Retrospective Events in the Author's History-PhiladelphiaFoot-races-The Paxton Boys threaten the City-Anecdotes of two British Officers-Author's early Amusements--Sail ing-Swimming-Skating-Correction of the Abbé Raynal -British Coffeehouse-Anecdotes of its Visitors.

ALTHOUGH it was in my fifteenth year, as already mentioned, that I took my leave of the academy, yet the circumstances I am now about to advert to were antecedent to that event, and are to be considered as having taken place within the five years preceding it.

Among the persons who were acquainted and visited at my grandfather's were Dr Laughlin Maclean and his lady. The latter rarely missed a day, when the weather was favourable, of calling upon her countrywoman, my grandmother; and I well remember, she was always attended, or rather preceded, by a small white dog, enormously fat, in which quality he even exceeded his mistress, who yielded to few of her species and sex in the possession of an enviable embonpoint. The Doctor was considered to have great skill in his profession, as well as to be a man of wit and general information; but I have never known a person who had a more distressing impediment in his speech. Yet, notwithstanding this misfortune, he, some years after, on his return to Europe, had

PHILADELPHIA YELLOW FEVER.

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the address to recommend himself to a seat in the British House of Commons. He is understood to be the same Laughlin Maclean who, at Edinburgh, evinced a generous benevolence in administering to the relief of the celebrated Oliver Goldsmith, as related in the life of that poet; and it is this circumstance which has principally induced me to notice him here.

About the year 1760 or 1761, to the best of my recollection, the city was alarmed by a visitation of the yellow fever. I can say nothing of the extent of its ravages, having been, happily, too young to be infected with the panic it produced, or to have been at all interested in the inquiry, whether it had an adequate cause. My impression rather was, that it was an occurrence by no means to be deprecated, since the schools were shut up, and a vacation of five or six weeks its fortunate consequence. As the city was deserted by such as could leave it without too much inconvenience, my grandfather took refuge at his country house, near Germantown, whither, as one of his family, I accompanied him, and remained there until the danger was supposed to be

over.

It was in the fall, probably, of this very year, that my mother removed to Philadelphia, in the view of keeping a lodging-house; an employment, which, in Pennsylvania, has been the usual resource of persons in her situation, that is, of widows, reputably brought up, left in circumstances too slender for the support of their families. She began with taking boys who went to the academy, of which there were generally a number from the southern provinces and the West India islands. Being thus established, I left my grandfather's for her house; and, by this change of residence, bid adieu to the old route,

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PHILADELPHIA-LODGING-HOUSE.

which, for about two years, I had traversed, in going to and returning from school, in the winter four times, and in the summer six times a-day. I had my choice, indeed, of different streets, and sometimes varied my course; but it generally led me through what is now called Dock Street, then a filthy uncovered sewer, bordered on either side by shabby stables and tan-yards. To these succeeded the more agreeable object of Israel Pemberton's garden, (now covered in part by the Bank of the United States,) laid out in the old fashioned style of uniformity, with walks and alleys nodding to their brothers, and decorated with a number of evergreens, carefully clipped into pyramidal and conical forms. Here the amenity of the view usually detained me for a few minutes. Thence, turning Chesnut Street corner to the left, and passing a row of dingy two storey houses, I came to the Whalebones, which gave name to the alley at the corner of which they stood. These never ceased to be occasionally an object of some curiosity, and might be called my second stage, beyond which there was but one more general object of attention, and this was to get a peep at the race-horses, which, in sporting seasons, were kept in the Widow Nichols's stables, which, from her house, (the Indian Queen, at the corner of Market Street,) extended, perhaps, two-thirds, or more, of the way to Chesnut Street. In fact, throughout the whole of my route, the intervals took up as much ground as the buildings; and, with the exception of here and there a straggling house, Fifth Street might have been called the western extremity of the city.

My course was much shortened by the removal to my mother's, who had taken a house in Arch Street, facing the Friends' burying-ground. The first lads that were placed with her were two brothers, the sons of a Colonel

PHILADELPHIA--FOOT RACES.

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Lewis of Virginia. The younger, named Samuel, about a year older than myself, had the attractions of a pleasing countenance and great gentleness of manners. Though he belonged to a younger class than mine, the living and sleeping together were sufficient to cement a warm attachment between us, and there was not a boy in the school in whose welfare and competitions I took so decided an interest; the ardour of which was in almost perpetual requisition, from the circumstance of his being a champion in the gymnastic exercise of running, which was then the rage. The enthusiasm of the turf had pervaded the academy, and the most extravagant transports of that theatre, on the triumph of a favourite horse, were not more zealous and impassioned, than were the acclamations which followed the victor in a foot-race round a square. Stripped to the shirt, and accoutred for the heat by a handkerchief bound round the head, another round the middle, with loosened knee-bands, without shoes, or with moccasons instead of them, the racers were started; and, turning to the left, round the corner of Arch Street, they encompassed the square in which the academy stands; while the most eager spectators, in imitation of those who scour across the course at a horserace, scampered over the church burying-ground to Fifth Street, in order to see the state of the runners as they passed, and to ascertain which was likely to be foremost, on turning Market Street corner. The four sides of this square cannot be much less than three quarters of a mile; wherefore, bottom in the coursers was no less essential than swiftness; and, in both, Lewis bore away the palm from every one that dared enter against him. After having, in a great number of matches, completely triumphed over the academy, other schools were resorted to for

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PHILADELPHIA-FOOT-RACES.

racers, but all in vain: Lewis was the Eclipse that distanced every competitor, the swift-footed Achilles, against the vigorous agility of whose straight and wellproportioned form, the long-legged stride of the overgrown, and the nimble step of the dapper, were equally unavailing. I was scarcely less elated with his triumphs than if I myself had been the victor. I was even supremely happy in the circumstance, which gave me a claim to a more than common degree of interest in him; and from my experience of the force of these associations, in which, by a kind of metonymy, we take the place of the real agent, I can fully enter into the feelings of the butcher, who, ecstasied at the good behaviour of his dog at a bull-beating, exclaimed to Charles the Second" Damme, Sir, if that isn't my dog!"Since the time of those exploits, in which I was too young to enter the lists, I have valued myself upon my own agility in running and jumping; but I have never had the vanity to suppose that, at my best, I could have contended, with any chance of success, in so long a race against Lewis.

At what time I was separated from this friend of my youth I cannot remember; but have to regret, that I lost the opportunity of seeing him, when several years afterwards, having I know not what business in Philadelphia which required dispatch, he called upon me one evening when I chanced to be out, and as he was obliged to leave the city very early in the morning, staid in the hope of meeting me till a very late hour. But my engagements unfortunately detained me too long, and he had been obliged to depart before I returned. This could not have been long before the war, probably between the year 1770 and 1772, when we had both at