340 AX AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER L. 



London Lads Railway Ride Observations in Natural History. 



A T half-past five, having overtaken my friends and dined at 

 ** Godalming, I took seat with them in the third-class carriages 

 of a train bound to London, intending, however, only to take a 

 lift so that we might walk in before dark. 



The carriages were nearly empty, till, stopping at a way- 

 station, they were suddenly and with boisterous merry haste 

 taken possession of, filled full and over-filled with a class of 

 people differing in their countenances, manners, language, and 

 tone of voice from any we had before seen in England. They 

 were more like New York b'hoys, a little less rowdy and a shade 

 more vulgar. " London lads," one of them very civily told me 

 they were, employed in a factory out here in the country, and 

 having just received their week's wages were going in to spend 

 them. They were pale, and many effeminate in features, rather 

 oily and grimy, probably from their employment ; talked loudly 

 and rapidly, using many cant words, and often addressing those 

 at a distance by familiar, abbreviated names ; lively, keen, quick- 

 eyed, with a peculiarly fearless, straightforward, uneducated way 

 of making original remarks, that showed considerable wit and 



