perly broken for the
saddle. The Americans who have spoken to me about riding say that
they do not like a horse to have what we consider proper paces, but
prefer a shambling sort of half-trot, half-canter, which they
judiciously call a rack, and which is the ugliest pace to behold,
and the most difficult to endure, possible. They never use a curb,
but ride their horses upon the snaffle entirely, dragging it as
tight as they can, and having the appearance of holding on for dear
life by it; so that the horse, in addition to the awkward gait I
have described, throws his head up, and pokes his nose out, and
with open jaws "devours the road" before him....

I acted here last night for the first time. Dall and my father say
that I received my reception very ungraciously. I am sure I am very
sorry, I did not mean to do so, but I really had not the heart or
the face to smile and look as pleased and pleasant as I can at a
parcel of strangers.... I was not well, or in spirits, and laboring
under a severe cold, which I acquired on board the steamboat that
brought down the Delaware.... Neither the Raritan nor the Delaware
struck me in any way except by their great width. These vast
streams naturally suggest the mighty resources which a country so
watered presents to the commercial enterprise of its inhabitants.
The breadth of these great rivers dwarfs their shores and makes
their banks appear flat and uninteresting, though the large
lake-like basins into which they occasionally expand are grand from
the mere extent and volume of the sweeping mass of waters.

The colors of the autumnal foliage are rich and beautiful beyond
imagination--crimson and gold, like a regal mantle, instead of the
sad russet cloak of our fading woods. I think, beautiful as this
is, that its gorgeousness takes away from the sweet solemnity that
makes the fall of the year pre-eminently the season of thoughtful
contemplation. Our autumn at home is mellow and harmonious, though
sometimes melancholy; but the brilliancy of this decay strikes one
sometimes with a sudden sadness, as if the whole world were dying
of consumption, with these glittering gleams and hectic flushes, a
mere deception of disease and death.... Good-by, my dearest H----

PHILADELPHIA,