{33} In one of my walks, I saw upwards of twenty very fine red and white oxen, belonging to a butcher on the hill above Fell's Point, fine and clear in their horns, though most of the beasts I have seen in America are rather thick in their horns; they were very fat, and might weigh from 600 lbs. to 700 lbs. each, of the value of from 30 to 35 dollars each.
As we understood it was difficult for large boats to go from Pittsburg to Wheeling, the water being low, we agreed with a Mr. Merchant, for the carriage of ourselves and luggage to the latter place, a distance of 280 miles, for the sum of 350 dollars, (78l. 15s.); this was for nine people, and upwards of 6000 lbs. of luggage. We had two waggons, with six horses and one driver to each waggon; the manner of travelling in them is very different from that of England. Here they are hired to take passengers, luggage, goods, &c. to any part of the United States, by the 100 lbs. weight. The drivers look after their own horses,— {34} buying hay, Indian corn, chopped straw, ground rye, &c. at the taverns. Looking after their own horses prevents their setting out early in the morning, so they take their breakfasts before they commence their journey. They then travel till noon, when they stop for a short time, and then go on till sun-set or after; therefore they have no time in an evening to clean their horses. The waggons are lighter than English waggons, with a pole instead of shafts. The drivers ride the left-wheel horse, with reins to the other two pair; they seldom walk, and when they do, they always mount should a bad piece of road, or a difficult log-bridge come in their way, as they can see to guide their horses much better than when on foot. A trough is screwed behind the waggon, containing a small mattress, a blanket or two rolled up, and a water-pail. When stopping to bait, or for the night, the trough is placed on the pole of the waggon, and the horses are tied up to it, where they stand in all weathers. They mostly water {35} their horses out of their pails, seldom letting them go into the water to drink, if ever so convenient.
Having settled all my money transactions, and got our luggage ready, we took leave of our fellow-passengers, not expecting ever to see them again; and in the afternoon of the 22d of July we left Baltimore. The country but little cultivated, but many fruit trees; for some distance from Baltimore, the land poor and stony; we first took a turnpike road, but soon quitted it. We saw many waggons to and from Baltimore to the westward. We had our own bedding with us, which we generally made use of at the taverns, never hiring more than one or two beds. The weather very hot.
23d. Breakfasted at the tavern, charge for nine breakfasts, a gallon of tea the evening before, beds, &c. 4 dollars 31¼ cents., nearly (19s. 6d.) We passed this day a poor, rocky, hilly country, many huckleberries in the woods, 23 miles to a {36} tavern, where we slept. Wheat and rye mostly harvested. Hay, some housed, and some cutting; it was timothy grass, and extremely ripe; it was put up in very small ricks, and not thatched. The fences were of rails, laid on each other in a zig-zag form, thus,
; having laid one row, they begin again on the first, and rise up from six to nine rails high; which make a strong fence against all sorts of cattle. The expense of a rail fence is not great where timber is plentiful. The price of cutting and splitting rails is from 3s. to 4s. 6d. a hundred. Generally a hundred, laid eight rails high, will make about six rods of fence, so that including cutting, casting, and putting up, the expense may average at 14d. a rod.
24th. We were charged for breakfasts, beds, &c. 3 dollars 31¼ cents. We passed through a country similar to that on the preceding day, till near the town of Liberty, 40 miles from Baltimore, a small neat place, of fifty or sixty houses. This was {37} the first town or village we had passed, by the road we came. From Liberty to Frederic town, a much better country; Frederic town is a large place, with many good brick buildings in it.[77] It is said to be the largest town in the States, that does not lie on a navigable river. From thence to Elders town, soil pretty good. This day we travelled 22 or 23 miles. We now mostly provided our own dinners and suppers, and took our breakfasts at the taverns. These breakfasts consisted of several of the following articles: chickens, hams, veal-cutlets, beef-steaks, roast pork, and several sorts of fish; various kinds of hot bread, viz. wheat and corn bread, buck wheat cakes, and waffles, a sort of soft cake, said to be of German origin; butter, honey, jelly, pickles, apple-butter, and the following dried fruits: peaches, cherries, apples, &c. And for one of these breakfasts they generally charged us 25 cents, (1s. 1½d.) In the above, I should have included tea or coffee.
{38} 25th. We travelled, a hilly country, to Trap town, a very small place, mostly of log-houses. From near Trap town, to the Potomac river, it still continued rocky. We passed 2 or 3 miles, up the side of the river, along a very sandy road, the river to our left, and some very high rocks on our right; many of which had, at different times, rolled down into the river. On the south side of the river, was a high ridge of rocky hills, and the sun shining on them; and, as we were passing through a deep sandy road, the heat was more intense than I had ever felt it before. The Potomac river is upwards of 250 yards wide, but shallow at the time we passed it, and full of large rocks. We saw some people fishing, in canoes, but what kind of fish they were fishing for, we did not learn. Many papaw trees on the banks of the river: as we approached near to Harper's Ferry, the rocks on our right rose to an immense height; we passed close under one, much larger and higher than St. Paul's church, London. {39} We were told it was a quarter of a mile high; but this, I think, was an exaggeration. Some small pines and cedars grew on these rocks; the cedars, on the highest points of them. We crossed the Potomac at Harper's Ferry,[78] in a ferry-boat; one waggon and its horses passed over at a time, the river was so full of rocks, it was difficult for the ferryman to find a passage for their boat. The river, at the ferry, was about 200 yards wide; we passed it just above its junction with the Shadanoak.[79] We had now entered the State of Virginia; hitherto we had been travelling in Maryland. We saw many large birds on the river, but of what sort we did not learn, but supposed them to be fish-eagles. At Harper's Ferry, there is a manufactory of fire-arms, at which many of our countrymen were employed. I saw eight or ten of them, and they informed me there were about sixty men, women, and children; but as it was Sunday, they were most of them walking out. Four miles from this place, we stopped {40} for the night, at Brick Mill tavern; here was a mill of five stories high, but short of water in a dry season, and this was the case when we were there. We passed a mill two days before, seven stories high, with more than fifty sash windows, the water-wheels more than twenty feet high, said to be well supplied with water at all seasons of the year. This day we travelled 19 miles.
26th. We proceeded 4 miles, through a hilly country, to Charles town,[80] Virginia, a long place of eighty or a hundred houses, mostly of wood, but some good brick ones. A small creek, at the end of the town, then nearly dry; the land tolerably good. Here I saw a small piece of flax; it was the first I saw; but we had passed three or four small pieces of tobacco, very well cultivated, being planted in squares, at eighteen or twenty inches apart. At noon, we stopped at Cook's tavern, during a storm of thunder and rain, and afterwards proceeded up a rocky hill, of good limestone land, {41} on which there were the best farmhouses and out-buildings, and the most manure we had hitherto seen. Dung, in this country, is but little attended to in general; indeed, they seem to try who shall get rid of it with the least trouble. At Brick Mill, the stable was placed over the mill stream, the horses standing on a plank floor; indeed, where there are stables, the horses stand on plank floors, without litter; but generally, through the country we passed, they tied them up in the open air in a road, or any other place. As this hill lies high, the corn on it was rather backward; the wheat and rye were cut, but not harvested; the former, as fine as any I ever saw. The road from Harper's Ferry is situated high, and we were now on what is called the South, or Blue Mountains.[81] Leaving the hill, we passed some woods down a road more rocky, if possible, than ever, to a small clear river, about twenty yards wide, and eighteen inches deep. There were some fine springs where we passed the river; {42} then, for two miles, through a country uncommonly sterile, covered with scrubby pines, to a new tavern, where we intended to sleep. But some words arising between one of our drivers and the mistress of the tavern, we went forward half a mile to another; this tavern miserably dirty, and the accommodations uncommonly bad. On some of our party complaining, the landlord told us, he was sorry we came to his house, as he liked people to be satisfied or stay away. This was, by far, the most filthy tavern we ever met with; in fact, it was but little preferable to an English pig-sty. This day we only travelled 15 or 16 miles.
27th. We provided the greater part of our breakfast, not much wishing to partake of the landlord's accommodations. We then went forward, through a poor country, till we passed some woods, and then into some good limestone land, but much encumbered with large rocks; some of them upwards of 100 yards long, many yards wide, and {43} some feet above the surface of the earth. What with these rocks, and the stumps of trees, full one-fourth part of the land could not be cultivated. A great deal of very stout wheat and rye cut, but remaining on the ground; it was cut very high from the ground, in a very slovenly manner, and set up in large heaps, almost without form. We had seen but few oats, and no barley, since we left Baltimore; the oats not good. Indian corn in general slight, owing to the drought. The after-crop of clover short, but well set, the first cut had been mostly stout and very ripe; the meadow grass now cutting, and also very ripe. The hay ricks, we had passed, extremely small, with little or no covering. Small ricks are most convenient to the Americans, as they do not cut their hay, but begin at the top, and so continue taking off till the rick is gone, a little waste not being much regarded. We passed a little fallow land, but it is not common to make fallows for wheat, as by keeping the Indian corn {44} ploughed between, it is left in a good state for wheat or rye. A negro was ploughing for turnips, on some land, where a slight crop of flax had grown this summer; the land very kind for once ploughing. This negro said, some very elegant potatoes grew on this land last year. They plough with a light swing-plough, and use two horses, except when ploughing between their Indian corn, and then they only use one. They do not generally use harrows, but when they do, they are made with wooden teeth; nor have I any where in America seen iron tined ones, except in the English Prairie. They use a large hoe to cover in their corn: I have not seen a roller in this country.