VEGETABLE AND FRUIT MARKETS. 359 



houses upon plate, furniture, and books, so soon as it does with 

 us, and provisions, both raw and cooked, appear &quot; to keep sweet &quot; 

 longer. I do not undertake to give any scientific reason for this ; 

 but it seems probable, that it arises from a more even tempera 

 ture, and the absence of that intense heat which, with us, often 

 follows rain and dampness. The black currant is almost as much 

 cultivated as the red and white, and quite commonly eaten. 

 Raspberries are cultivated ; but I have seen none to be compared 

 with the fine kinds common in the United States. Blackberries 

 I have not seen cultivated. I have met with them in the south 

 ern parts of England, but ripening so late in the season that they 

 have no richness of flavor.* 



Of plums there are several kinds : damsons are common ; the 

 Orleans plum, the large egg-plum, resembling what I think is 

 called, with us, Bolmar s Washington, are the most esteemed ; 

 but they are not abundant, and I cannot say that those which I 

 have seen are equal to those seen in the best markets of the 

 United States, and especially, of all other places, at Albany, in 

 New York, where this fruit is found in a degree of perfection 

 and abundance which I have seen nowhere else. Cherries are 



* I am quite aware of the old proverb, &quot; that there should be no dispute about 

 matters of taste,&quot; and that it is perhaps quite too late in the season ivith myself. 

 for me to discuss these matters. I remember very well when a half-grown, green, 

 hard, sour apple, was as much relished by me as now a delicious Muscat grape ; 

 but, alas ! &quot; the times change, and we change with them.&quot; I will not complain. 

 To complain would be ungrateful. There are tastes for all ages, as there are 

 fruits and flowers for all seasons. I thank God every day of my life for the beau 

 tiful world in which he has placed me ; but I would not wish to be always young, 

 any more than I would desire to be always old. I cannot say that I ever sighed 

 for a perpetual summer ; for nature every where abounds in compensations. I ex 

 changed the bright, sunshiny days of my own country for the foggy and humid 

 climate, and the cloudy and weeping skies, of England, where sometimes I have 

 scarcely seen the moon and stars for a month, and where, when the sun shows 

 himself, one seems to recognize an acquaintance of former times. But what of 

 that ? Habit and use reconcile us to various and ever-changing circumstances. 

 I have become amphibious, like a true Englishman, and take a good wetting 

 quite naturally. The moderate temperature of the climate has become agree 

 able ; and even the cloudy skies seem better for my eyes than the bright and 

 dazzling snows of New England, in the clear days of winter. Age itself, if it 

 has not the vivacity of youth, and is sometimes oppressed with the consciousness 

 of having not even half accomplished our duties and desires, brings with it many 

 delicious treasures of memory, which, like good wine, lose nothing of their sweet 

 ness by time ; and hopes, which we would not exchange for all the pleasures of 

 the whole of life s brightest summer, are daily approximating their fruition. 



