SUNDAY EVENING RECREATION. 161 



walls, where we met a very large number of apparently very 

 happy people. I never saw so many neat, quiet, ungenteel, 

 happy, and healthy-looking women, all in plain clean dresses, 

 and conversing in mild, pleasant tones ; squads of children 

 too, all dressed ridiculously, bright and clean and stiff, not 

 a dirty one among them, and as well behaved as dolls, most 

 comically sober and stately. The walls form a good prom- 

 enade, elevated and dry. The landscape view across the 

 river, in the sunset haze, seemed in communion with the 

 minds of the people, tranquil and loving. An hour later, and 

 we found the streets lighted up and almost as crowded as on 

 Saturday night, yet very quiet, and no impudence, black, 

 guardism, or indecency shown us. On the whole, spite of the 

 universal beer-drinking, we received a high opinion of the 

 character of Chester people, quite as high, as respects moral 

 ity and courtesy, as a stranger passing a Sunday in a New 

 England town of the same size would be likely to obtain of it. 



