we should consider it as having an open area to the river the whole width of the half square, with here and there retained an ornamental clump of forest trees and shrubbery on either side of an avenue leading out to the Front Street; having a garden of fruit trees on the Second Street side, and on Second Street "the Governor's gate," so called, " opposite to the lot of the Friends Great Meeting." By this gate the carriages entered and rode along the avenue by the north side of the house to the east front of the premises. This avenue remained an alley way long after, even to within the early memory of Timothy Matlack, who told me that he had seen it open as a commom passage into Second Street. The same was confirmed by Mr. Harris, a former owner, to Mr. Heberton, the present owner. Indeed, it is even now open and paved up to the rear of the house on Second Street.

This general rural appearance was all in accordance with Penn's known taste, and was doubtless so continued until the ground was apportioned out in thirty city lots, as expressed by James Logan in a letter to Lætitia Aubrey, in the year 1737, saying, "There was about 26 shillings per annum reserved upon the large city lot, divided into thirty smaller parts-seven on the Front Street, seven on Second Street, and eight on the High Street,-all of these at one shilling Pennsylvania money per annum, and those in Lætitia Court at six pence each❞ for the remaining eight lots there.

The following facts present scraps of information which may tend still further to illustrate the proper history of the premises, to wit:

Penn's instructions to his commissioners, of 30th of 9 mo. 1681, says expressly, "Pitch upon the very middle of the platt of the towne, to be laid facing the harbour, for the situation of my house." Thus intimating, as I conceive, the choice of Lætitia Court, and intimating his desire to have it facing the river, "as the line of houses of the town should be."

It is stated in the Minutes of the Executive Council of the 11th of 3d mo. 1685, that the proclamation of James II., and the papers relative to the death of Charles II., and the speech of his successor, were solemnly read before the Governor's gate in the town of Philadelphia.

In 1721, the names of "Governor's lot" and of "Lætitia Court" are thus identified in the words of the Grand Jury, who present "the muddiness of the alley into Lætitia Court, formerly called the Governor's lot."

I have seen a letter of the 14th of 6 mo. 1702, from James Logan to Lætitia Penn, wherein he speaks of the sale of several of her lots, after the square had been divided. He says he had sold the first four of the Front Street lots for £450, which money he set out on interest, &c. Since then he had sold sixteen feet of the bank, clear of reversion, with a small High Street lot, to Thomas Masters for £230. The corner lot next the Meeting House he sold for £115, VOL. I.-V 14*

and three High Street lots for 50 and £60 each; and the remaining four in the same street he hopes to sell soon. The whole sale effected is called £895, and shall continue to sell as occasion shall offer. He mentions also that he has agreed for the value of about £100 of her 15,000 acres, new tract of land, near New Castle County estimated, then, as to sell at £20 per hundred. Thy old mansion I do not touch with. I hope in seven years to be able to raise thee a good portion from what is already settled on thee in this province. Be not too easily disposed of; it would be a scandal, that any of thy father's engagements should be an occasion to sacrifice thee to any but where true love officiates as priest. Thy marriage is commonly reported here, [as a measure to take place, to some one.]

We discern from the premises that lots on High Street, now so highly prized, brought only one-third the price of lots on Front Street, now so much lower. We perceive, too, distinct mention of his reservation of the one house, called her mansion.

Those who are curious to further explore this subject may find, in my MS. Annals, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, much additional matter on pages 140 to 149, giving a table of descents of title to lots on the square, as deduced from Lætitia Penn, together with the brief presented me by Samuel Chew, Esq., and the testimony of sundry aged witnesses appearing in court, in 1822, to testify their early recollections concerning the Lætitia Court and the Inn at the head of the court.

It appears from the whole, that William Penn, by patent or deed, conveyed to Lætitia Penn, on the 1st mo. 29th, 1701, the ground on the south side of High Street, 175 feet deep, [making the present distance to Black-Horse Alley] and from Front to Second Street, 402 feet; granting unto her "all the houses, edifices, buildings, casements, liberties, profits, and commodities," thereunto belonging.

In early time it appears that Robert Ewer, a public Friend, became possessed of the lot, late Doyle's Inn, at the head of the court, and that he forthwith laid out the alley, since called the Black Horse Alley, so named from the sign of a tavern long held therein.

The plate given to illustrate the present subject shows the primitive house as it stood in earliest times, with an open front to the river, and with a coach passage on its northern side extending to "the gate" on Second Street, "over against the Great Meeting."

SLATE-ROOF HOUSE, PENN'S RESIDENCE.

"Now thou standest

In faded majesty, as if to mourn
The dissolution of an ancient race!"

THIS house, still standing at the southeast corner of Norris' Alley and Second Street, and now reduced to a lowly appearance, derives its chief interest from having been the residence of William Penn. The peculiarity of its original construction, and the character of several of its successive inmates, will enhance its interest to the modern reader. The facts concerning the premises, so far as may now be known, are generally these, to wit:

The house was originally built, in the early origin of the city, for Samuel Carpenter-certainly one of the earliest and greatest improvers of the primitive city. It was probably designed for his own residence, although he had other houses on the same square, nearer to the river. His portrait is owned by Isaac C. Jones.

It was occupied as the city residence of William Penn and family, while in Philadelphia on his second visit in 1700; in which house was born, in one month after their arrival, John Penn, "the American," the only one of the race ever born in the country. To that house therefore, humble, degenerated, and altered in aspect as it now is, we are to appropriate all our conceptions of Penn's employments, meditations, hopes, fears, &c., while acting as Governor and proprietary among us. In those doors he went in and out-up and down those stairs he passed-in those chambers he reposed-in those parlours he dined or regaled his friends-through those garden grounds they sauntered. His wife, his daughter Lætitia, his family and his servants, were there. In short, to those who can think and feel, the place "is filled with local impressions." Such a house should be rescued from its present forlorn neglect; it ought to be bought and consecrated to some lasting memorial of its former character, by restoring its bastions and salient angles, &c. It would be to the credit of such Societies as the Historical and Penn Association, &c., to club their means to preserve it for their chambers, &c., as long as themselves and the city may endure! There is a moral influence in these measures that implies and effects much more in its influence on national action and feeling, than can reach the apprehension of superficial thinkers; who can only estimate its value by their conception of so much brick and mortar! It was feelings, such as I wish to see appreciated here, that aroused the ardour of Petrarch's towns

• The same remark is applicable to Penn's cottage in Lætitia Court.

men, jealous of every thing consecrated by his name, whereby they ran together en masse, to prevent the proprietor of his house from altering it! Foreigners, we know, have honoured England by their eagerness to go to Bread Street, and there visit the house and chambers, once Milton's! It is in vain to deride the passion as futile; the charm is in the ideal presence, which the association has power to create in the imagination; and they who can command the grateful visions will be sure to indulge them. It is poetry of feeling-scoffs cannot repress it. It equally possessed the mind of Tully when he visited Athens; he could not forbear to visit the walks and houses which the old philosophers had frequented or inhabited. In this matter, says Dr. Johnson, "I am afraid to declare against the general voice of mankind." "The heart is stone that feels not at it; or, it feels at none!" Sheer insensibility, absorbed in its own selfishness, alone escapes the spell-like influence! Every nation, when sufficiently intellectual, has its golden and heroic ages; and the due contemplation of these relics of our antiquities presents the proper occasion for forming ours. These thoughts, elicited by the occasion, form the proper apology for whatever else we may offer to public notice in this way. There is a generation to come who will be grateful for all such notices.

After William Penn had left this house, on his intended return with his family to England, he, while aboard his return ship, the Messenger, (an appropriate name for the message and business he was purposing!) writes on the 3d of September, 1701, to James Logan, saying, "Thou may continue in the house I lived in till the year is up."

James Logan, in reply, in 1702, says, "I am forced to keep this house still, there being no accommodation to be had elsewhere for public business." In fact, he retained it as a government-house till 1704, when he and his coadjutors moved to Clark's Hall in Chestnut Street, afterwards Pemberton's Great House.

James Logan, in a letter to William Penn of 5th December, 1703, says, Samuel Carpenter has sold the house thou lived in to William Trent (he founder of Trenton, in 1719,) for £850.*

At this house Lord Cornbury, then Governor of New York and New Jersey, (son of Lord Clarendon, cousin of Queen Anne, &c.,) was banqueted in great style in 1702, on the occasion of his being invited by James Logan, from Burlington, where he had gone to proclaim the queen. Logan's letter, speaking of the event, says he was dined "equal, as he said, to any thing he had seen in America." At night he was invited to Edward Shippen's, (great house in south Second Street) where he was lodged, and dined with all his company, making a retinue of nearly thirty persons. He went back well pleased with his reception, via Burlington, in the Governor's

* William Trent began his settlement at Trenton, in 1719, by erecting mills there. He died there in 1724, in the office of Chief Justice of New Jersey..

barge, and was again banqueted at Pennsbury by James Logan, who had preceded him for that purpose. Lord Cornbury had a retinue of about fifty persons, which accompanied him thither in four boats. His wife was once with him in Philadelphia, in 1703. Penn, on one occasion, calls him a man of luxury and poverty. He was at first very popular; and having made many fine promises to Penn, it was probably deemed good policy to cheer his vanity by striking public entertainments. In time, however, his extravagant living, and consequent extortion, divested him of all respect among the people. Only one legendary tale respecting this personage has reached us: An old woman at Chester had told the Parker family she remembered to have seen him at that place, and having heard he was a lord, and a queen's cousin, she had eyed him with great exactness, and had seen no difference in him, from other men, but that he wore leather stockings!*

In 1709, "the slated-roof house of William Trent" is thus commended by James Logan as a suitable residence for him as Governor, saying, "William Trent, designing for England, is about selling his house, (that he bought of Samuel Carpenter) which thou lived in, with the improvement of a beautiful garden," then extending half way to Front Street, and on Second Street nearly down to Walnut Street. "I wish it could be made thine, as nothing in this town is so well fitting a Governor. His price is £900 of our money, which it is hard thou canst not spare. I would give 20 to £30 out of my own pocket that it were thine-nobody's but thine."

The house was, however, sold to Isaac Norris, who devised it to his son Isaac, through whom it has descended down to the present proprietor, Sally Norris Dickinson, his grandaughter.

It was occupied at one period, it is said, by Governor Hamilton, and, for many years preceding the war of Independence, it was deemed a superior boarding-house. While it held its rank as such, it was honoured with the company, and, finally, with the funeral honours of General Forbes, successor to General Braddock, who died in that house in 1759. The pomp of his funeral from that house surpassed all the simple inhabitants had before seen in their city. His horse was led in the procession, richly caparisoned,the whole conducted in all "the pomp of war," with funeral dirges, and a military array with arms reversed,† &c.

In 1764, it was rented to be occupied as a distinguished boardinghouse by the Widow Graydon, mother of Captain, Graydon of Carlisle, who has left us his amusing "Memoirs of 60 years life m Pennsylvania." There his mother, as he informs us, had a great many gentry as lodgers. He describes the old house as very much of a castle in its construction, although built originally for a Friend.

William Penn, in one of his notes, says,

Pray send me my leather stockings." He had had great honours shown to him two years before for the capture of Fort du Quesne, (Fort Pitt.)