hv_sansomj_letters_1796_007

Next morning his so a lad of 15 guided us several miles across intricate roads toward Sussex Court House, a dismal looking place with a jail under it, and a whipping post and stocks before, no the almost absolute insignia of the cruel system of past times, soon I hope to be every where supplanted by the spade and the distaff. Our last Host, as we were going out of the Settlements of Friends, had directed us to the hospitality of a Colonel Hathorne,for the night at a suitable distance for the night, not recollecting that he was a member of Congress, which we dis- covered on the road, and as he was not at home went 10 miles further to a place called Chester, and lodged at an Inn. The Landlord was old enough to remember old times with an evident preference, and with respect to Government in particular he thought as somebody else does sometimes that we had got out of the frying pan into the fire. This being our first tavern fare we did not take it kindly, and started off, before without breakfast, tho' we were glad afterward to take it as we could get it, and rejoiced when we came in sight of the North River which is here a mile and a half wide; but so diminished by comparison with the prodigious mountains which surround it, that more of our Company ex