frugal and industrious, are good farmers, and consequently a wealthy people.
Lancaster is supposed to be the largest inland town in the United States. It is in a healthy and pleasant situation, on the western slope of a hill, and consists of two principal streets, compactly built with brick and stone, and well paved and lighted, crossing each other at right angles. There is a handsome and commodious courthouse of brick in the centre, which, in my opinion is injurious to the beauty of the town, by obstructing the vista of the principal streets. There are several other streets parallel to the principal ones the whole containing about eight hundred houses. The houses for publick worship are a German Lutheran, a German Calvinist, a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian, a Moravian, a Quaker, and a Roman Catholick church, amongst which the German Lutheran is the most conspicuous from its size and handsome spire: it has also an organ.—There is a strong jail built with stone, and a brick market house. What in my opinion does most honour to the town is its poor house, which is delightfully situated near Conestoga creek about a mile from the town on the right of the turnpike road towards Philadelphia. It is a large and commodious building, and is supported partly by the labour of those paupers who are able to work, and partly by a fine farm, which is annexed to it. There are several private manufacturies in Lancaster, amongst which are three breweries and three tanyards, but it is principally noted for its rifles, muskets, and pistols, the first of which are esteemed the best made in the United States. The inhabitants are chiefly the descendants of the first German settlers, and are a quiet, orderly people—They are estimated at about four thousand five hundred.
This has been the seat of government of Pennsylvania since 1799, but it is not rendered permanently {16} so by an
