British gold paid out in cash to the dealers in provisions bought full supplies from one of the best markets in America.

And the people of the place, largely made up of Loyalists, vied with each other in providing entertainment for the British army.

There were fashionable balls for the officers and free-and-easy revels for the soldiers.

Almost at any time the British army might have marched out to Valley Forge and dealt a final blow to Washington's naked and starving troops, but it preferred the good food and the dissipations of Philadelphia; and so the winter dragged on to spring.
Howe was recalled to England and General Sir Henry Clinton succeeded him in the command of the British forces.

He was one of those well-upholstered carpet knights who flourished in the British army at that time, and was even less energetic than Howe.