282 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XLL 



Tintern Abbey and the Wye English Screw Steamers Tide Deluge 

 St. Vincent's Rocks Bristol-Built Vessels The Vale of Gloucester 

 Whitfield " Example Farm" Hedge-Row Timber Drainage Build- 

 ings Stock Soiling Manure Wheat Beets and Turnips Dis- 

 graceful Agriculture The Landed Gentry Wages of Laborers. 



Chepstow. 



TI7E have had a fierce storm of wind and rain to-day, notwith- 

 standing which we have "done" (I am sorry to use the 

 word) Tintern Abbey and the celebrated scenery of the Wye. 



The first every body has heard of, and many have dined off it ; 

 for it is the subject of a common crockery picture. It is "a grand 

 exhibition of Gothic ruins, admittance twenty-five cents ; child- 

 ren half-price." It is indeed exceedingly beautiful and interest- 

 ing, and would be delightful to visit, if one could stumble into it 

 alone and contemplate it in silence ; but to hare a vulgar, syco- 

 phantic, chattering showman, locking himself in with you, fast- 

 ening himself to your elbow, holding an umbrella over you, and 

 insisting exactly when, where, what and how much you shall ad- 

 mire there was more poetry on the dinner-plate. 



The scenery of the Wye has, at some points, much grandeur. 

 They say there is nothing else like it in England. There is much 

 with the same character, however, in America ; and as we were 



