Turning a little more to the right, the eye follows the Quarry hill, which is a ridge of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet perpendicular height, crowned with lofty forest trees, under which is a quarry of fine building stone, about half a mile long, with a good wagon road along its whole length, from every part of which are most charming views of the town and rivers, the cultivated sides of the hill below, and the rich and luxuriant plain of a quarter of a mile wide between the foot of the hill and the Allegheny, {226} with the post and stage road from Philadelphia and the eastern states running through the middle of it two miles from Hill’s tavern to the town, which in its most compact part, with the belfry of the court-house, the Episcopal brick octagonal church, a handsome Presbyterian brick meeting house, and the roofs of the dwelling houses intermixed with lombardy poplars and weeping willows, the eye still approaching itself, is the next object.
A little to the right of the last line of view, Grant’s hill, with its sloping sides and regular ascent to about one hundred feet perpendicular height, covered with delightful short green herbage, seems to obtrude itself into the town, affording to the citizens a charming mall or promenade both for exercise and air. It lies within the bounds of the borough; but it is to be hoped that general O’Hara, who is the proprietor, will with true patriotism, reserve it for its present use, and not permit one of the greatest ornaments of Pittsburgh to be destroyed, by having it cut down and levelled for building lots. Its belonging to a man of such extensive property is a fortunate circumstance for the inhabitants, as that may prevent its being changed from pleasure to profit, to which it might be more liable was it owned by some needy person. Was the general to fence it in, terrace it, which could be done at a small expense, ornament it with clumps of evergreens and flowering shrubs, and erect a few banqueting houses in the forms of small temples according to the different orders of architecture, it would be one of the most beautiful spots, which not only America but perhaps any town in the universe could boast of.
Grant’s hill is united to the Quarry hill, by a plain at first flat, then rising gradually, over the middle of which on a very commanding situation, is seen the handsome cottage of Mr. Tannehill, a continental officer during the revolutionary war, who now enjoys {227} the evening of life in the shade of the finest fruit trees of this climate, of his own planting, for which rational and delightful employment as well as horticulture in general, he has a good taste.[162]
Still continuing to turn to the right, the next prominent object is the house of Mr. James Ross, an eminent lawyer, which he purchased from a Mons. Marie, a Frenchman, who had taken great pains to cultivate a good garden, which Mr. Ross does not neglect, and in which, on the top of an ancient Indian tumulus or barrow, is a handsome octangular summer house of lattice work, painted white, which forms a conspicuous and pleasing object.
From Mr. Ross’s, which is immediately behind the top of Grant’s hill, there is a gradual slope to a small but elevated plain, called Scotch or Scots hill, from its being the residence of several families from the northern Hebrides. It is improperly called a hill as it is no higher than the general level of the town, which is about forty feet above the low water mark of the Monongahela, to the bank of which river this plain extends, from the foot of the hill below Mr. Ross’s house.
A valley commencing at the upper extremity of this plain, divides Grant’s and Grove hills (the latter the seat of Mr. Tannehill before mentioned) from Boyd’s hill, which equally steep and twice as high as Grant’s, is the most striking feature in the view, {228} still looking to the right over the principal part of the town. This valley is watered by a little rivulet called Suke’s[163] run, which flows past a pleasant retired situation, said to have been formerly inhabited by one Anthony Thompson, long before Pittsburgh was a town. A few indigenous plum trees are the only vestiges of its former occupancy. The rivulet passes Mr. Watson’s large brick house, supplies a tanyard owned by general O’Hara, then crossing the Monongahela road, falls into that river at the ship-yards, at a low inlet between Scots hill plain and Boyd’s hill, where several vessels have been built, some as large as four hundred tons. The coal which supplies Pittsburgh with fuel, is brought on wagons from a distance not exceeding two miles, and is delivered in the town at six cents a bushel.
Boyd’s hill was formerly named Ayre’s hill, from a British engineer of that name who wished to have it fortified, but it changed its appellation about twenty years ago in consequence of one Boyd, a printer, hanging himself there on a tree. It was first cleared and cultivated by a Highland regiment, which built huts on it, no remains of which now exist.
The view from Boyd’s hill exclusive of the Allegheny, which is veiled by Grant’s and the Quarry hills, is as fine as that from the Quarry hill exclusive of the Monongahela, shut out from it by Boyd’s, and is more uninterrupted down the Ohio to Robinson’s point and Brunot’s island, almost three miles.
The Monongahela is then the next object to the right of Boyd’s hill. It is four hundred and fifty yards wide, and is seen to the N. E. in a vista of about two miles, when it takes a sudden bend to the eastward, and disappears behind the hills, at the extremity {229} of this vista, at the Two mile run, Mr. Anthony Beelen, a respectable merchant, has a neat ornamented cottage, opposite the bend, on the left bank, which commands a view of the reach above, as well as of that below to the town. The intermediate bank between Mr. Beelen’s country seat and Pittsburgh, has a pleasant road along it, which is one of the principal avenues to the town, and which is surmounted by the ridge, of which Boyd’s hill is the termination, whose round regular bluff verges into a bare rock, crowned with trees, impending romantically over the road in the whole distance from Two mile run.
Still turning to the right the opposite bank of the Monongahela presents to the eye a fine level bottom well cultivated and settled, with a ridge of hills half a mile behind it, which gradually approach the river until immediately opposite the town, where rising abruptly from the water’s edge to the height of about five hundred feet perpendicular, they take the name of the Coal hill, from that fuel being formerly dug out of it for the use of the town, before pits were opened more convenient on this side of the river. It still supplies the coal for general O’Hara’s glass-works, which, with the houses of the overseer and workmen, forms a village at the foot of the hill on the river bank, immediately opposite the point where the spectator stands, who has now gone round rather more than half a circle since his first view up the Allegheny. Window glass of a good quality and quart bottles, are made at this manufactury, which with a rival one at New Geneva, about sixty miles up the Monongahela, supplies all the western country.