one stands. This gave place to a larger one of stone, in 1712; and in 1823, that was removed for a still larger one.

The Friends' meeting house, at Gwynedd, was made a hospital for the wounded of the army after the battle of Germantown.

I have given the foregoing recital of the manner of Evans' convincement, in the words of Mr. Foulke; but his kinswoman, Susan Nancarro, who died lately at the age of 80 years, told it to me a little variant. She said that the brothers read the public services of their church, and convened in a summer house. As one of the brothers was once going to that place, he passed where William Penn was speaking, and willing to hearken to him, he became so earnestly convinced that way, that he succeeded to bring over all his brethren. Mrs. Nancarro had often seen and conversed with her grandfather, Hugh Evans, who lived to be ninety years of age. When he was a boy of twelve years of age, he remembered that William Penn, with his daughter Letitia and a servant, (in the year 1699 or 1700,) came out on horseback to visit his father, Thomas Evans. Their house then was superior in that it was of barked logs, a refinement surpassing the common rank. The same place is now E. Jones', near the Gwynedd meeting house. At that house William Penn ascended steps on the outside to go to his chamber; and the lad of twelve, being anxious to see all he could of so distinguished a man, went up afterwards to peep through the apertures at him; and there he well remembered to have seen him on his knees praying, and giving thanks to God for such peaceful and excellent shelter in the wilderness! What a subject for a painter! I heard Mrs. D. L. say that she had also heard the same facts from old Hugh Evans.

There was at this time a great preparation among the Indians near there for some public festival. Letitia Penn, then a lively young girl, greatly desired to be present, but her father would not give his consent, though she entreated much. The same informant says she ran out chagrined, and seeming to wish for something to dissipate her regret, snatching up a flail near some grain, at which she began to labour playfully, when she inadvertently brought the unwieldly instrument severely about her head and shoulders; and was thus quickly constrained to retreat into the house, with quite a new concern upon her mind! This fact made a lasting impression upon the memory of the lad aforesaid, who then was a witness.

Norristown.

This place, now so beautiful and numerous in houses, is a town wholly built up since the war of independence. At that time, it was the farm of John Bull; and his original farm house is now standing in the town, as the inn of Richard Richardson.

As early as the year 1704, the whole manor, as it was then called, which included the present township of Norrington, was sold out by William Penn, Jr., for £850. From Isaac Norris, one of the purchasers, the place has since taken its name.

The original settlers about the neighbourhood of Norristown, Swedes' ford, &c., were Swedes, who much inclined to settle along the banks of the Schuylkill, and, like the Indians, to make free use of their canoes for travelling conveyances. The Swedes' church, not far off, was much visited by worshippers going there in their boats; and in still later times, when horses became a means of conveyance, it was common for a man and woman to ride together on one horse, the women wearing for economy "safe-guard petticoats," which they took off after arrival, and hung along the fence until again required.

There are still remains below Norristown, nearly fronting the ford, of a long line of redoubts, made by the Americans, under the direction of Gen. Du Porteuil, to defend the passage of the ford against the British approaching from the battle of Brandywine, and which had the effect to compel them to pass six miles higher up the river, at "Fatland ford." Some of the cannon, in an angle of the redoubt, have since washed into the river bank, and may at some future day surprise a discoverer!

It was on the river bank, at Norristown, that the first spade was set to excavate the first public canal attempted in the United States! This should be remembered! It was indeed abortive for want of adequate funds, as well as economy; but it tested the early spirit of enterprise of our leading citizens,-acting a few years in advance of the age in which they dwelt. This fact, in connexion with the MS. account of Mr. John Thompson, of Delaware county, of his early adventure in a boat, the White Fish, by a navigation from Niagara to Philadelphia, by the water courses in New York state; showing beforehand, the practicability of the Grand canal of New York, are so many evidences of our early efforts in the "canal system!" The boat, after so singular a voyage, was laid up in the State-house yard, in the year 1795, and visited as a curiosity. A sight of that boat, and a knowledge of the facts connected with it, is supposed to have prompted President Washington, at that early period, to write of his conviction of the practicability of a union of the waters of the lakes with the ocean. A subject, happily for all, now no longer a problemn.

Chester County.

At the time the European emigrants first settled in this county it was principally overshadowed by forests-only a small patch here and there around the Indian huts having been cleared by the natives, for the purpose of growing their corn. But the woods at that time wore a very different appearance from what they do now. Owing to the Indian custom of firing them once or twice in a year, the small timber and bushes were killed in their growth, and of course the forests were but thinly set. I am informed that one of the first settlers said that, at the time of his first acquaintance with the county, he could have driven a horse and cart from one end of its extremi

ties to the other, in almost every direction, without meeting with any material obstruction.

For a number of years the process of agriculture by the new settlers was extremely rude and imperfect. No regular rotation of crops was observed. A field was frequently appropriated to one kind of produce for several successive years. No man's care in relation to his ground extended beyond the sowing and gathering of his crops, and by total neglect of manuring and fertilizing their lands, the strength of the soil was yearly and daily exhausting itself. This was so much the case within the memory of one ancient now living, that when he departed from the common course, and began to endeavour to recruit his soil, his plan became the subject of general ridicule among his neighbours; and the saying was applied to him on all hands," a penny wise, a pound foolish.' His success, however, began to have its influence in his neighbourhood; but still they did not then know the beneficial effects of lime-little use was made of it before the revolution, and so little was it valued in itself, as to be often sold for five or six cents a bushel. Wheat, rye, oats and barley, were the principal productions. Indian corn was so little regarded, that many depended upon getting the little they used from the lower counties, in preference to raising it themselves. Clover was almost wholly unknown, and timothy quite so. Meadows which were irrigated furnished the grass for hay and pasturage. How very differently managed is every thing now! Now all the farmers are becoming wealthy and happy. Thus proving that conduct is luck.

This county originally contained within its limits the present county of Delaware, and they together formed one of the first settled counties in the state. The first settlers were generally of the society of Friends, and now their descendants mostly occupy the south eastern and middle townships. The Welsh settled along the "Great Valley," a fine region of land, of from one to three miles wide, traversing the whole county from east to west; the Irish Presbyterians settled in the south-west; and the English intermixed generally throughout the whole county. Many of the townships are of Welsh origin, as is indicated by their names,-such as Tredyffin, Uwchland, the Calns, Nantmels, &c. Other names indicate lands formerly belonging to the London company, such as London Grove, New London, London Britain, Birmingham, &c.

The appearance of the fruitful and picturesque country of the "Great Valley," is well worth a visit from the youth of our city. It comprises nearly fifty thousand acres of the choicest lands, and is bordered on either side by long continuous ranges of high ridges, called North and South hills. From their summits, there are sometimes very extensive and beautiful views-such as might lead out the young mind to conceive of those much greater elevations, "the Blue mountains," and the great Allegheny "backbone of the state."

The Brandywine, running through this county, is a fine stream, affording much profitable "water power," and some very picturesque VOL. II.-L

scenery. Brantewein (brandy) is a word of Teutonic origin, which might have been used equally by the Swedes and Dutch to express its brandy-coloured stream. Certain it is, that at all early periods, after the river lost its Indian names of Minquas, and Suspecough, it was written Brandywine.

Since the county sustained the separation of Delaware county, the county town has been located at West Chester, a very growing place and possessing a genteel and intelligent population. At this place, are the original records of Chester county, and of course affording to the curious inquirer the means of exploring the antiquarian lore of the primitive days.

As our business is to show to the present rising generation the great difference between the present and the remote past, when all was coarse and rustic, we shall subjoin some scraps of information illustrative of such change, to wit:

Mr. William Worrell, who died but a few years since, an inhabitant of Marple township, at the advanced age of nearly one hundred years---says, that in the country there were no carts, much less carriages; but that they hauled their grain on sleds to the stacks, where a temporary thrashing-floor was made. He remembered to have assisted his father to carry on horseback one hundred bushels of wheat to mill in Haverford, which was sold there for but 2s. a bushel. The natural meadows and woods were the only pasture for their cattle; and the butchers of Philadelphia would go out and buy one, two, or three head of cattle, from such as could spare them, as all their little surplus.

He recollected when there were great quantities of wild turkeys; and a flight of pigeons which lasted two days! Only think of such a spectacle! They flew in such immense flocks, that they obscured the rays of the sun! One night they settled in such numbers at Martin's bottom, that persons who visited them could not hear one another speak, by reason of their strong whirring noise. Their weight on the branches of the trees was so great as to break off numerous large limbs!

He never saw coffee or tea until he was twenty years of age; then his father brought some tea from Philadelphia, and his aunt did not know how to use it, till she got information first from a more refined neighbour. On another occasion a neighbour boiled the leaves and buttered them!

In going to be married, the bride rode to meeting behind her father, or next friend, seated on a pillion;-but after the marriage, the pillion was placed with her behind the saddle of her husband. The dead were carried in coffins on the shoulders of four men, who swung the coffin on poles, so that they might proceed along narrow paths with most ease.

Another ancient inhabitant, William Mode, who died on the west branch of the Brandywine, in 1829, at the age of eighty-seven years, said he well remembered the Indian's-men, women and children,

coming to his father's house to sell baskets, &c., and that they used 'to cut and carry off bushes from their meadow, probably for mats to sleep on. The deer, in his boyhood, were so plenty, that their tracks in the wheat field, in time of snow, were as if marked by a flock of sheep: at one time his father brought home two of them on his sled. Wild turkeys in the winter were often seen in flocks, feeding in the corn and buckwheat fields. Foxes often carried off their poultry; once their man knocked one down near the barn. Squirrels, rabbits, rackoons, pheasants and partridges abounded.

Samuel Jeffrey, too, a man of eighty-seven years, who died at West Chester in 1828, said he could well remember when deer were plenty in the woods of Chester county, and when a hunter could occasionally kill a bear. He also had seen several families of Indians still inhabiting their native fields. N. Marcer died in 1831, aged one hundred and one years.

This county still contains some of the oldest inns known in the annals of our country. Thus, Powell's Journal, of 1754, speaks of his stopping on the way to Lancaster, at "the Buck," by Ann Miller-at the Vernon," by Ashton, (now "the Warren")-" the White Horse," by Hambright-"the Ship," by Thomas Park-" the Red Lion," by Joseph Steer-and "the Wagon," by James Way, &c. Chester county is also distinguished as being the theatre of some important events in the revolution,--such as "the battle of Brandywine," the " massacre of Paoli," and the winter quarters of our army at "the Valley Forge." The battle ground of the Brandywine, near where La Fayette was wounded, may be still visited at the Birmingham meeting-house of Friends. There, if you see the gravedigger turning up the grave ground, you may possibly see the bones of some British soldier at only two feet under the ground, with fragments of his red coat, his stock-buckle, buttons, &c.! You may even be shown some old gold coin, found concealed once in the great cue of a buried Hessian! If you ramble down to "Chadsford," not far distant, you may still see remains of the little redoubt which disputed the ford; and there, as a relic of silenced war and bloodshed, pick up an occasional bullet or grapeshot. The county was at one time much disturbed, and made withal remarkable, by a predatory hero in the time of the revolution. He was usually called "Captain Fitz," but his real name was James Fitzpatrick. He roamed the country in stealth, as a "British refugee," making his attacks upon the chattels of the "stanch whigs," and seemingly delighting in his perils and escapes. His whole character made him a real Rob Roy of his time. At last he was seized and executed.

The state of the American army at the Valley Forge, in the drear winter of 1777-8, was an extremely perilous and suffering one. They were kept in necessary fear from so superior a force as Howe's well appointed army; whereas, ours was suffering the need of almost every thing. An officer, an eye-witness, has told me, that a sufficiency of food or clothing could not be had; that so many men were