of the posts having been unplaced by floods, so that it is shelving, one side being a good deal higher than the other, and the balustrade is so much decayed that it would not support a man, much less a carriage, yet bad as it was, I had to pay a toll of an eighth of a dollar for my horse. Though the European drivers far exceed the American in dexterity and speed, on their fine roads, in this country they would be good for nothing, and would pronounce it impossible to get a carriage through roads, that the American driver dashes through without a thought.—So much for habit.
{206} On crossing the bridge, I was astonished to find myself in a town of cabins in the midst of a forest, which I had heard nothing of before. It is called Cambridge, and was laid out last year by Messrs. Gumbar and Beattie the proprietors, the first of whom resides in it. The lots sell at from thirty to thirty-five dollars each. There are now twelve cabins finished and finishing, each of which contains two or three families; about as many more and some good houses, are to be commenced immediately. The settlement being very sudden, there was not as yet house room, for the furniture, utensils, and goods of the settlers, those articles were therefore lying out promiscuously about the cabins. The settlers are chiefly from the island of Guernsey, near the coast of France, from whence eight families arrived only four months ago.
I think Cambridge bids fair to become the capital of a county very soon.[148] The lands in the neighbourhood are equal in richness of soil to any I have seen on this side of Paint creek bottoms near Chilicothe.
Four miles from hence through a hilly country, brought me to Beymer's tavern, passing a drove of one hundred
