250 AUDUBON 



town. Where a street has to be crossed we went down 

 some steps, crossed the street and re-ascended a few steps 

 again. Overhead are placed the second stories of every 

 house ; the whole was very new and singular to me. These 

 avenues are clean, but rather low; my hat touched the top 

 once or twice, and I want an inch and a half of six feet, 

 English measure. At last we proceeded ; passed the vil- 

 lage of Wrexham, and shortly after through another village, 

 much smaller, but the sweetest, neatest, and pleasantest 

 spot I have seen in all my travels in this country. It was 

 composed of small, detached cottages of simple appear- 

 ance, divided by gardens sufficiently large for each house, 

 supplied with many kinds of vegetables and fruit trees, 

 luxuriant with bloom, while round the doors and windows, 

 and clambering over the roofs, were creeping plants and 

 vines covered with flowers of different hues. At one spot 

 were small beds of variegated tulips, the sweet-scented 

 lilies at another, the hedges looked snowy white, and 

 everywhere, in gentle curves, abundance of honeysuckle. 

 This village was on a gentle declivity from which, far over 

 the Mersey, rising grounds were seen, and the ascending 

 smoke of Liverpool also. I could not learn the name of this 

 little terrestrial paradise, and must wait for a map to tell 

 me. We dined in a hurry at Eastham, and after passing 

 through a narrow slip in Wales, and seeing what I would 

 thus far call the most improved and handsomest part of 

 England, we are now at Shrewsbury for five hours. Mr. 

 Bentley and I had some bread and butter and pushed out 

 to sec the town, and soon found ourselves on the bank of 

 the Severn, a pretty little stream about sixty yards wide. 

 Many men and boys were doing what they called fishing, 

 but I only saw two sprats in one of the boys' hats during 

 the whole walk. Some one told us that up the river we 

 should find a place called the " Quarry " with beautiful 

 trees, and there we proceeded. About a dozen men, too 

 awkward to be sailors, were rowing a long, narrow, pleas- 



