GENTLEMAN'S PROGRESS: THE ITINERARIUM OF DR. ALEXANDER HAMIL-
TON, 1744, by Carl Bridenbaugh '25, editor.Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1948, xxxii,267 pp., $4.00.
Dr. Alexander Hamilton was a Scottish physician who in 1739 came to America and settled at Annapolis, in the province of Maryland. In 1744, being in poor health and in need of change, he prescribed for himself the somewhat heroic remedy of a journey northward along the Atlantic seaboard as far as York, Maine, most of the distance of the round trip being covered on horseback. The journal of this expedition is best characterized in the words of the editor, who says that the Itinerarium "is one of the happiest combinations of liveliness, wit, and instructive information written in colonial America"; and again, "If we would understand our forefathers of the mid-eighteenth century the Itinerarium provides a unique introduction to them."
The journalist describes the route he traveled, the countryside and the towns and cities he visited, and above all the people with whom he talked. In a racy eighteenth-centurv style he records the conversation in the taverns where he lodged, which turned upon such matters as trade, politics, the impending war with France, and religion. It is evident that the Great Awakening had deeply stirred the comman man throughout the colonies, although the worthy Doctor was himself far from being favorably impressed by the revival and its results. Some of the most interesting passages in the journal consist of the author's comments on the towns and people of New England. The inhabitants of Boston, incidentally, he found to be especially civilized!
The Itinerarium was previously published in 1907 in a limited edition, but the text was neither accurate nor complete. Dr. Bridenbaugh has rendered a real service by making this extraordinary narrative available to a wider public. He has supplied an excellent introduction and explanatory notes, and above all, a text which is faithful to the original. This volume is one of a number which have been published or sponsored by the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Virginia. As Director of the Institute, Dr. Bridenbaugh is furthering a program of research and publication which has already placed students of colonial America deeply in his debt, to say nothing of the distinguished books in the field of early American culture which he has himself written.
