort ftages, never ba- 
lance the eafe and comfortable accommo- 
dation of their paflengers with their fares : 
{o it proved at night; for what with the 
few births, and the number of perions to 
occupy them, I had no other refource 
than to wrap myfelf ig my great-coat, 
and fleep as well as I could on a failor’s 
cheft. 
On our way, and arrived within fight 
of New York, I was fhewn the remains 
of the Jerfey, an Englifh 64 gun man 
of war, converted during the American 
troubles into a prifon-fhip: fhe floated 
immediately oppofite us, and the fhore 
was covered with a number of boney frag- 
ments, reliques of the many viétims whe 
had from thence been daily conveyed and 
depofited there. The Americans relate 
divers ftories of unufual feverity and ill- 
treatment’experienced at that time by the 
prifoners on board; but which I hope, 
for the fake of humanity, and for the 
honour of my countrymen, are not 
the exa& truth. In failing down 
about ten miles farther, along the eaft- 
river, we pafled a tremendous current 
and whirlpool, called Hell-gate: to get 
through this dreadtul Euripus in fafety, 
it is neceffary for all veffels, excepting 
coaiters, to have a regular pilot. ‘The 
currents here are fo rapid and narrow, 
and are fo perplexed with contrary ones, 
and jutting rocks on all fides obftru€ting 
them, that it requires the niceft care and 
circumi{peétion of the moft fkilful piler. 
During the minute we were rapidly 
whirled through by the impetuous cur- 
rent, the foaming noife on every fide, 
contrafted by the ftill anxiety of the 
paffengers, contributed not a little to in- 
creafe its natural horrors. ‘Ihe captain, 
though for many years habituated to fieer- 
ing through this paflage,declared it always 
had the eff2t to produce cn him a pro- 
fufe per{piration; and related a circum- 
ftance of piloting a Weft Indiaman from 
New York up the Sound, when the owner, 
whofe whole property was on board the 
veffel, and who had entertained great ap- 
prehenfions of this place, (fomething like 
Ulyfles in. fabulous hiftory), a€tually 
locked up his (the pilot’s) wife, who was 
on board, in the cabin, during the time 
the veffel was pafling through, left by 
any converfation fhe might eftrange and 
withdraw her hufband’s attention! In- 
deed, this place, which I viewed at a 
fubfequent period from the adjoining 
fhore, 1s well deferving the infpeétion of 
the curious; it is fuppofed to have taken 
its 
. 
