was
glazed, so that we could see the view without being exposed to the
cutting wind which was blowing outside.

The houses here are generally of brick, painted a deep red colour,
which, not being in too great masses, and picked out with a good deal of
white, has a very good effect. Some few houses, however, especially
towards the outskirts of the town, were of wood, painted white. We
yesterday passed many villages and towns of these pretty houses, but
with the snow lying around them, scarcely whiter than the houses
themselves, they had a very chilly appearance, and looked far less
tempting than the houses of this description in New England when we
first saw them, each in its pretty clean lawn, and surrounded by a
lovely foliage. To return to this town--and, as a climax to its
perfection, it has, out and out, the most comfortable hotel we have seen
in America. It is quite a bijou, with a very pretty facade, and, being
new last year, everything is in the best style. The ground floor, as is
generally the case in this country, consists, like the Hotel du Louvre
in Paris, of good shops, which gives a gayer appearance to the whole
than if it were one mass of dwelling rooms. We find it so comfortable
that, instead of going on this afternoon to Philadelphia, we mean to
remain here to-night, and to go on to-morrow to New York.

_New York, Nov. 22nd._--We took one more walk at Harrisburgh, before
starting on Saturday. The morning was lovely, and from the hill above
the town, which we had time to reach, the view was very beautiful. But,
of all the picturesque things that I have lately seen, I think the scene
which presented itself this morning, when I opened our bedroom shutters
at six o'clock, was the most striking. The night, on which I had looked
out before going to bed, was clear and most beautiful; but a few stars
now only remained as the day had begun to dawn, and the east was
reddened by the approaching sunrise. Below the window was a very large
market-place, lighted up and crowded with buyers and sellers. The women
all had on the usual bonnet worn by the lower classes in this
country,--a sun-bonnet, made of coloured cotton, with a very deep
curtain hanging down the back. They wore besides warm cloaks and
coloured shawls, and the men large wide-awakes. I have already described
the brilliantly red houses, and the day being sufficiently advanced to
bring out the colour very conspicuously, I think I never saw a prettier
or