Letter, 1816 July 4 (New York, N.Y.), to Marianne Kirkland (Charleston, S.C.).

ArchivalResource

Kirkland, William L. (William Lennox) 1797-1828. Letter, 1816 July 4 (New York, N.Y.), to Marianne Kirkland (Charleston, S.C.).

Letter, 1816 July 4 (New York, N.Y.), to Marianne Kirkland (Charleston, S.C.).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/31027691

Letter from New York, written to his mother in Charleston, S.C., re his travels up the Delaware River valley through Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Kirkland describes a family estate of the Manigaults [a house originally called China Retreat, located ca. 20 miles north of Philadelphia, purchased by Gabriel Manigault in 1807 and renamed Clifton], the New Jersey locales of Burlington and Bristol, Bordenton, Trenton, Brunswick, Elizabethtown, and Newark, and New York City, "certainly the London of America - as a city it is certainly not as handsome as Philadelphia, though many of the houses are more magnificent, the City Hall is a more superb edifice...." Describing Fourth of July celebrations in New York City, Kirkland reports, "all is bustle and confusion.... a... procession preceded by the military officers carrying the arms of the various states, a temple of liberty surrounded with emblematic colors, next the model of a line of battle ship, surrounded by the names of our distinguished heroes, proceeded by the various societies and thousands shouting...." Kirkland names the many friends and acquaintances he meets while in the city, including two young women from S.C. he saw while at the theatre, "I... saw two of your Charleston belles, the Miss Moores, they are certainly handsome, but stars cannot shine at midday, and the ladys here are not only beautiful but dress in the most [re]cent and court like manner."

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