his tavern, fine farm and ferry. He and his wife were very civil, attentive, and reasonable in their charges, and he insisted much on lending me a horse to carry me the first six miles over a hilly part of the road to Robinson's tavern, but I declined his kindness, and on Sunday morning, the 9th of August, after taking a delightful bath in the Ohio, I quitted its banks. I walked on towards the N. E. along the main post and stage road seventeen miles to West Union,—the country becoming gradually more level as I receded from the river, but not quite so rich in soil and timber.
The road was generally well settled, and the woods between the settlements were alive with squirrels, and all the variety of woodpeckers with their beautiful plumage, which in one species is little inferiour to that of the bird of Paradise, so much admired in the East Indies.
I stopped at twelve miles at the house of squire Leadham, an intelligent and agreeable man, who keeps a tavern, and is a justice of the peace. I chose bread and butter, eggs and milk for breakfast, for which I tendered a quarter of a dollar, the customary price, but he would receive only the half of that sum, saying that even that was too much. Such instances of modest and just honesty rarely occur.[135]
West Union is three years old since it was laid out for the county town of Adams county. The lots of one third of an acre in size, then sold for about seventy dollars each. There were upwards of one {182} hundred lots, which brought the proprietor above three thousand dollars.
