Descending a little, a mile and a half further brought me to William Trusdale's cottage, where I rested, and refreshed with some buttermilk and water, and then went on through the same kind of country, four miles from Trusdale's, to the Virginia and Pennsylvania boundary line, half a mile beyond which I entered the village of Alexandria. A gust approaching fast I stopped about half an hour at John Woodburn's tavern. This village is named from a Mr. Alexander, the proprietor of the soil, and is nicknamed Hardscramble, either from the hilly roads by which one arrives at it, or from the difficulty experienced by the first settlers to obtain a subsistence. It contains about a dozen houses and cabins, a meeting house, and three taverns, but it does not seem to thrive.[150]
After the gust I proceeded six miles through a very fine country, charmingly variegated, but hilly, to M'Crackan's tavern. The rain had rendered the road so slippery, that I could travel but slowly, so that it was almost dark when I arrived there.
{215} I found another traveller in the house, who was going from the western part of Massachusetts near Albany, to the western part of Virginia, as an agent to dispose of some large tracts of land there, owned by some people in Albany. Having got some thickened milk for supper, and bathed my feet in cold water, I had a fine night's rest.
I would not mention so often my mode of living and treating myself while on this journey, only to shew the good effects of temperance and cleanliness, which enabled me, though in so warm a season, to travel either on foot or on horseback, without fatigue or injury to my constitution.
