5^th A vary cold day we spent the forepart of the day
by the fireside at Br Bates, I read a Book most through
entitled the life & Death of John Fletcher. We spent
the Afternoon in visiting the town of Woolwich, which
was truly interesting to me. We first visited the
Artillary & Marin[e] Barracks, passed through & had a view
of their Drill & parade ground which I should judge to
be a mile squair it is the largest I ever saw. As cold as it
was their was a number of companies on parade & were
drilling new recruits, we saw many hundred cannon one
that measured 16 feet in length 3 1/2 diameter at the brich
& 2 at the mouth, we saw one horse company exercising.
We saw two soldiers buried under arms, the coffins
were ledt down into the grave side by side about an ounce of
dirt sprinkled upon them the priest read the funeral
prayers & ceremony. A company of soldiers then fired three
rounds over their grave & retired. We next visited the Dock
& prision yard, which is considerd one of the most interesting
Dock yards in the world. On passing through the gate in-
to the yard we entered our names & residence on Book, was
then conducted by Mr John Finsbury Polieceman to all parts
& branches of business in the yard. The government had in
their employ in this yard many hundreds of men besides
700 Prisioners who are ingaged in building vessels steem Boats
ships of war, making Anchors, cables, chains, Boilers,

shot, Balls, cannon, &c, the fires or Bellows were all
worked by steam the operation of the enigines were
pointed out unto us, among many other curiosities
we saw the Idrolick Press or pump, by which power
the strength of all the Anchors & chain cables are tried
with this small press they readily can break 150
tons wait, they will snap an Anchor into like a pipes stem
that will weigh 5 tons. it clearly shows the consentrated
power of the invention of men, we saw specemins of vari-
ous timbers which had been buried in the ground to see
which would stand the longest & it was found that English
Oak stood longer than fir or limcumvita. we saw the
boat in which Captain Ross & his comrads were saved &
lived in it a season after they were wrecked.

we went on to the upper Deck of the new 120 Gun
Ship Traflagar it has been upon the stocks a number
of years but is to be launched in May 1841, it is consid
erd as large as any ship upon the seas, her Keel
is 223 feet in length, has three fighting Decks, there
is a new hewn stone Dock made on purpose to contain
her, we also saw the ship which contains all the prisioners
by night. After having a view of these things we
left the Prision yard & took some refreshment at
Br Painters house & took Steem Boat for London
I should judge the pop[ulation] of woolwich to be 50,000, it is
a pleasant place esspecially in summer, it lies about
10 miles below London Bridge on the Thames, as we passed
up the River, we left shiping on both sides of us of
evry class & Description, both in the river & Docks from
Woolwich to London Bridge, we probably passed
not less than 1,500 vessels during that distance we
walked from London Bridge to 40 Ironmonger Row
Saint Lukes & spent the night at Home again 14 miles
We visited Harriet who had the small pox & found
her comfortable. She had had the kind or kow pox before
but it appears to be no preventative these days