The place is far from being as picturesque as the writer paints it; indeed, it would be altogether depressing but for its grove of beautiful beeches:

"The hamlet of Jordans, noted as the burial-place of William Penn and several of the earlier members of the Society of Friends, forms a triangle with the two villages of Chalfont St. Giles and Chalfont St. Peter, and is distant about two miles from each. Here, in a spot remarkable for the beauty of its situation, is a little meeting-house belonging to the Society of Friends, surrounded by a verdant graveyard. In 1671 the land was purchased and appropriated for a burial-ground, and the meeting-house appears to have been built in 1687-88; for, according to a deed belonging to the estate, the land and meeting-house were conveyed to certain trustees in 1688, when it was described as the new-built house and tenements called 'New Jordans.' From another deed we learn that in 1748 there was a little more land added to the upper end of the grave land, given by Samuel Vandervaal for a burial-place for himself and family. This remains to the present day separated from the rest of the ground. The monthly meetings of the Society were held at Hunger Hill from 1670 to 1727, that house during the greater portion of the time being in the occupation of Thomas Ellwood.

"Jordans Friends' meeting-house is a plain brick building, with a tiled roof and latticed windows. In the interior it is panelled with oak. There is a good-sized cottage adjoining it, the principal chamber of which was evidently used in former times as a gallery on occasions of overcrowded meetings, as it communicates with the meeting-house by means of shutters. Attached to the back is a stable for twenty horses. The situation is peculiarly picturesque, and sequestered in a dell surrounded by beech woods. The burial-ground is nearly full, but only a few of the graves can be identified. These are tenanted by William Penn, and five of his children, who died young; Isaac,

Mary, and John Pennington; Thomas and Mary Ellwood; Mary Freame, and Joseph Rule. In the piece of ground above alluded to there is a vault wherein Samuel Vandervaal and his wife are interred. There is no notice to be found as to when the meetings for worship were discontinued at Jordans, but the last time the place was mentioned as sending representatives to the monthly meetings is in 1787; so in all probability it was at that date. The author of the Shrines of Bucks,' writing of his visit to the grave of Penn, says, 'Entering the graveyard, we found a spot where a number of little mounds marked the resting-places of Penn and his family. Here no monumental marble, or even a simple headstone, marks the spot where the founder of Pennsylvania found at last that rest and freedom from the persecution he had experienced in his lifetime. The fifth mound from the doorway of the little chapel was the one beneath which, and between his two wives, he was lowly laid. Jordans has not been inaptly styled the "Westminster Abbey of the Friends.”›”

As we walked among these solitary mounds, I noticed two men in an adjoining orchard picking apples. "Do you know anything about this place?" "No, except that it is a Quaker graveyard, and that the Quakers hold meetings in the brick building twice a year." A very old man, who seemed to come out of the cellar, told us that "Jordans" was in the parish of "Seer Green, Buckinghamshire."

The data on the next page, taken from Watson's "Annals," will be found explanatory of the names on the headstones in the grave yard.

In 1832 Joseph F. Fisher visited William Penn's grave at Jordans, near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. He says, "The little meeting-house and grave of Jordans lie about three miles from the London road, on a corner of a simple yet pretty country-seat of Lady Young. It would appear to have been anciently the property of some Friend, who gave the ground and

NOTE.-Ann Penn survived her husband, and married Alexander Durdin, 1767. In William, 3d, the male branch by his first wife became extinct.

the meeting-place as a secluded place in times of persecution. Here repose also the bodies of Isaac Pennington and others famous for their writings and piety. No stone marks the spot, but the shape of the cemetery is an oblong, at the head of which, and in the middle of its breadth, is seen a little mound, square, but hardly exceeding in height the elevation of a common grave. This is the only distinction it possesses. Some lime-trees have been lately planted on the premises, and one which has been placed at his grave is already marked with several initials of visitors. A book is kept in the meeting-room wherein strangers who visit the place write their names. same book contains a slip of paper inscribed thus, viz.: 'The graves on the right, immediately on entering the burial-ground, contain the bodies of William Penn and both his wives; Isaac and Mary Pennington; Thomas Ellwood and his wife; also George Bowles and his wife.' These facts are confirmed by a letter to me from James T. Hopper, who visited it in 1831.

The

"His funeral was attended by a large concourse of Friends and other persons of other denominations. Thomas Storey speaks of it in his journal as a season of great solemnity. We arrived,' he says, 'at Ruscombe late in the evening, where we found the widow and most of the family together. Our coming occasioned a fresh remembrance of the deceased, and also a renewed flood of many tears from all eyes. A solid time (of worship) we had together, but few words among us for some time, for it was a deep baptizing season, and the Lord was near at that time. On the fifth I accompanied the corpse to the grave, where we had a large meeting; and as the Lord had made choice of him in the days of his youth for great and good services, had been with him in many dangers and difficulties of various sorts, and did not leave him in his last moments, so he was pleased to honor this occasion with his blessed presence, and gave us a happy season of his goodness, to the general satisfaction of all."

In a letter of Hannah Penn to James Logan, written the year after her husband's death, she thus acknowledges the receipt of a letter of condolence from Friends in America:

"Pray let the Friends of the women's general meeting know I received their affectionate and serious letter, on occasion of the death of my dear husband (as I did likewise the testimony from the men's meeting), and that I take most kindly the tender expression of their love and respect to me, and heartily return mine to them."

The Indians in Pennsylvania, hearing of the death of their great and good friend Onas, in order to testify their regard for his memory and their sympathy with his widow, sent her an address of condolence, accompanied by a present. In the following letter to James Logan she alludes to their gifts, which, it seems, consisted of "materials to form a garment of skins, suitable for travelling through a thorny wilderness," intending to express by this symbol the difficulties that lay in her path, and their desire that she might pass through them in safety:

"RUSCOMBE, 12th 1st Mo., 1719.

"DEAR FRIEND,-Thine of the 7th 9br. I had, and take very kindly thy regards and the sympathy of all those that truly lament mine and that country's loss, as deservedly due, the consideration of which loss has brought with it a vast load of care, toil of mind, and sorrow upon me.

"For my own part, I expect a wilderness of care, of briers and thorns here, as transplanted from thence, which, whether I shall be able to explore my way through, even with the help of my friends, I have great reason to question, notwithstanding the Indians' present, which I now want to put on, having the woods and wilderness to travel through indeed. However, I hitherto go on with comfort, and hoping that all will end at last to our joint satisfaction."

Ruscombe, where William Penn died, is a small village, six miles from Reading, which is thirty miles from London. No mention is made in the gazetteers that the founder of our great State ever lived there. The fact of his death seems also to have been forgotten.

As I close this somewhat lengthy sketch, I revert to my visit