The Rescue of an Old Place 



An aid New tics of a people is not among the very 

 twon. n rich, but among those in moderate cir- 

 cumstances, who make up the bulk of 

 the inhabitants ; those who occupy its 

 longer settled regions, and best represent 

 its individual and continuous modes of 

 thought. And when I see how little these 

 idle talkers know about what country peo- 

 ple feel and think, I wish that our urban 

 critics could walk though this ancient 

 town, and be introduced to its flower 

 lovers, and get a glimpse of its interesting 

 gardens, before they make up their minds 

 so positively about the tendencies of our 

 A testa/ people. Here can be found the American 

 cforacr. race at its best, unadulterated by foreign 

 admixture, or perverted from its instincts 

 by the pressure of conventions ; a people 

 that has lived on the soil for two hundred 

 and fifty years, and has had time to de- 

 velop its characteristics, a much better 

 test to judge by than the floating popula- 

 tion of newer towns farther west. 



Whoever has driven through New Eng- 

 land or the older middle States, cannot 

 doubt that there, at least, the people truly 

 love their gardens, and the house plants 

 168 



