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material is a fine gray granite, of even texture and uniform colour, and the workmanship of the most perfect kind.

The number of inhabitants does not exceed 3000, yet there are four places of worship, all well built, commodious, and well attended. There is also a courthouse, a prison, several excellent stores for supplying the numerous farmers and graziers of the surrounding country, to the extent of 50,000 dollars annually. The hotel at which we stopped to dine was equal to any, and superior to most, of those we had seen in the State of New-York; and, altogether, we thought Montpelier one of the most delightful of all the many agreeable towns we had seen in the United States.

The State of Vermont, of which this is the capital, is of more recent settlement than either of the New-England states. When the British first made the conquest of Canada in 1760, and obtained its cession from the French in 1763, the tract of country now called Vermont, from its beautiful green mountains, was first opened to emigration. Previous to that period, its distance from the Atlantic on the one hand, and from the River St. Lawrence on the other, prevented its being much visited, either by the English from Massachusetts on the south, or the French from Canada on the north. But after that period the settlement rapidly increased, the extreme beauty of the country and fertility of the soil both attracting persons of different tastes and pursuits. During the Revolutionary war, the inhabitants of Vermont acted with great spirit and vigour against the English; and their name of the "Green Mountain Boys," by which they were then known, is still cherished by them as a title of honour.

Vermont was originally claimed by Massachusetts as a part of her territory, and subsequently by New-Hampshire and by NewYork, as it borders on each of these three states; but in 1777, the year after the Declaration of Independence, the people of Vermont VOL. II.-M M

declared themselves an independent state, and formed a government for themselves. It was not, however, until 1790 that the controversy with New-York was terminated. In 1791 Vermont was admitted into the Union, and on the 4th of July, 1793, its inhabitants adopted the constitution by which the state is at present governed.

The territory of Vermont is 157 miles in length from north to south, and its breadth from east to west varies from 90 miles on its northern frontier, where it adjoins Lower Canada, to 40 miles on its southern frontier, where it adjoins Massachusetts; its boundary on the west being the Lake Champlain and the State of NewYork, and on the east the State of New-Hampshire. Within these boundaries the area of the state is 10,212 square miles, or 6,535,680

acres.

The ranges of hills extend generally from north to south, in two inclined planes; the rivers on the western side, which include the Winowsky, La Moile, the Otter, and the Missinqua, emptying their waters into Lake Champlain; and the rivers on the eastern side, including the White River, the West River, and the Pasumpsic, discharging their waters into the Connecticut River, by which they are carried to the sea. Lake Champlain is said to be 90 feet above the level of the Atlantic; but many of the cultivated parts of Vermont are 1000 feet above the level of Lake Champlain, and some of the Green Mountains 2000 feet at least. The soil is remarkably fertile, and grain and cattle everywhere abundant; the pasturage is deemed the finest in any part of America; and the beef, mutton, butter, cheese, and milk of Vermont are all in high estimation. Wool is also becoming an article of importance, to supply the woollen manufactures of the neighbouring state of Massachusetts.

The climate of Vermont is considered subject to the extremes. of heat and cold, but the weather is thought to be more steady than on the seacoast, and the land, being a rich dark loam, receives the drainings of the hills, and rarely suffers from want of moisture. Besides grain and cattle, which may be considered the staple productions of Vermont, flax is grown in considerable quantities, and maple sugar is made largely for home consumption and for exportation; that which we saw and tasted appeared to me quite as good as the sugar of the East Indies. Iron ore, lead, and copperas are also products of Vermont, and no less than 800 tons of the latter article were made in 1826. More than 100 manufacturing companies existed in 1825; but the amount of capital applied to manufactures since that period having more than doubled, the produce is proportionally augmented. The trade is chiefly with Boston, Montreal, and New-York; and the facility recently afforded by railroads, canals, and steamboats, for intercourse with these places, has brought them all within easy reach for traffic.

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The population of Vermont was in 1790 only 85,539; in 1800 it was 154,465; and in 1830 it was 280,657. It has 15 banks, the aggregate capital of which exceeds 1,000,000 dollars; and 100,000 dollars is raised annually for the support of common schools, in addition to 25,000 dollars annually from a literary fund to assist other schools, independently of the support of the College of Middleburg and the University at Burlington, both liberally assisted by the state. The religious establishments are also amply supported. The Congregationalists, or, as we more frequently call them, the Independents, have 232 churches, and above 20,000 communicants; the Baptists, 119 churches, and above 10,000 communicants; the Methodists, nearly an equal number; and, besides these, there are a few Episcopalians, Unitarians, and Universalists. After dining agreeably at an excellent hotel, we took a fresh extra-coach for Danville, distant 30 miles, where we intended to sleep. The road was still interesting, though not so richly and romantically beautiful as in the former part of the day. We had the same variety of hill and valley, but the woods were not so luxuriant nor the meadows so verdant. The field-fence of Vermont consists of the great roots and lower part of the trunks of trees, extracted from the ground after felling, and then raised upon their sides, and placed along in a continuous row. It seemed to us more picturesque than the Virginia fence, which is a zigzag of horizontal stakes; or than another sort sometimes in use here, like the chevaux-de-frize of military lines. Geese were abundant, grazing on the meadows or on the grassplots on each side of the road; and turkeys were fully as numerous: whole fields of pumpkins were seen well stocked, and elderberries were also abundant, though Vermont is not a good fruit-country, nor does it produce so much grain as New-Hampshire, cattle being its principal wealth.

We noticed here that the signs of the inns on the road were hung on hinges so as to swing, after the English fashion, while in the State of New-York they were fixed as on a target. In both, however, it is the custom to have ample verandas or piazzas running round the house, and the lower space in front is generally crowded with persons seated on chairs and smoking cigars, which gives an air of dissipation to the scene. We observed, also, that to many of the isolated dwelling-houses in the country there were private burial-grounds attached, in which one or two members of the family had been interred; and the place of their repose was marked by a neat monument within an enclosure, just as if it had been included within consecrated ground. Everywhere, however, cleanliness and neatness prevailed, and gave us a highly favourable impression of the New-England character for order and propriety.

In the course of our first stage from Montpelier we came to one of the wooden bridges with which the country abounds, now in the

act of being repaired, and apparently impassable, as the flooring or platform of the bridge, consisting of loose planks, had all been removed. But the driver, with good-humour and alacrity, set to work himself to place the planks across again in their proper places; and, in the course of half an hour, the bridge was sufficiently restored for us to pass in safety. This driver, like all we had yet seen in America, was remarkably kind to his horses; and though he drove faster and steadier than any who had yet driven us, he never used his whip to touch the horses, but merely smacked it in the air, and talked to the animals as though he believed they understood every word he said. I may add, that while the American drivers appear to be uniformly kind to their cattle, the horses themselves are more docile and tractable than with us; and up to the present time, at least, we have met with no one instance of a vicious or refractory horse in any of the teams with which we have travelled.

Though the road was less beautiful than in the morning, it still continued to be interesting, and even picturesque. Immense boulders of granite were strewed on the sides of some of the hills; the trees became more and more vividly coloured by every tint of crimson, scarlet, brown, and yellow, mingled with the deep evergreens by which they were surrounded; and when we attained the summit of an ascending slope, up which the road winds for three miles, we enjoyed a most extensive and magnificent view of the country to the west of us, in the direction from whence we had come; all the Green Mountains being visible from this point, the highest eminence among them, called "The Camel's Hump," rising to an elevation of 2000 feet.

The latter part of our journey was through a thick wood, in which the splendid varieties of colours in the foliage were such as really to seem extravagant and unnatural. Of this I am certain, that, before having seen these woods, had any landscape or picture, purporting to be a faithful representation of an American autumn, been so gorgeously coloured as these woods really were, I should have thought it an exaggeration; but the scene before us was so brilliantly beautiful that no painter could exaggerate it, in brightness and variety of colouring at least.

We reached Danville at seven o'clock, just as the shades of night were closing in, and were glad to find comfortable quarters there. The inn at which we stopped, though the best in the place, was a very humble one compared with those at which we had recently halted; but it was clean in every part, while some of the larger ones are deficient in this requisite. The quidnuncs of the village soon surrounded the door, and a hundred questions were asked, both of us and the driver, as to our route, destination, &c. It was, indeed, the most truly village-scene we had for a long time witnessed, and reminded us of Franklin's account of the extreme inquisi

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tiveness of the New-Englanders in his day; a characteristic which remains in full force at Danville, however much it may have abated in larger places.

We retired early to rest; and here, in this obscure quarter, slept in the first curtained bed in which we had ever reposed since our leaving England a year ago. We had seen four-post beds with curtains in private houses, but in no hotel or boarding-house in any of the greatest cities had we ever met with a bed, not even in the depth of winter, hung with curtains as in England, till this at Danville.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Description of the White Mountains.-Names and Elevations of the principal Peaks.Journey from the Mountain Pass to Conway.-Stage-drivers and Passengers from Conway to Centre Harbour.-Winnipiseogee, or the beautiful Lake Meredith.-River Merrimac.-Shaker Village.-Concord, the Capital of New-Hampshire.-Excessive use of Tobacco.-Danville to Littleton.-Road through the Forest.-Autumnal Foliage.-White Mountain House.-Entry into the "Notch" or Pass through the Mountains.-Romantic Wildness of the Scenery.-Accumulation of Granite Rocks.-Lightning and Storms.-Descent of Slides or Avalanches from the Mountains.-Tragical Instance.-Fate of the Willey Family.-Concord and its public Buildings.-Suitors attending the Court.-Prolixity of legal Proceedings.-State of New Hampshire.History of the early Settlement.-Statistics of its Population, Manufactures, and Trade.-Institutions for Education.-Colleges of Dartmouth and Exeter.-Religious Establishments and Sects in New-Hampshire.-Journey from Concord to Lowell and Boston.

On the morning of September 20th we took an extra-coach for Littleton, a distance of 25 miles. We left Danville at eight o'clock, at which hour the surface of all the valleys was covered with a dense white fog, giving them the appearance of small lakes; but this gradually disappeared as the sun advanced towards the meridian. The road was much more hilly than any previous part of our way; and, though the driver did his best, we did not reach our destination till one o'clock, making our speed about five miles an hour with four horses.

After various attempts on the part of the innkeeper at Littleton to detain us to dinner, and delaying the supply of fresh horses for that purpose, we pushed forward so as to get through the White Mountains before night; and, having a more level road, we made better progress. After a ride of about ten miles we entered a dense forest, which continued to border the road for nearly all the remainder of the way, and seemed perfectly impervious on either side. Here and there a few patches had been cleared, the stumps of the felled trees still remaining in the ground, and in some instances the fires still remaining by which the trunks had been consumed; red squirrels were seen in abundance, playing their gambols from tree to