Back to New York

Friday, October 17th 1823 – When on my way up the country I was very kindly used by Mrs Thomson and her son., who is much attached to mineralogy and painting. Mr Thomson, Sen., was then at New York. Mr Thomson and son who are now at Boston, took me from the inn and afforded me their house [Errm, how exactly, as they are in Boston??] In the afternoon general Lewis returned home.

18th – Mr Thomson’s estate is about 600 English acres of rich soil and about 200 acres of wood; his fields are all divided by walls about four feet high. In clearing his ground he has left a few choice oaks, which form a pleasing prospect and give the place an English appearance. [Interesting that despite a robust Colonial culture, many of the American ‘gentry’ ape the appearance of an English landscape as much as they are able. The English influence still runs fairly deep it seems.]

In the afternoon I packed my plants, got on board the Chancellor Livingstone steamboat (which is celebrated for magnitude and elegance), and after a passage of nine hours landed at Newport at 5 o’clock on Sunday morning.

So Douglas is back in New York, his upstate wanderings, alarums and excursions at an end. But this is not the end of the trip by any means. He will be back in Philadelphia shortly and he has a not-too-pleasant encounter with a nurseryman yet to come. Keep on following his travels and travails