144 



NEW ENGLAND. 



houses and grounds. The houses are chiefly of wood, and it is fortunate that such designs are 

 not perpetuated in brick and stone.* The barns are large, as not only the animals are shel- 

 tered, but the hay and grain are housed, which, in many countries, are stacked in the open air. 

 Here and there by the side of the older houses may be seen a " well-sweep," a primitive con- 

 trivance to draw up water by a pole, which is attached to a beam, moving up and down on an 

 axle. It is a sort of lever ; the bucket and beam are so nearly balanced, that a little aid from 

 the hand is sufficient for the machinery. The villages are generally neatly built, and some of 

 them are the most beautiful in the world. The church is a prominent object in a village ; it 

 has generally a bell, and a spire, with a green or " common " in front, "in the, large towns, 

 the architecture, with some exceptions, is of a good style. The banks are perhaps the best 

 edifices, not only of New England, but of the United States. They are often built from 

 Grecian models. The churches are also neat and imposing edifices, and of various orders. 'J'he 

 village churches of England, built of stone and covered with ivy, are worthy models for our imi- 

 tation. The abundance of building stone in all parts of New England, v.ould render it more 

 economical to build the churches in this way, than of the ordinary materials. 



17. Food and Drink. The food may well be called substantial, and the variety and quan- 

 tity are enough to denote a land of plentiful supply. An English traveler in New England remarks, 

 that Henry the Fourth, who wished that each of his subjects might be so rich as to have a 

 chicken for his Sunday dinner, could here have had his generous desire more than gratified. The 

 breakfast, which, in tlie country, is held at an early hour, and often by sunrise, is no evanes- 

 cent thing. In a farmer's lamily, it consists of little less than ham, beef, sausages, pork, bread, 

 butter, boiled potatoes, pies, coffee, and cider. The use of coffee in the morning, and of tea 

 at night, is almost universal. At hotels and boarding-houses, the standing breakfast is of beef, 

 mutton, ham, broiled chickens, sausages, tripe, various kinds of fish, tongue, bread, butter, 

 coffee, and cider. Few people are so poor as not to have animal food, at least tv»ice a day ; 

 on Saturday, it is usual to have for dinner, salted cod fish. 



Cider is drunk at all times of day, as was formerly used in every house ; in common seasons, 

 it is worth about a dollar the barrel. In the country, it was till very recently considered hardly 



" The following extract satirizes a class of persons not 

 very numerous in New England, but yet occasionally met 

 with. It may, on the whole, be considered a broad cari- 

 cature, but possessing so mucli truth as at once to remind 

 us of the original for whom it is intended. 



"The first thought of a Yankee farmer, on coming to the 

 years of manhood, is to settle himself in the world, which 

 means nothing more than to begin his rambles. To this 

 end, he takes to himself for a wife some buxom, country 

 heiress, passing rich in red ribands, glass beads, and mock 

 tortoise-shell comljs, with a white gown, and morocco 

 shoes for Sunday, and deeply skilled in the mystery of 

 making apple-sweetmeats, long sauce, and pumpkin pie. 

 Havino' thus provided himself, like a pedler, with a heavy 

 knapsack, wherewith to regale his shoulders through the 

 journev of life, he literally sets out on his peregrinations. 



" His whole family, household furniture, and farming 

 utensils, are hoisted into a covered cart ; his own and 

 wife s wardrobe packed up in a firkin ; which done, he 

 shoulders his axe, takes a staff in his hand, whistles 'yan- 

 kee doodle,' and tnidges off to the woods, as confident of 

 the protection of I'rovidence, and relying as cheerfully on 

 his own resources, as ever did a patriarch of yore, when 

 he journeyed into a strange country of the Gentiles. Hav- 

 ing buried himself in the wilderness, he builds himself a 

 '.og hut, cleans away a cornfield and potatoe-patch, and, 

 Providence smiling upon his labors, he is soon surrounded 

 by a snug farm, and some half a score of flaxen-headed 

 urchins, who, by their size, seem to have sprung all at 

 once out of the earth, like a crop of toadstools. 



'■ But it is not the nature of this most indefatigable of 

 speculators to rest contented with any slate of sublunary 

 enjoyment ; improvement is his darling passion; and hav- 

 ing thus improved his lands, the next thought is to provide 

 a mansion worthy the residence of a landholder. A huge 

 palace of pine boards, immediately springs up in the midst 

 of the wilderness, large enough for a parish church, and 

 furnished vith windows of all dimensions ; but so ricketty, 

 ai'd flimsy withal, that every blast gives it a fit of the ague. 



By the time the outside of this mighty air-castle is com- 

 pleted, either the funds or the zeal of our adventurer are 

 exhausted, so that he barely manages to half finish one 

 room within, where the whole family burrow together, 

 wliile the rest of the house is devoted to the curing of 

 pumpkins, or storing of carrots and potatoes, and is deco- 

 rated with fanciful festoons of dried apples and peaches. 



"The outside lemnining unpainted, grows venerably 

 brown with time; tlie family wardrobe is laid under con- 

 tribution for old hats, petticoats, and breeches, to stuff into 

 the broken windows; while the four winds of lieavcti 

 keep up a whistling and howling abnut the aerial palace, 

 and play as many unruly gambnis as they did of yore in 

 the Cave of yEolus. The humble log hut, which whilom 

 nestled this improving family snugly within its narrow but 

 comfortable walls, stands hard by, ignominious contrast ! 

 degraded into a cow-house, or pig-st}' ; and the whole re- 

 minds one of a fable, that I am surprised has never been 

 recorded, of an aspiring snail, wlio abandoned his humble 

 habitation, whicii he had long filled with great respectabil- 

 ity, to crawl into the empty sliell of a lobster, where he 

 could no doubt have resided with great style and splendor, 

 the envy and hate of all pains-taking snails in his neigh- 

 borhood, had he not accidentally perished with cold in one 

 corner of his stupendous mansion. 



" Being thus completely settled, and to use his own 

 words, ' to rights,' one would imagine that he would be- 

 gin to enjov the comforts of iiis situation, to read iievvspa. 

 pers, to talk politics, neglect his own business, and attend 

 to the affairs of the nation, like a useful and patriotic citi- 

 zen ; but now it is that his wayward disposition again be- 

 gins to operate. He soon grows tired of a spot where 

 there is no longer any room for improvement, sells his 

 farm, his air castle, petticoat windows and all, reloads his 

 cart, shoulders his axe, puts himself at the head of his 

 family and wanders away in search of new lands, agam 

 to fell trees, again to clear cornfields, again to build a shin 

 gle-palace, and again to sell off, and wander." — rf 

 Irving. 



