s.

The landscape was tame to the last degree, but had an English character
that was abundantly worth our looking at. A green luxuriance of early
grass; old, high-roofed farm-houses, surrounded by their stone barns and
ricks of bay and grain; ancient villages, with the square, gray tower of a
church seen afar over the level country, amid the cluster of red roofs;
here and there a shadowy grove of venerable trees, surrounding what was
perhaps an Elizabethan ball, though it looked more like the abode of some
rich yeoman. Once, too, we saw the tower of a mediaeval castle, that of
Tattershall, built by a Cromwell, but whether of the Protector's family I
cannot tell. But the gentry do not appear to have settled multitudinously
in this tract of country; nor is it to be wondered at, since a lover of
the picturesque would as soon think of settling in Holland. The river
retains its canal-like aspect all along; and only in the latter part of
its course does it become more than wide enough for the little steamer to
turn itself round,--at broadest, not more than twice that width.

The only memorable incident of our voyage happened when a mother-duck was
leading her little fleet of five ducklings across the river, just as our
steamer went swaggering by, stirring the quiet stream into great waves
that lashed the banks on either side. I saw the imminence of the
catastrophe, and hurried to the stern of the boat to witness, since I
could not possibly avert it. The poor ducklings had uttered their
baby-quacks, and striven with all their tiny might to escape: four of
them, I believe, were washed aside and thrown off unhurt from the
steamer's prow; but the fifth must have gone under the whole length of the
keel, and never could have come up alive.

At last, in, mid-afternoon, we beheld the tall tower of Saint Botolph's
Church (three hundred feet high, the same elevation as the tallest tower
of Lincoln Cathedral) looming in the distance. At about half-past four we
reached Boston, (which name has been shortened, in the course of ages, by
the quick and slovenly English pronunciation, from Botolph's town,) and
were taken by a cab to the Peacock, in the market-place. It was the best
hotel in town, though a poor one enough; and we were shown into a small,
stilled parlor, dingy, musty, and scented with stale
tobacco-smoke,--tobacco-smoke two days old, for the waiter assured us that
the room had not more recently been fumigated. An exceedingly gr