was still occasionally placed at the family suppertable with labourers in their shirt-sleeves; but that family, and those labourers, appeared as cordial, obliging, and accommodating, as those with whom I have ventured to compare them; in their own way, as respectful, and much more intelligent in short, any thing, rather than what people generally mean when they say Americans. I am, &c.

LETTER XVII.

Richmond, Virginia, June 20, 1820.

I CONCLUDED my letter this morning, because I did not wish to inflict more than two sheets upon you at once; but it did not bring me so far on my route as intended. I however pass over a few days of my narrative, as they afforded no very peculiar occurrences. In speaking of East Tennessee, a delightful country, of which I have the most agreeable impressions, I forgot to say that the inhabitants are anticipating considerable advantage from improvements in the land communication between the Tennessee and the Black Warrior. They have also some prospect of the completion of two canals, which have long been projected, and appear in the maps of the United States, and which would connect the waters of the Tennessee with those of the Tombigbee and the Alabama, and afford a passage for the produce of East Tennessee to Mobile and the Gulf of

Mexico. This would supply a great stimulus to industry; as Mobile at present obtains a large proportion of her flour from New-Orleans, by way of Lake Borgne and Port Chartrain,—a channel of communication rendered so expensive by a heavy tonnage duty, that flour was selling at Mobile when I was there extravagantly higher than at New-Orleans.

We had for some days been almost insensibly ascending the Alleghany mountains; but to the 12th we saw nothing which indicated any extraordinary elevation. On that afternoon, however, we had a very extensive, though not a particularly interesting, view; and the air was so cool, that I was glad to ride in my great coat. Our mountain ride gave us an appetite before the end of our day's journey; and we stopped to take coffee at a small house on the ridge, where we were detained till it was nearly dark,-the universal custom of making and baking fresh bread for you being a sad detention to travellers, who ought never to order breakfast or tea unless they can afford to stay two hours. About nine o'clock we arrived at the bottom of one of the little valleys very common among the Alleghany mountains, and took up our abode for the night at the ferry-house on the Kanawa, a large river, which falls into the Ohio. We crossed it in a ferry-boat at half-past four o'clock the next morning (the 13th,) and breakfasted at Major's, a fine friendly old gentleman who I found sitting in his neat white porch, and whose respectable appearance rendered me almost ashamed to ask if he entertain

ed travellers; although I am now pretty well accustomed to consider neither the imposing aspect of a house, nor the sounding title of its inhabitants, whether Dr.

.

Colonel- Judge

-, or Parson , as any indication that they do not "keep private entertainment." The old gentleman was much interested in hearing about England, the native land of his grandfather. His wife, who made breakfast for me, was a sensible well-read gentlewoman, who might fairly pass in any society, incredible as this may seem in the wilds of America within twelve miles from the summit of the Alleghany. One of the daughters, a nice modest girl, sat by Dr. Kingsbury, my missionary friend, who had called here on his way to Brainerd, and left the "Life of Harriet Newell," which had greatly interested all the family. Soon after breakfast we reached the top of the Alleghany, where to our surprise we found a turnpikegate, the first we had seen for many months. The view was extensive, though disappointing as a whole the loss of one magnificent prospect, however, was far more than compensated by the succession of beautiful and interesting valleys, through which we continued to pass for several days, surrounded by ranges of lofty mountains at different distances. Soon after we began to descend, we stopped for some cold water at an attractive inn, where we found the people assiduously and cordially civil, like our honest and best kind of inn-keepers at home. They offered to fetch us some seed-water if we would wait a few minutes. The long steep descent from the top of

the Alleghany rendered us very sensible of the truth of an observation I had frequently heard here, that the land on the eastern side of the range is lower than that on the western. In the course of the day, we several times crossed the winding Roanoke, which we viewed with a sort of affection, as a distant link connecting us in some degree with our native home, it being the first river discharging its waters into the Atlantic which we had seen since we left the Oakmulgee on our Alabama route in March. In the evening we passed through Salem to the house of a well-meaning awkward German, (the German houses are always recognised by their flower-gardens,) intending to sleep there; but my intentions were frustrated by little assailants, who had no mercy on a tired traveller, but drove me at midnight into the porch, where I dozed a little before daybreak. I was glad to feel myself on horseback again before sun-rise (14th,) though more tired than on my arrival the preceding night. At Lock's, where we staid and breakfasted, ten miles distant, I went to bed for an hour, as the country was far too beautiful to be wasted on a sleepy traveller. We were now fairly in the valley between the North mountain and the Blue ridge; the whole of which is often indiscriminately called the Valley of the Shenandoah, although the inhabitants confine the name to that part of it which is watered by the river, and which commences a little above Staunton. With the richness of this luxuriant valley I know you are already acquainted; and of the sublimity of its

mountain scenery, it would be in vain to attempt a description. Our host and his habitation were truly English; and it required no great stretch of imagination to fancy myself near Windermere. We left Fincastle a little to our right, and proceeded to Judge 's, to whom I had a letter of introduction from the Governor of the State of Mississippi. I found him without his coat in the middle of his corn-fields, gladdening his heart and relaxing his brows by contemplating the beneficence of nature, whose favours, or rather those of her Almighty Creator, appeared to be liberally scattered over his farm. As soon as I delivered my letter, he led me up to a large substantial brick-house, where he insisted on ordering dinner; for the family had dined. I found him a well-read reflecting old gentleman. He was engaged in studying the history of England at the period of the Revolution, and seemed to think we were now approaching an era at least as eventful. Thus you see the operations of our Radicals have penetrated even the tranquil valley of the Shenandoah, and awakened its more intelligent inhabitants to philosophical reflection on the destinies of our native land. The Judge was a little displeased that I would not stay all night; which I wished much to do, but found, on looking forward, that, in connexion with calling at Mr. Jefferson's at a proper hour, it would cost me an entire day.

I left his house about five o'clock, and rode for some distance, surrounded by the most magnificent scenery I had seen in America; the Blue