9. Young Yankees A-frolicking
BY THOMAS ANBURY
(1777)[18]
THE weather has been very severe of late, and there have been
great falls of snow. But now it is more pleasant and serene. The north
winds blow very sharp; the snow is about two or three feet thick on the
ground. The inhabitants instead of riding in small open carriages, like
the Canadians, have large sleighs that will contain ten or twelve
persons. These are drawn by two and sometimes four horses.
But parties of young folks are more accustomed to go a-frolicking. As this is a singular custom, I shall describe it to you. When
the moon is favorable, a
number of young men and women, to the number of thirty or forty, set
off in sleighs, about seven o'clock in the evening.
They join some other party, perhaps at the distance of eighteen
or twenty miles, where they dance and make merry till daylight. Then
they return and follow their common daily affairs as if they had rested
all night. It is not uncommon, an hour or two after daylight, to be
awakened by the singing and noise they make, and by the bells
fastened to the horses, on the return of some of these parties.
The lower classes of the New Englanders are impertinently
curious and inquisitive. At a house where Lord Napier was quartered,
with other officers, a number of the inhabitants flocked to see a lord
They imagined he must be something more than man.
They were continually looking in at the windows; and peeping
at the room door, saying, "I wonder which is the lord!" At last four
women, intimate friends of the landlord, got into the room. One of
them, with a twang peculiar to the New Englanders said: "I hear you
have got a lord among you. Pray now, which may he be?"
His lordship, by the bye, was all over mire, and scarcely dry
from the heavy rain that had fallen during the day's march. He
whispered your friend Kemmis, of the 8th regiment, to have a little
mirth with them.
He accordingly got up, and pointed to his lordship. In a voice
and manner as if he was herald at arms, he informed them that "that
was the Right Honorable Francis Lord Napier of, etc., etc., etc.," going
through all his lordship's titles, with a whole catalogue of additions.
After he had finished, the women looked very attentively at
his lordship. While he and the other officers were laughing at the
adroitness of Kemmis, the women got up. One of them, lifting up her
hands and eyes to heaven, with great astonishment exclaimed: "Well,
for my part, if that be a lord, I never desire to see any other lord but the
Lord Jehovah," and instantly left the room.
[[18]]
Anbury, a captain in the British army, was taken
prisoner with Burgoyne's army, and his experience of New England
was gained while crossing Massachusetts and while a prisoner in
Cambridge.
