the Widow Hayley, is the mansion to which Mr. Thomas refers. Breck's account of the matter is not quite accurate. The purchase was made by Jeffrey, in 1790, four years after his marriage to the widow. This was one of the most famous estates in Boston. It included what is now Pemberton Square and had a frontage of 163 feet on Tremont Street. Vassall bought it in 1758 of the heirs of Judith Cooper, who was Judge Sewall's daughter and had inherited the property from him. The previous owners had been successively the Rev. John Cotton, his son, Seaborn Cotton, and John Hull, the famous mintmaster, whose daughter Hannah was Sewall's first wife. Sir Henry Vane had lived there when he was in Boston. Vassall paid £1,250 for the property, a sum which brings home to one the advance in the price of real estate in this vicinity! Jeffrey sold a part of the property to Jonathan Mason in 1802, and this Mason transferred to Gardiner Greene in the next year. Greene's lot included considerably more than the present Pemberton Square, for it ran back to Somerset Street and came down to Tremont Street. He afterwards added an adjacent estate, so that his Tremont Street frontage was three hundred feet.1 When Mr. Thomas was in Boston, in 1792, preparing the first number of his Almanac, the property had been in the hands of Jeffrey and his wife for a couple of years. Naturally enough, the beautiful terraced garden, which was one of the sights of the town, was called Lady Hayley's, rather than Mrs. Jeffrey's. That lady had become so famous under her former designation that she continued to be known by it even after her marriage to Patrick Jeffrey.

In August, 1792, the smallpox became so prevalent in Boston that Mr. Thomas left town. After a few weeks,

1 For the history of the estate, see the long editorial note in the Diary of Samuel Sewall, Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 5th series, V, 59 ff.

he submitted himself to inoculation in "the hospital in Worcester, situated on the hill a mile north of the street." His account of this experience, though brief, is not without interest, for it gives one an inkling of his philosophy of life. "I flattered myself," he writes, "and was flattered by the doctor, of being a good subject, and would have the disease light, having never exposed myself to heat and cold nor excessive labor, and had ever been temperate; but it turned out quite otherwise. I had the disease very severely. For many days my life was despaired of; and, in fact, it was, I afterwards learned, currently reported in the neighboring towns that I was dead." He was five weeks at the hospital, and he speaks in the warmest terms of the kind attention he received. The autobiography concludes with these words: -"After I returned home I was weak and feeble for some months; after which I enjoyed good health, and, in general, have to this day, though advanced in life."

Mr. Thomas lived several years after the publication of his autobiography. He died at his home in West Boylston, May 19, 1846, "leaving a large estate to his widow, and the two children of his deceased brother." 1 The Almanac for 1847 begins with these words, which are his most fitting obituary:

In presenting to our friends the Fifty-fifth Number of the Almanac, our pleasure is saddened by deep and heartfelt regret, at having to announce the death of the senior editor of the work, whose name it bears. He died May 19th, 1846, aged 80, after a long and useful life, beloved and respected by all who knew him, in deed and in truth, "that noblest work of God, an honest man." We feel that it is due to him, that this testimony to the purity of his character should be recorded here. He was a man of strong practical good sense, "kind of heart and open of hand," virtuous, upright, and scrupulously honorable in all his dealings.

1 Dr. Samuel A. Green, in the Almanac for 1892, the hundredth number.

The house in which Mr. Thomas lived for many years has lately been removed in clearing the ground for the great Reservoir of the Metropolitan System of waterworks.1

A small portrait of Mr. Thomas - a woodcut -appeared in the Almanac for 1837, with a characteristic

note: "In justice to myself, I ought to state that my likeness is inserted . . . at the special desire of my publishers." The cut is repeated in 1838. There is a full-length portrait, painted by an unknown artist,2 in the hall of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, and this is reproduced in the hundredth number of the Almanac (1892),

1 See New York Observer, May 11, 1899; Worcester Evening Gazette, May 23, 1899.

2 Sometimes ascribed to one Talcott: see Proc. Amer. Antiq. Soc., New Series, VII, 357.

to accompany a brief biography by Dr. Samuel Abbott Green. Both likenesses are given in the present volume.1 The first number of the Farmer's Almanack, that for L 1793, was issued in the latter part of 1792. It was a significant moment in American history. National consciousness was in the full tide of development. Washington's first administration was drawing to a close. Five years before, the Constitution had been framed, and four years before it had been ratified by the requisite number of States, and had gone into effect as the highest law of the land. There was reasonable assurance that the United States government would succeed. The strong men of the Revolutionary period were in the vigor of mature manhood. It was a time of energetic and intelligent effort in all directions. "It has been a question," said President Stiles of Yale, in his sermon on The United States Elevated to Glory and Honour, delivered in 1783, "whether Agriculture or Commerce, needs most encouragement in these states? But the motives for both seem abundantly sufficient. Never did they operate more strongly than at present. The whole continent is activity, and in the lively vigorous exertion of industry."2 Men's hopes were high; nothing seemed too great for the future to bring forth. All the arts," said the same eloquent preacher, "may be transplanted from Europe and Asia, and flourish in America with an augmented lustre." 8 He even ventured to predict that "the rough sonorous diction of the English language may here take its Athenian polish, and receive its Attick urbanity; as it will probably become the vernacular tongue of more numerous millions, than ever spake one language on earth." The latter part of this prediction has been fulfilled.

4

66

Mr. Thomas addressed a prosperous, intelligent, and

1 See p. 16, and Frontispiece.

2 P. 50.

3 P. 86.

4 P. 87.

aspiring community. He got the ear of his audience at the outset and has never lost their attention. The one hundred and thirteen successive issues of his Almanac cover almost exactly the same period as the history of the United States under the Constitution. The changes and the development of more than a century may be followed step by step in its pages. It need not surprise us, therefore, that a file of these old almanacs affords an abundance of curious information and not a little entertainment.

The first number was presented to the public with a prefatory address which must be copied in full:

PREFACE.

FRIENDLY READER,

HA

AD it not been the prevailing custom to usher these periodical pieces into the world by a preface, I would have excused myself the trouble of writing, and you of reading one to this for if it be well executed, a preface will add nothing to its merit; if otherwise, it will be far from supplying its defects.

Having, for several years past, paid some attention to that divine science, Astronomy, the study of which must afford infinite pleasure and satisfaction to every contemplative mind, it is this, with the repeated solicitations of my friends, that have induced me to present you with these Astronomical Calculations for the year 1793; which I have thought proper to entitle the Farmer's Almanac, as I have made it my principal aim to make it as useful as possible to that class of people: Therefore, should there be any thing in it that may appear of small moment, it is hoped the Literati will excuse it.

The arrangement of this Almanac is novel, though I have the vanity to believe it will be found to be as useful and convenient as any other almanac either of a double or single calendar. I have taken peculiar care to make the calculations accurate in every respect; and beside the more than usual astronomical calculations, I have added the rising, setting, or southing of the