ggage
in a hackney, I found that, however valuable for security the ticketing
system may be, it was, under circumstances like mine at present,
painfully trying to patience. In three-quarters of an hour, however, I
managed to get hold of it, and then, by way of improving my temper, I
ascertained that one of my boxes was in a state of "pretty considerable
all mighty smash." At last I got off with my goods and chattels, and
having seen quite enough of the American palace-hotels and their
bountifully-spread tables, and of the unrivalled energy with which the
meals are despatched; remembering, also, how frequently the drum of my
ears had been distracted by the eternal rattling and crackling of plates
and dishes for a couple of hundred people, and how my olfactories had
suffered from the mixed odours of the kitchen produce, I declined going
to the palatial Revere House, which is one of the best hotels in the
Union, and put up at a house of less pretensions, where I found both
quiet and comfort.

To write a description of Boston, when so many others have done so far
better than I can pretend to do, and when voluminous gazetteers record
almost every particular, would be drawing most unreasonably upon the
patience of a reader, and might further be considered as inferring a
doubt of his acquaintance with, I might almost say, a hackneyed subject.
I shall, therefore, only inflict a few short observations to refresh his
memory. The most striking feature in Boston, to my mind, is the common
or park, inasmuch as it is the only piece of ground in or attached to
any city which I saw deserving the name of a park. It was originally a
town cow-pasture, and called the Tower Fields. The size is about fifty
acres; it is surrounded with an iron fencing, and, although not large,
the lay of the ground is very pretty. It contains some very fine old
trees, which every traveller in America must know are a great rarity in
the neighbourhood of any populous town. It is overlooked by the
State-house, which is built upon Beacon Hill, just outside the highest
extremity of the park, and from the top of which a splendid panoramic
view of the whole town and neighbourhood is obtained. The State-house is
a fine building in itself, and contains one of Chantrey's best
works--the statue of Washington. The most interesting building in
Boston, to the Americans, is, undoubtedly, Faneuil Hall, called also the
"Cradle of Liberty." Within those walls the stern oratory