WREXHAH JACKDAWS. 195 



mass of up-turned, gaping faces, through which we worked 

 our way. The inns were generally full of guzzling troopers, 

 dressed in a very ugly fashion, but we finally found one ; 

 some colour of the bear family, blue, I believe, which seemed 

 tolerably quiet, where we stopped for the night. 



After dining and resting awhile, we took a walk about the 

 town. Most of the houses out of the market-place are very 

 mean and low, the walls plastered with mud, and white 

 washed, and the roofs thatched. Noticing a kind of grotto 

 in a back street about which a pretty group of girls, in short 

 blue dresses, engaged in lively talk, were standing with pitch 

 ers, we approached it. We came close upon them before 

 they noticed us, but, instead of showing any timidity, they 

 glanced at our hats and laughed clear and heartily, looking 

 us boldly in the face. Catching one alone, however, as we 

 descended to the fountain, and asking her to let us take her 

 mug to drink from, she handed it to us, blushing deeply, and 

 said nothing, so we were glad to leave quickly to relieve her. 

 There was a spring and pool of remarkably clear, cool water, 

 within the grotto, from which all the neighbourhood seem to 

 be supplied. Our California hats attracted more attention at 

 Wrexham than anywhere else in Europe, but we met with 

 no incivility or impertinence beyond a smile or laugh. 



The church at Wrexham is curious, from the multitude 

 of grotesque faces and figures carved upon it. It is a large 

 and fine structure, and the tower is particularly beautiful, as 

 seen from the village. There were jackdaws nests in it, and 

 a flock of these birds, the first we have seen, were hovering 

 and screeching around them. They are of the crow tribe, 

 black, and somewhat larger than a blue-jay. 



Returning to our inn we found in the parlour a couple of 

 lisping clerks, who were sipping wine in a genteel way, and 

 trying to say smart things while they ogled the landlady s 



