170 AN AMERICAN FARMER IX ENGLAND. 



mustering of the yeomanry of the shire, so that the streets were 

 crowded as we entered. In the balcony of a hotel in the market- 

 place, a military band was playing to a mass of up-turned, gaping 

 faces, through which we worked our way. The inns were gen- 

 erally full of guzzling troopers, dressed in a very ugly fashion ; 

 but we finally found one, some color of the bear family blue, I 

 believe which seemed tolerably quiet, where we stopped for the 

 night 



After dining and resting awhile, we took a walk about the 

 town. Most of the houses out of the market-place are very mean 

 and low, the walls plastered with mud and whitewashed, and the 

 roofs thatched. Noticing a kind of grotto in a back street, about 

 which a pretty group of girls in short blue dresses, engaged in 

 lively talk, were standing with pitchers, we approached it. We 

 came close upon them before they noticed us, but instead of 

 showing any timidity, they glanced at our hats and laughed clear 

 and heartily, looking us boldly in the face. Catching one alone, 

 however, as we descended to the fountain, and asking her to let 

 us take her mug to drink from, she handed it to us, blushing 

 deeply, and said nothing ; so we were glad to leave quickly to 

 relieve her. There was a spring and pool of remarkably clear, 

 cool water within the grotto, from which all the neighborhood 

 seem to be supplied. Our California hats attracted more atten- 

 tion at Wrexham than anywhere else in Europe, but we met with 

 no incivility or impertinence beyond a smile or laugh. 



The church at Wrexham is curious, from the multitude of 

 grotesque faces and figures carved upon it. It is a large and fine 

 structure, and the tower is particularly beautiful, as seen from the 

 village. There were jackdaws' nests in it, and a flock of these 

 birds, the first we have seen, were hovering and screeching 

 around them. They are of the crow tribe, black, and somewhat 

 larger than a blue-jay. 



