It will be conceded, this was a very respectable puff for the year 1795, when something like moderation, truth, and propriety were observed upon such occasions.  The effect was to bring the English general’s name into the mouths of the whole state; a baronet causing a greater sensation then, in America, than a duke would produce to-day.  It had the effect, however, of bringing around General Willoughby many of his father’s, and his own old friends, and he was as well received in New York, twelve years after the termination of the conflict, as if he had fought on the other side.  The occurrence of the French revolution, and the spread of doctrines that were termed Jacobinical, early removed all the dissensions between a large portion of the whigs of America and the tories of England, on this side of the water at least; and Providence only can tell what might have been the consequences, had this feeling been thoroughly understood on the other.

Passing over all political questions, however, our narrative calls us to the relation of its closing scene.  The visit of Sir Robert and Lady Willoughby to the land of their birth was, in part, owing to feeling; in part, to a proper regard for the future provision of their children.  The baronet had bought the ancient paternal estate of his family in England, and having two daughters, besides an only son, it occurred to him that the American property, called the Hutted Knoll, might prove a timely addition to the ready money he had been able to lay up from his income.  Then, both he and his wife had a deep desire to revisit those scenes where they had first learned to love each other, and which still held the remains of so many who were dear to them.

The cabin of a suitable sloop was therefore engaged, and the party, consisting of Sir Robert, his wife, a man and woman servant, and a sort of American courier, engaged for the trip, embarked on the morning of the 25th of July.  On the afternoon of the 30th, the sloop arrived in safety at Albany, where a carriage was hired to proceed the remainder of the way by land.  The route by old Fort Stanwix, as Utica was still generally called, was taken.  Our travellers reached it on the evening of the third day; the ’Sands, which are now traversed in less than an hour, then occupying more than half of the first day.  When at Fort Stanwix, a passable country road was found, by which the travellers journeyed until they reached a tavern that united many of the comforts of a coarse civilisation, with frontier simplicity.  Here they were given to understand they had only a dozen miles to go, in order to reach the Knoll.