94 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



burns her feet and flies hastily over to the heavy, old brown 

 thatch, where the little dormers stick out so clumsily cosy. 



Odd-looking vehicles and oddly-dressed people are passing in 

 the street below us : a woman with a jacket, driving two stout 

 horses in one of those heavy farm-carts ; an omnibus, with the 

 sign of " The Green Dragon," very broad, and carrying many 

 passengers on the top ; the driver, smartly-dressed, tips his whip 

 with a knowing nod to a pretty Welsh girl, who is carrying a tub 

 upon her head. There are scores of such damsels, neat as possi- 

 ble, with dark eyes, and glossy hair half covered by white caps, 

 and fine, plump forms, in short striped petticoats and hob-nailed 

 shoes. There goes one, straight as a gun-barrel, with a great jar 

 of milk upon her head. And here is a little donkey, with cans of 

 milk slung on each side of him, and behind them, so you cannot 

 see why he does not slip off over his tail, is a great brute, with 

 two legs in knee-breeches and blue stockings, bent up so as to be 

 clear of the ground, striking him with a stout stick across his 

 long, expressive ears. A sooty-faced boy, with a Kilmarnock 

 bonnet on his head, carrying pewter pots, coming towards us, 

 jumps suddenly one side, and, ha ! out from under us, at a rat- 

 tling pace, comes a beautiful sorrel mare, with a handsome, tall, 

 slightly-made young man in undress military uniform; close 

 behind, and not badly mounted either, follow two others one 

 also in uniform, with a scarlet cap and a bright bugle swinging 

 at his side ; the other a groom in livery, neat as a pin ; odd again, 

 to American eyes, those leather breeches and bright top-boots. 

 Lord Grosvenor, going to review the Yeomanry, says the printer. 

 His grandfather built this gate and presented it to the corpora- 

 tion ; you may see his arms on the key-stone. But we must 

 go on. 



On the left an old tower, and under it the ragged outline and 

 darker color of still older masonry. A swallow has just found a 



