Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/257

 which succeeded Fort Du Quesne, beyond which are a few straggling apple and pear trees, being all that remains of the king's and artillery gardens, planted and cultivated by the first British garrison, and now laid out in streets and town lots. Looking onward up the bank of the river, which is about thirty feet above the surface, when the water is lowest, houses, trees, and cultivated fields, are seen for three miles to Mr. Davis's large, and handsomely situated house, about half a mile beyond the race course, and the same distance above Wainwright's island. Hills covered with wood, rising amphitheatre-like behind Davis's, terminate the view that way.

Turning a little more to the right, the eye follows the Quarry hill, which is a ridge of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet perpendicular height, crowned with lofty forest trees, under which is a quarry of fine building stone, about half a mile long, with a good wagon road along its whole length, from every part of which are most charming views of the town and rivers, the cultivated sides of the hill below, and the rich and luxuriant plain of a quarter of a mile wide between the foot of the hill and the Allegheny, {226} with the post and stage road from Philadelphia and the eastern states running through the middle of it two miles from Hill's tavern to the town, which in its most compact part, with the belfry of the court-house, the Episcopal brick octagonal church, a handsome Presbyterian brick meeting house, and the roofs of the dwelling houses intermixed with lombardy poplars and weeping willows, the eye still approaching itself, is the next object.

A little to the right of the last line of view, Grant's hill, with its sloping sides and regular ascent to about one hundred feet perpendicular height, covered with delightful short green herbage, seems to obtrude itself into the town, affording to the citizens a charming mall or promenade both for exer