CHAP. XVI.

HAVING collected some small dues for professional services, rendered cer|tain merchants and lawyers' clerks, I con|cluded to make a short tour, to Boston, for the purpose of purchasing a few med|ical authors and drugs. I carried letters of introduction, from my preceptor, to the late Dr. Joseph Gardner, and other gentlemen of the faculty. The wit and wine of this worthy man still relish on recollection. The remarks I made upon this hospitable, busy, national, town born people; my observations upon their man|ners, habits, local virtues, customs, and Page  125 prejudices; the elocution of their prin|cipal clergymen; with anecdotes of pub|lick characters, I deal not in private foi|bles; and a comparitive view of their manners, at the beginning, and near the close of the eighteenth century, are pro|nounced, by the partiality of some friends, to be original, and to those who know the town, highly interesting. If this home|spun history of private life, shall be ap|proved, these remarks will be published by themselves in a future edition of this work. I quitted Boston, with great re|luctance, having seventeen invitations to dinner, besides tea parties, on my hands.