that Mr. Peter's letter of resignation be entered on the Journal and that he be informed that Congress are sensible of his merit and convinced of his attachment to the cause of his country and return him their thanks for his long and faithful services in the War Department.

Upon leaving the War Office Mr. Peters was elected a member of Congress and had his share in the business of ending the war and arranging the longed-for peace.

Soon after the close of the war, in 1785, Mr. Peters visited England, having among other objects of his visit a commission of a semi-public nature that brought him into acquaintance with the primate and principal prelates of the English Church-the securing of consent for the English bishops to consecrate to the Episcopate three American priests, Doctors White, Moore, and Provoost. His mission, it is needless to say, was ultimately successful. After the conclusion of peace, Mr. Peters was speaker of the State Assembly until President Washington appointed him judge of the United States District Court of Pennsylvania, a position he held until the time of his death thirty-six years later.

During Judge Peters's lifetime, Belmont was the scene of lavish and constant hospitality and while Philadelphia was the seat of Federal government the chief statesmen, diplomats, and foreign notables were frequent guests there. The judge dearly loved to surround himself with his friends, and his political prominence, his intellectual brilliance, and above all his genial personality drew a large coterie about him. Washington and Lafayette were on terms of great intimacy with him and the former, “whenever a morning of leisure permitted," was in the habit

of driving to Belmont and there, free for a time from the cares of State, would enjoy his host's vivacious flow of conversation, walking for hours with him in the beautiful gardens between "clipped hedges of pyramids, obelisks and balls" of evergreen and spruce, or beneath the shade of ancient trees. So much for the more serious side of Richard Peters's career.

Notwithstanding his high reputation as a patriot, statesman, and jurist, he is best remembered as a brilliant wit and many stories of his bon mots have been carefully treasured. His was the eminently happy faculty of always being able to raise a wholesome, good-natured laugh without the least trace of ill-humour or sharpness. Despite his scintillating gaiety, his bursts were always well-timed and his manner and behaviour were never wanting in dignity and decorum. On one occasion the judge was attending a dinner of the Schuylkill Fishing Company and was seated beside the president, Governour Wharton. Toward the end of the dinner more wine was required and the Governour called a serving-man named John to fetch it. Said the judge, "If you want more wine, you should call for the demi-John."

In the latter part of his life Judge Peters was deeply interested in real estate matters and tried to develope a suburban tract he owned. To advertise it he posted a plan of the locality on a signboard and carefully covered it with glass. When asked the reason for the glass covering, he promptly responded, "Oh, if I leave it exposed, every hunter who comes along will riddle it with shot and then everybody will see through my plan." The project was not successful and one of his friends advised him to

have it officially laid out. "All right," said Peters, “it's time to lay it out. It's been dead long enough." At another time, according to Samuel Breck, who chronicled a good many of the judge's jeux d'esprit, a very fat and a very slim man stood at the entrance of a door into which his honour wished to pass. He stopped for a moment for them to make way, but perceiving they were not inclined to move, and being urged by the master of the house to come in, he pushed on between them, exclaiming, "Here I go then, through thick and thin."

Judge Peters was one of the founders of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, the first agricultural society in America. From the farm at Belmont came many model things. Dairying among other matters came in for a share of attention and Belmont butter found its way to market put up in one pound packages. Unfortunately for the judge, his one pound weight, according to a new assize of weights and measures, was too light, and the whole consignment was seized by the inspector and confiscated for the benefit of the poor. The judge then sent his old weight to be examined and corrected by the standard, and when it was returned the letters "C. P." (for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) were stamped upon it. The servant who brought it back carried it at once to the judge, who was at dinner with a party of friends. Taking it he carefully inspected it and looking gravely at his wife, said, as he held it up for her to see, "My dear, they have at last found us out. Here is the old weight come back with C. P. stamped in it which can stand for nothing in the world but Cheating Peters."

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Although the surroundings of Belmont were unusually beautiful, so that the French traveller, Chastellux, was quite warranted in his remark about the place being a tasty little box in the most charming spot Nature could embellish," the fields often presented a shabby appearance, for the judge was so occupied with public affairs and also with agricultural experiments that he had little time to devote to the practical management of his farming operations. One day an old German, who had often read the judge's agricultural reports, made a pilgrimage to Belmont. He found the gate without hinges, fences dilapidated, and the crops not equal to his own. When the judge came out to speak to him, the rustic bluntly expressed his disappointment at the appearance of the place. "How can you expect me," said the judge, " to attend to all these things when my time is so taken up in telling others how to farm?" The old German was disgusted and drove away without asking any more questions.

Judge Peters was one of the courtliest of men and retained the ancient mode of dress long after others had abandoned it. To his dying day he wore knee-breeches and silver buckles on his shoes, always powdered his hair and dressed it in a queue. An old friend of the family, Miss Molly Delaney, was wont to perform the service of queue dressing for him every morning. After his death in 1828 Belmont remained in possession of the family but played no prominent part in the social life of the period. It was sold to the city for incorporation in the park in 1867.

BALA, LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, MONTGOMERY

ROBERTS

UST beyond city line, about half a mile from Bala station, at the break of the hill that goes down to Pencoyd Bridge over the Schuylkill, is Pencoyd, built in 1683, one of the earliest houses in the Welsh Barony.

Pencoyd means "head of the woods," and was so named by the Colonist John Roberts, presumably either because the woods on the slope from the river ended there or else because the land was a wooded headland.

The entire four walls of the old house, two feet thick, are still standing though hidden in part by later additions. The material of the structure is native grey field stone of varied sizes-some of them probably turned up in the course of clearing the fields-pointed with white mortar. In the rear of the house still remain marks of old mud plaster, and until fifty years ago there was a portion of the log cabin standing that doubtless served John Roberts as a temporary domicile while the house was a-building.

John Roberts, of Llanengwan, in the parish of Lynn, near Bala, in Wales, came over in 1683, and before his departure received a grant from Penn of twelve hundred acres. He was one of the first settlers of Merion Township, which he named after Merionethshire, the county of his origin in Wales, and his grant in the Welsh Tract