New Hampshire's motto is our favorite of all the lands we know, and our previous visits to the state have been memorable. Peregrinus arrived yesterday in Portsmouth.
Here is the Admiral under our Turkish red umbrella in front of the horse-chestnut William Whipple planted in 1776 upon his return from Philadelphia, where he had just signed the Declaration of Independence of the United States, wherein Whipple and the other Founding Fathers indicted the King for, among other trespasses:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
The tree sits on the Moffat-Ladd house, built 1763, overlooking the wharves. We were told the autumn foliage is in full swing in the mountains of New Hampshire already, but here by the sea where it is warmer, the show is just beginning.