20 FUNERAL EXCURSION TO HOLMSBURG. 



the deceased ; then came forty or fifty men and women in pairs, 

 partly in black and partly in coloured clothes, which closed 

 the procession. I afterwards observed a funeral train at New 

 York, composed entirely of men, chiefly in coloured clothes, 

 -arranged in pairs. The custom of attending funerals in 

 coloured clothes is said to be of recent introduction ; and as 

 grbf springs from the heart, and cannot be expressed by hue 

 of garment, this innovation on old custom is creditable as well 

 as advantageous to the people. 



Wishing to visit a gentleman residing fourteen miles from 

 Philadelphia, to whom I had letters of introduction, the pro 

 prietor of the hotel demanded five dollars, 21s. 3d., sterling, 

 for a carriage to convey us to the place and back again 

 by midday. The charge appearing unreasonable, I made 

 application at several quarters, and at last engaged an Irish 

 man on the street, who undertook the journey for three dol 

 lars, and he fulfilled his engagement to our perfect satisfac 

 tion. 



Next morning, we left Philadelphia at an early hour, and 

 on reaching Holmsburg, were refused breakfast at an unpre 

 tending hotel, without a reason being assigned. On apply 

 ing, however, at another hotel on the opposite side of the 

 -street, we were more fortunate, and had every thing set before 

 us which could appease hunger or gratify the palate. The 

 refusal of breakfast reminded me of being in Ireland in 1830 ; 

 on which occasion I was accompanied by a friend. We tra 

 velled from Drogheda to Kells, in the county of Meath, in a 

 common car of the country, exposed to a burning sun, and 

 choking dust. On reaching that lovely village, and alighting 



-at an inn, we were told the Marquis of was momently 



expected, on which account we could not be accommodated, 

 and at a second inn experienced the same disagreeable recep 

 tion. I exerted the little eloquence with which Nature has 

 endowed me to obtain a single room, and after despairing of 

 success, I petitioned for a stall in the stable. The heart of 

 mine hostess was so far overcome as to provide tea, and allow 

 us to wash in a dirty miserable-looking room. I here des 

 patched a card to a landed proprietor in the neighbourhood 

 i&amp;gt;y an errand-boy of the house. This circumstance changed 



