ABSTRACT
James Warmington’s letters are especially excellent, written from Honey Creek, Walworth County, Wisconsin, to England. The quirky spelling and signs of accent (for example, adding an ‘h’ before an ‘a’ so that ‘I am’ becomes ‘I ham’) add to their charm, and their observations about American farming practices (‘we can Cultivate in the Yankey way’) are historically important for their indication of agricultural adjustment. Borrowing £60 at 12 per cent interest seems to have brought trouble for Warmington, and he had two bad years in Wisconsin – in part because by 1852 the English market supposedly dried up. The reference to cheap whiskey as ‘our Cheef Common Drink’ suggests the problems with alcohol and importance of temperance movements during this period.
