In the last hundred and fifty miles which I travelled, I met with few travellers, but several {286} of these few were well dressed and polite men. I have also seen some elegant ladies by the way. Indeed, I have often seen among the inhabitants of the log-houses of America, females with dresses composed of the muslins of Britain, the silks of India, and the crapes of China. During the journey just detailed, I must confess that I never saw a people more exclusively devoted to agriculture, and proportionally fewer idle men lounging in taverns, than I did in the more populous parts of the country. The most disagreeable quality that I discovered, was the inquisitive dispositions of some of them.--“What are you loaded with?” was reiterated almost every day; and, “Where are you going? Where are you come from? Are you pedling? Is it goods or plunder that you have got?”[158] were also questions asked. In justice to them, I must say, that they do not seem to be sensible of the indecorum of such conduct; and I believe that when similar interrogations are put to them, they answer without hesitation. FOOTNOTES: [143] Dr. Drake, who is a native of the western country, after noticing the effects of a dry summer, adds, “But, fortunately, such extraordinary droughts occur too seldom, and are too limited in their extent, to be regarded as any great calamity.”--_Picture of Cincinnati_, p. 105.--FLINT. [144] A series of lively sketches of Edinburgh society by John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854), published in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ during 1819.--ED. [145] Scott’s novel, _The Monastery_, was published in 1820.--ED. [146] In order to view the country, Flint pursued a singular route from Cincinnati to Lake Erie. His course was through Warren, Clinton, Highland, Ross, Pickaway, Fairfield, Licking, Knox, Richland, Huron, and Erie counties. The principal points touched were Lebanon in Warren, Lancaster in Fairfield, Newark in Licking, and Mansfield in Richland. He reached Lake Erie at the present Huron, at the mouth of Huron River. His roundabout tour brought him through some of the very best portions of the state.--ED. [147] Reading was first settled in 1794 by Abraham Voorhees, who laid out the town four years later. It was for some time called Voorheestown, but rechristened out of compliment to some of the early settlers who came from Reading, Pennsylvania.--ED. [148] The Kentucky religious awakening of 1800, spreading into southern Ohio, caused such a state of religious excitement that the Shakers of New Lebanon, New York, thinking it a profitable field in which to plant their doctrines, sent three missionaries to Warren County in 1805. They found many converts among the excited people, and Union Village, or Shakertown, soon sprang up. They were called Shakers not so much from the dancing, as from the handshaking, head shaking, and other bodily contortions in their religious exercises.--ED.