Philadelphia is unpleasant, unhealthy, and intolerably expensive.... Every day I do something towards the continuation of my Church History.... I have never read so much Hebrew as I have since I left England....
He visited freely in the vicinity of Northumberland, spending much time in the open. Davy, a traveler, made this note:
Dr. Priestley visited us at Sunbury, looks well and cheerful, has left off his perriwig, and combs his short grey locks, in the true style of the simplicity of the country.... Dined very pleasantly with him. He has bought a lot of eleven acres (exclusively of that which he is building on), which commands a delightful view of all the rivers, and both towns, i.e. Sunbury and Northumberland and the country. It cost him 100£ currency.
It was also to Mr. Lindsey that he communicated, on November 12, 1794, a fact of no little
interest, even today, to teachers of Chemistry in America. It was:
I have just received an invitation to the professorship of chemistry at Philadelphia ... when I considered that I must pass four months of every year from home, my heart failed me; and I declined it. If my books and apparatus had been in Philadelphia, I might have acted differently, but part of them are now arrived here, and the remainder I expect in a few days, and the expense and risk of conveyance of such things from Philadelphia hither is so great, that I cannot think of taking them back ... and in a year or two, I doubt not, we shall have a college established here.
It was about this time that his youngest son, Harry, in whom he particularly delighted, began clearing 300 acres of cheap land, and in this work the philosopher was greatly interested; indeed, on occasions he actually participated in the labor of removing the timber. Despite this manual labor there were still hours of every day given to the Church History, and to his correspondence which grew in volume, as he was advising inquiring English friends, who
thought of emigrating, and very generally to them he recommended the perusal of Dr. Thomas Cooper's
"Advice to those who would remove to America—"
Through this correspondence, now and then, there appeared little animadversions on the quaint old town on the Delaware, such as