PART IV
COLONIAL LIFE
CHAPTER XII — THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE
80. A Lady's Travel in New England (1704)
BY MADAM SARAH KEMBLE KNIGHT
Madam Knight was the daughter of a Boston merchant, and wife of the captain of a London ship. She was for a time schoolmistress in Boston, and later settled in Connecticut. The journey described below was made to claim some property. — Bibliography: Preface to Madam Knight's Journal, reprinted in 1865; Tyler, American Literature, II, 96-98; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 167-169; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 130. — For earlier accounts of New England life, see Contemporaries, I, ch. xxi.
MONDAY, Octb'r. ye second, 1704. — About three o'clock afternoon, I begun my Journey from Boston to New-Haven ; being about two Hundred Mile. . . .
. . . being ignorant of the way, Madm Billings, seing no persuasions of her good spouses or hers could prevail with me to Lodg. there that night, Very kindly went wyth me to ye Tavern, where I hoped to get my guide, And desired the Hostess to inquire of her guests whether any of them would go with mee. ... I told her no, I would not be accessary to such extortion.
Then John shan't go, sais shee. No, indeed, shan't hee ; And held forth at that rate a long time, that I began to fear I was got among the Quaking tribe, beleeving not a Limbertong'd sister among them could out do Madm. Hostes.
Upon this, to my no small surprise, son John arrose, and gravely demanded what I would give him to go with me? Give you, sais I, are you John? Yes, says he, for want of a Better ; And behold ! this John look't as old as my Host, and perhaps had bin a man in the last Century. Well, Mr. John, sais I, make your demands. Why, half a pss.
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