40 VILLAGES. 



of beauty, and unworthy of the place. I would require no 

 better illustration of the small progress the inhabitants of the 

 United States have made in gardening than Northampton, 

 where man hath long resided, and done so little to improve 

 the exquisite beauties of nature. 



We left Northampton at three o clock next morning, and 

 passed the bridge and valley of Connecticut before daybreak, 

 breakfasting at Balchertown, and passing through Ware and 

 Brookfield to Worcester, where we dined, and reached Boston 

 Tremont hotel in the evening. 



The stage passengers, in course of the day, were intelligent, 

 communicative, and agreeable companions, polite during 

 meals, and frequently asking others to partake of the dishes 

 they distributed. A gentleman asked me if the old mode of 

 courting in Scotland was still practised when, after the con 

 sent of the lady s parents had been obtained, she was mounted 

 on horseback, and her suitor placed in a similar situation, and 

 if he could not overtake the fair one, it was considered a re 

 fusal. I laughed heartily, and assured him it was the first 

 time I had heard of such a custom existing in my country, 

 which, in all probability, never existed there, and could not 

 now, as most of the youth of both sexes were denied the luxury 

 of riding, by a heavy tax on saddle-horses. He rejoined, with 

 an air of astonishment &quot; What ! horses taxed ! Does any 

 thing escape government ? Would a man having a nose longer 

 than his companion s be taxed for it ?&quot; I answered, &quot; if he 

 filled it with snuif a practice very common amongst my 

 countrymen he would be taxed.&quot; 



The villages through which we passed presented the same 

 characters white wooden houses with green Venetian blinds, 

 and every thing wearing the appearance of cleanliness, order, 

 and comfort. 



The use of wood for fuel, the machinery of the manu 

 facturing villages and all of them may be termed such 

 being propelled by water, and the absence of coal smoke, con 

 tribute, in no small degree, to the external cleanliness of the 

 houses and garments of the inhabitants. Manufacturing esta 

 blishments were conspicuous in every direction, and innume 

 rable bundles of rye straw were bleaching around the cottages 



