London to John O 'Groat's. 51 



bers of that society. After tea, he took me about the 

 town, and showed me those buildings so interesting to 

 an American low, one-story houses, with thatched 

 roofs, clay-colored, wavy walls, rudely-carved lintels, 

 and iron-sash windows opening outward on hinges 

 like doors, with squares of glass 3 inches by 4 ; houses 

 which were built before the keel of the May-Flower 

 was laid, which conveyed the Pilgrims to Plymouth 

 Eock. Here, now ! see that one on the other side of 

 the street, looking out upon a modern and strange 

 generation through two ivy-browed eyes just lighted 

 up to visible speculation by a single candle on the 

 mantel-piece ! A very animated and respectable baby 

 was carried out of that door in its mother's arms, and 

 baptised in the parish church, before William Shake- 

 speare was weaned. There is a younger house near 

 by, which was a century old when Washington was 

 born. These unique, old dwellings of town, village, 

 and hamlet in England, must ever possess an interest 

 to the American traveller which the grand and majestic 

 cathedrals, that fill him with so much admiration, can- 

 not inspire. We link the life of our nation more 

 directly to these humbler buildings. Our forefathers 

 went out of these houses to the New World. The log 

 huts they first erected served them and their families 

 as homes for a few years ; then were given to their 

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