Jersey Boys get muddy

Monday and Tuesday. November 10th & 11th, 1823 – [Douglas may be drawing this trip to a close but there’s still time for one last adventure]

Being unsuccessful with Sarracenia by the great rain a fortnight since, in company with Mr Hogg we again crossed the River Hudson. We hired a car, and after driving and walking alternately, reached the spot. The swamp [Hoboken swamp], as mentioned before, is large. We made an attempt to get over from the north side but were obliged to return. Mr Hogg led the way, when suddenly he went down to the middle in mud.

On the south side we were more successful; after some difficulty, and all besmeared with filth, reached them, having to carry them two miles through the swamp. Darkness put a stop to our pursuit before we could get enough plants. In the evening we sat by the fireside talking of our day's proceedings [and drying out and scraping the mud off, no doubt!].

We have now set out again. By 10 o’clock on Tuesday we had an abundance of plants and proceeded after something else….A few ferns in wet places on the outskirts of the woods, but being killed by the frost cannot say what they are. In the bustle of our proceedings lost the whip, for which the man extorted two dollars in consequence of it being a favourite whip…..Reached home [But where was home?  Where was Douglas staying?  With Mr Hogg?  Frustratingly, he never gives any details about his own accommodation in New York]; stand now dry and comfortable, a state we required after such undertaking.

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Can’t you just see them, blundering around waist deep in the mud of Hoboken Swamp, putting up at an inn somewhere and then having an argument with the car driver about his lost whip. I suspect Douglas and Mr Hogg enjoyed this Boy’s Own Adventure enormously.

And Hoboken is still, if not an actual swamp, at least swamp-like when storm surges like Hurricane Sandy push the Hudson into the city

Breakfast with Dr Hosack

November 8th, 1823 – Wrote to Joseph Sabine Esq., and at packing in the afternoon.

Sunday, November 9th, 1823 – As usual on Sundays took breakfast at Dr Hosack’s; packed up some seeds &c in the forenoon, and went to Mr Hogg’s in the evening.

A fairly leisurely couple of days by recent standards but wait, there is one more adventure still to come.

Back in New York

Thursday November 6th, 1823 – Left Amboy at 5 o’clock in the morning and got to New York at 11. Employed taking the trees to Mr Hogg’s and ordered some boxes for packing them in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So Douglas arrives at Amboy at 4 o'clock in the morning...and leaves again at 5 o'clock. I hope he at least managed to get something to eat. This will have been a sleepless night I fear, what with the coach breaking down the previous night and needing repair. 

November 7th, 1823 – Finished taking up Mr Floy’s trees

Douglas is beginning to draw this first North American trip to a conclusion. It will be several weeks yet before he actually leaves but the pace has slowed, the season is becoming too late for collecting and he is beginning to work on his collections and finalise the arrangements for shipping fruit trees back to England.

Mr Coxe is still ill, and a slow journey north

Tuesday, November 4th & 5th, 1823 – In the morning went to Mr Dick’s [Janitor of the University] and got up and packed and sent to the wharf. Mr Dick has several species of Cactus from the Rocky Mountains but they are too small to bear a voyage across the Atlantic.

Left Philadelphia at 12 o’clock and reached Burlington at 4 in the afternoon [of the 4th Nov]. Went to William Coxe, Esq., whom I found still very ill – but considerably better since I saw him before…..[and yet, Douglas goes on to say..] he was not able to leave his room, indeed he was so ill before I left that to appearance he could not live long. [So I guess he must have deteriorated sharply while Douglas was there?] 

I obtained all that was in the house [of varieties of apple seeds], consisting of about eight or nine varieties and only two or three of each, with two bottles of cider seven years old – one made from Wine-sop, one from Virginian crab-apple: this is a present from Thos A. Knight and Jos Sabine Esqs., from Will. Coxe. I also got a few seeds of ornamental plants. I received from him and family all the attention they could give under the present circumstances. 

I had not time to call on Mr Smith, and as I saw all the trees sent off before going to Philadelphia, left Burlington at 2 o’clock in the afternoon [of the 5th Nov] by steamboat for Bordentown, and then by stage to South Amboy. The night was exceedingly dark and rainy; the coach broke down at 11 o’clock at night, and having to stop two hours in repairing, got to South Amboy at 4 o’clock on Wednesday morning. This is a specimen of great speed – twenty-nine miles in thirteen hours.

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One can only assume Douglas is being sarcastic about the speed of travel as, at an average of only 2.2mph, he could literally have walked it faster!

More from Bartram's Garden

From my 2001 visit






The little pond Douglas mentions, still there!

And finally, confirmation of John Bartram's status as King's Botanist