MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



121 



enormous iron " porridge pot " of singular 

 clumsy antique form which holds 102 gallons, 

 does any amount of credulity as to the diges- 

 tive powers necessary to sustain the Colussus 

 who slew all the dragons of his day. 



While I was at Warwick, I ascended on a 

 fine moonlight evening, the top of the highest 

 tower, commanding the whole panorama of 

 feudal castle, tributary town, and lovely land- 

 scape. It would be vain to attempt to de- 

 scribe the powerful emotions that such a scene 

 and its many associations, under such circum- 

 stances, awakened within me ; but I turned 

 my face at last, westward, toward my native 

 land, and with uplifted eyes thanked the good 

 God, that, though to England, the country of 

 my ancestors, it had been given to show the 

 growth of man in his highest developmont of 

 class or noble, to America has been reserved 

 the greater blessing of solving for the world 

 the true problem of all humanity — that of the 

 abolition of all castes, and the recognition rif 

 the divine rights of every human soul. 



This neighborhood is c(jually beautiful to 

 the eye of the picturesque or the agricultural 

 tourist. I was shown farms on the Warwick 

 estate which are let out to tenants at over £2 

 per acre — and everywhere the richness of the 

 grain-fields gave evidence both of high culti- 

 vation and excellent soil. The chief differ- 

 ence, after all, between an English rural land- 

 scape and one in the older and better cultiva- 

 ted parts of the United States, is almost 

 wholly in the universality of verdant hedges, 

 and the total absence of all other fences. The 

 hedges (for the most part of hawthorn,) di- 

 vide all the farm-fields, and line ail the road- 

 sides — and even the borders of the railways, 

 in all parts of the country. I was quite sat- 

 isfied with the truth of this conjecture, when 

 I came, accidentally, in my drive yesterday, 

 upon a little spot of a few rods — where the 

 hedges had been destroyed,. and a temporary 

 post and rail fence, like those at home, nut in 



Vol. y. 8 



their place. The whole thing was lowered at 

 once to the harshness and rickety aspect of a 

 farm at home. The majority of the farm 

 hedges are only trimmed once a year — in 

 winter — and therefore have, perhaps, a more 

 natural and picturesque look than the more 

 carefully trimmed hedges of the gardens. 

 Hence, for a farm hedge, a plant should be 

 chosen that will grow thick of itself, with 

 only this single annual clipping, and which 

 will adapt itself to all soils. I am, therefore, 

 confirmed in my belief, that the buckthorn is 

 the farmer's hedge plant for America, and I 

 am also satisfied that it will make a better and 

 far more durable hedge than the hawthorn 

 does, even here. 



Though England is beautifully wooded, yet 

 the great preponderance of the English elm — 

 a tree wanting in grace, and only grand when 

 very old, renders an English road side land- 

 scape in this respect, one of less sylvan beauty 

 than our finest scenery of like character at 

 home. The American elm, with its fine 

 drooping branches, is rarely or never seen 

 here, and there is none of that variety of fo- 

 liage which we have in the United States. 

 For this reason (leaving out of sight rail 

 fences,) I do not think even the drives 

 through Warwickshire so full of rural beauty 

 as those in the valley of the Connecticut — 

 which they most resemble. In June our mea- 

 dows there are as verdant, and our trees in- 

 comparably more varied and beautiful. On 

 the other hand, you must remember that here, 

 wealth and long civilization have so refined 

 and perfected the details, that in this respect 

 there is no comparison — nothing in short to 

 be done but to admire and enjoy. For in- 

 stance, for a circuit of eight or ten miles 

 or more here, between Leamington and 

 Warwick and Stratfort-on-Avon, the roads,, 

 which are admirable, are rcgularyly sprinkled 

 every dry day in summer, while along the^ 

 railroads the sides are cultivated with grass,. 



