BAR-ROOM GROUP HAMILTON. 103 



talkative Yankee, was swinging in the chair, with his legs on 

 the table ; another individual was sitting with his face to the 

 back of the chair, a third stretched at full length on the table ; 

 and one occupied two chairs. The forms were adorned in a 

 similar manner, and there was only one person sitting in an 

 upright position by the wall, fast asleep, in a state of intoxi 

 cation. The subject of discussion was a riot on the 4th July, 

 the anniversary of North American independence. Some 

 boys of the village were innocently firing guns in the morning 

 in rear of the hotel, with which they had no connexion. The 

 landlord being a Yankee, the firing was considered insulting 

 to the British government : a multitude assembled, broke the 

 windows, and attempted to set fire to the hotel. The mob 

 was said to have been headed by a justice of the peace. My 

 friend, who drove me to St Catherine s, said a travelling 

 trunk had been found open in a wood a short time ago, in 

 the Niagara district, containing a few articles marked with 

 initials. The owner was supposed to have been robbed and 

 murdered, yet the circumstance had passed unnoticed. 



The stage arrived with one passenger, tipsy, who placed 

 his head on one side of the coach, with his feet out at the 

 opposite one, and snored loudly. Next stage the driver was 

 intoxicated, and I began to ruminate on the possibility of the 

 horses participating in the common vice. 



I reached Hamilton at one in the morning, and after a few 

 hours sleep, took my friends out of bed in another hotel. At 

 separating on the banks of the Welland canal they despaired 

 of getting a conveyance to Port Robinson, and accepted the 

 offer of a farmer to accompany him to his house on the Chip- 

 peway in the evening, and be taken in his waggon next day 

 to Hamilton. They were much pleased with the farmer and 

 the country which they travelled through. 



On learning that a relation, who left Britain in March, was 

 residing in the neighbourhood, a waggon was obtained, in which 

 we rode out to breakfast. The waggons of America are light, 

 uncovered, four-wheeled carriages, used for carrying goods or 

 human beings, and almost the only vehicle in the country. 

 We passed the Albion mills, situated in a romantic glen, 

 where a rock was pointed out, over which a young woman 



