American Blessings. 73 



There is a funny thing in this guide-book. " There 

 also resides Mr. Martin Farquhar Tupper, the author of 

 * Proverbial Philosophy,' etc. He has eulogized the 

 scene around as follows." Then come two pages of 

 Tupper. I naturally looked to see the name of the 

 author of the book, but none was given. Such modesty ! 

 But the case is a clear one, for who but Tupper 

 would quote Tupper! " Sir," said Johnson to Bossy, 

 " Sir, I never did the man an injury in my life, and yet 

 he would persist in reading his tragedy to me." Here's 

 the concluding quotation from the guide-book of Guild- 

 ford, and the Scribe promises not to quote much more 

 from any similar source. Cobbett says that in Albury 

 Park he saw some plants of the " American cran- 

 berry, which not only grow here, but bear fruit, and 

 therefore it is clear that they may be cultivated with 

 great ease in this country." 



Potatoes, tomatoes, and cranberries — look at the 

 great blessings America has bestowed upon the " au- 

 thor of her being ;" and what won't grow in the rain 

 and fog of the old home, doesn't she grow for her 

 and send over by every steamer, from canvas-back 

 ducks to Newtown pippins ! Thackeray was right in 

 saying one night, w4ien some friends were disposed to 

 criticise America, " Ah ! well, gentlemen, much can be 

 pardoned to a country which produces the canvas-back 

 duck." At dinner-tables in England, nowadays, to the 

 usual grace, '* O Lord ! for what we are about to re- 



