The Pennsylvania Road was also a common route from Baltimore and Washington; it was Arthur Lee's route to Pittsburg in 1784,[87] and Col. John May's route from Baltimore to Pittsburg in 1788.[88] Francis Baily, F.R.S., President of the Royal Astronomical Society of England, was one of the well-known Englishmen who left a record of experiences on this pioneer highway. In 1796 this gentleman started upon a tour from Washington to Pittsburg. He mentions no other route than the one he traversed, and it is altogether probable that he pursued the most popular. On October 7 he left Washington, and, passing through Fredericktown, Hagerstown, and Chambersburg, met the Pennsylvania Road at McConnellstown, and traveled westward on it to Pittsburg.[89] That Mr. Baily pursued the main route westward there can be no doubt. An entry in his _Journal_ for October 11 reads: "Chambersburg is ... a large and flourishing place, not inferior to Frederick's-town or Hagar's-town; being, like them, on the high road to the western country, it enjoys all the advantages which arise from such a continual body of people as are perpetually emigrating thither." The celebrated Morris Birkbeck, founder of the English settlement in Illinois, journeyed from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburg, in 1817, by way of Frederickstown and Hagerstown and the Pennsylvania Road. At "McConnell's Town," under the date of May 23, he wrote in his journal: "The road we have been travelling [from Washington, D. C.] terminates at this place, where it strikes the great turnpike from Philadelphia to Pittsburg."[90] Of the scenes about him Mr. Birkbeck writes:[91] "Old America seems to be breaking up, and moving westward. We are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand track, towards the Ohio, of family groups.... To give an idea of the internal movements of this vast hive, about 12,000 wagons passed between Baltimore and Philadelphia, in the last year, with from four to six, carrying from thirty-five to forty cwt. The cost of carriage is about seven dollars per cwt., from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and the money paid for the conveyance of goods on this road, exceeds L300,000 sterling. Add to these the numerous stages loaded to the utmost, and the innumerable travellers, on horseback, on foot, and in light waggons, and you have before you a scene of bustle and business, extending over a space of three hundred miles, which is truly wonderful." Birkbeck does not mention the Cumberland Road, though it is drawn on the map accompanying his book. His advice to prospective immigrants is, in every instance, to come westward by the Pennsylvania Road.[92]