England.
While the Puritan's character was not pleasing to Cooper, he himself
was called a "Puritan of Puritans," and it was to them he referred in
the following: "Whatever else I may think of the Yankees,--a calmer,
firmer, braver people do not walk this earth." Of this sentiment "The
Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," published in 1829, gives ample proof.

[Illustration: DR. THOMAS ELLISON.]

The Rev. Joseph Hooper, author of the "History of St. Peter's Church,
Albany, N.Y.," related an incident of Cooper's old Rectory school days
there. The story came to Dr. Hooper from Mr. Edward Floyd de Lancy, son
of Bishop de Lancy of Western New York, and is as follows:

It was the custom of the Rev. Thomas Ellison when he became too feeble
to personally direct his workmen, to sit upon the stoop of the Rectory
and watch the removal of the sandbank which covered the chosen site for
the new church, corner of State and Lodge streets. Hundreds of loads had
to be carted away before the foundation could be laid, and some of the
carter's pay tickets on quartered playing-cards are preserved in St.
Peter's archives. But the great hole in the ground had a great
attraction for the boys of Albany, and they would leap into it to play
tag and leap-frog until the stern voice of the Dominie called them to
order, when they would scamper away or hide in some corner out of sight
of the piercing eyes of Dr. Ellison. Sometimes they would answer him
mockingly, to his great annoyance. He could not pursue them, but he
could, when his own pupils joined with the other boys, as they often
did, give them stern and severe lectures upon their conduct, for they
were playing on ground to be used for a sacred purpose. Even the rod of
correction was used without curing them of this habit. Young Cooper was
often a ringleader, and their pranks would often continue until darkness
concealed them from the watchful and angry Rector, to whom,
nevertheless, they gave due honor and respect.

[Illustration: ST. PETER'S CHURCH, ALBANY, N.Y.]

[Illustration: STATE STREET, ALBANY, N.Y., 1802.]

From one of his "Sketches of England," written to William, Judge John
Jay's second son, comes, in part, Cooper's graphic description of Dr.
Ellison: "Thirty-six years ago you and I were school fellows and
classmates in the home of a clergyman of the true English school. This
man entertained a most profound reverence for the King and the nobility;
was not backward in expressing his contemp