The trip lasted from 30 May to 27 September 1744 and is vividly related in Hamilton's amusing travel diary, the
Itinerarium, perhaps the best portrait extant of mid-eighteenth-century colonial American life. In the
Itinerarium Hamilton colorfully recaptured the scenery, the dialects and colloquialisms, the folk sayings and proverbs, the character types, and the native wit and humor of the regions he visited. Among the more amusing conversations he recorded was a dialogue that passed between him and an "inquisitive rustick"--a type that Hamilton found especially humorous and obnoxious--who traveled with him on the road to Portsmouth, New Hampshire:
His questions were all stated in the rustick civil stile. "Pray sir, if I may be so bold, where are you going"" "Prithee, friend," says I, "where are you going"" "Why, I go along the road here a little way." "So do I, friend," replied I. "But may I presume, sir, whence do you come"" "And from whence do you come, friend"" says I. "Pardon me, from John Singleton's farm," replied he, "with a bag of oats." "And I come from Maryland," said I, "with a portmanteau and baggage." "Maryland!" said my companion, "where the devil is that there place? I have never heard of it.
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