Being now only five miles from my destination, I engaged the first waggoner I met in the street to convey me in his light two-horse vehicle to Kenyon College. In this conveyance I embarked with my luggage, and proceeded safely, though roughly, to my journey's end.

I have travelled 4000 miles in fifty-three days and three hours, (including five days and a half spent in New York and Sandusky) and at an expense of about fifty-four pounds.

CHAPTER II.

LETTER TO A FRIEND.-GAMBIER AND ITS

VICINITY.

Caution necessary in judging of America.-History of Bishop Chase. His appearance.-His labours.-Situation of Gambier. Climate of Ohio.-People.-Inhabitants of Gambier.Students in Kenyon College. Their character.-Their Sunday-schools.

KENYON COLLEGE, November, 1830. HAVING now resided nearly two years in this western world, I feel competent to the task of giving you a tolerably correct idea of life in the back-woods. Hitherto I have seen comparatively little of the eastern and more polished districts of the United States; you must therefore bear in mind, that my description of scenery and manners is applicable not to America in general, but to Ohio and this immediate neighbourhood in particular. I have already seen enough to convince me that different sections of this immense republic vary from each other in a number of respects; while the appearance and the

society of every place are continually changing for the better. Consequently, to judge of the whole by a part, or of any one place by what it was a few years since, would be often both absurd and unjust. I shall devote this sheet to an account of Kenyon College and its occupants, together with a description of the scenery, the climate, and the population of the surrounding country.

Kenyon College owes its existence to the active and prudent zeal of Dr. Philander Chase, the first bishop of Ohio. This distinguished individual having been already before the English public, and his representations of the West having been my chief inducement in selecting this country as my home, you will, doubtless, expect that I should bestow upon him something more than a mere passing notice. Bishop Chase is a native of Cornish, a small town in the western part of the state of New Hampshire. His ancestors were English dissenters, and emigrated to America nearly a hundred years ago. He was himself educated in the Congregational or Independent persuasion, and continued his attachment to those principles until the year 1795, when nearly the whole of his father's family conformed to the Liturgy, and became members of the Episcopal Church. A candid examination of the Prayerbook, and of the important subject of an apostolical succession, were among the principal reasons which 1

led to this remarkable change. Philander Chase, then in his nineteenth year, being seriously inclined, and viewing with sorrow the feeble state of the Church, resolved to devote himself to the clerical office. Accordingly, after several years of close application to study, under the tuition of a member of the University of Oxford, then officiating as a parish minister in Albany, he received holy orders in 1798, and was appointed a missionary to extend the blessings of religion in the new settlements in the western part of New York.

I have described in my first letter the present flourishing condition of that portion of the country; but at the time to which I refer, the mighty forest was almost unbroken, the Indian remained master of his native woods, and the habitations of civilized men were few and far between. The zealous missionary, however, was not to be daunted by peril or difficulty, but persevered until he had planted congregations in Canandaigua, Utica, Auburn, and in several places on the banks of the Susquehannah, and on the borders of Vermont. In 1800, he became the rector of some parishes on the Hudson river; but in a few years afterwards, the declining health of Mrs. Chase led him to seek a milder climate; and he went, by the advice of his bishop, to the city of New Orleans, situated near the mouth of the Mississippi. While there, he organized an

Episcopal congregation; and was the first Protestant minister of any denomination that had officiated in that remote city.

After six years he returned to New England, and settled as rector of a church at Hartford, in Connecticut, where, also, he continued for six years, useful to his flock, and happy in himself. But the missionary work was dear to his heart. He heard of the religious destitution of the settlers in the new country of the West; he knew them to be exposed to the opposite dangers of enthusiasm and of infidelity; he was aware of the deplorable fact that scarcely a single duly authorised clergyman had as yet set foot upon the soil of Ohio, and he at length determined to make the sacrifice, and to devote himself to this distant region, then far more wild and inhospitable than at present. In 1817 he arrived in Ohio, and immediately returned to the delightful though laborious employment of his youth, the great and good work of establishing Episcopal congregations in recently built and fast increasing villages. His efforts were crowned with success, and two or three clergymen came to his assistance from other states. The number of Episcopalians continued to increase, and soon after Mr. Chase's arrival in Ohio, a diocese was organized in this State, and duly acknowledged by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.