CHAPTER VII.

Journey from Auburn by Cayuga and Seneca Lakes to Buffalo, on Lake Erie-Stage from Auburn to Ithaca by Aurora Lake-Aurora Village-Gypsum-Apples-Ithaca Falls-Serenade to a party lately married--Bill at Ithaca-Breakfast on road-Village of Ovid-Geneva Village and Lake-Manners of Servants, or Helps-Professor Silliman's Advice how to act in respect to them-Mr Macnab of Geneva -Ride with him-First settlements in this Country-Agricultural Societies Number of Stages at Geneva-Stage from Geneva to Canandaigua-Fine Country-Blossom's Hotel-Avon-Civility of Landlord-Anecdote-Carriages at Avon Church door quite universal-Presbyterian Church-Forms-Notice-Sacrament-Anecdote of Washington-Good understanding among Clergymen of different denominations-Freedom of Remarks in Stages-Absence of Hypocrisy in Religious Matters-Boarders at Avon-Village of Genessee— Mr Wadsworth's Meadows-Civility at the Hotel at the Village— Rapid change of Climate from Heat to Cold-Stage from Avon to Buffalo-Girdled Trees-Corduroy road near Buffalo.

From 2d September to 9th September. SOON after our visit to the Auburn prison, we left the very comfortable family hotel at that village in the stage for Ithaca, at the head of the Cayuga lake, in order to have a look of the village of Aurora, on the eastern side of the lake, and to see a little more of the lakes than we should have done if we had adhered to the di

rect western road, which passes the outlets or northern ends of those lakes. The lakes are parallel to each other, about thirty-three or thirty-five miles long, and two miles broad; our route is by the eastern side of the Cayuga lake to Ithaca, and thence by the western side of Seneca lake to Geneva on its northern extremity.

We proceeded by the western road as far as the outlet from Cayuga Lake, where there is a wooden bridge remarkable for its length, above a mile, and thence by the east side of the lake to Aurora, which is charmingly situated on rising ground above the lake, and is considered an eligible place of residence, on account of the beauty of the surrounding scenery, and cheapness of the necessaries of life. The village does not consist of a connected street, or rows of houses, but of a number of detached, clean-looking, and apparently comfortable small villas, inclosed in courts, or spots of garden ground ornamented with a few weeping willows or locust trees. Gypsum is found in large quantity in the northern parts of the land adjoining Cayuga Lake, and much used as manure at the rate of two bushels per acre. There is a great deal of ground in the neighbourhood devoted to orchards, at present in all their glory, loaded with fruit. The coachman drove so near the trees close to the road, that we had as many apples as we chose to pull. We dined at a small hotel at Aurora on pork, which, as we have always hitherto found it in this country, was excellent. The hogs are allowed in this country to run out in the forests and orchards, where

they subsist in great measure in the autumn on nuts, acorns, and fallen apples, and in some cases on fallen peaches. Before being killed they are put up for a short time on Indian corn. The flesh of the hogs fed in this way is firm and good. Our fellow-passengers consisted of a Pensylvania farmer; an Ithaca storekeeper; and a female, with her son Ulysses. We passed many good farms, some of them recently brought into cultivation, on which the usual processes of housebuilding, and inclosing by strong wooden rails, were in progress.

We found the regular supper was finished before we reached Mr Jones's hotel at Ithaca. The hotel seemed crowded with boarders and strangers; but the landlord, without our applying for it, gave us separate accommodation, and continued it, unasked, while we remained. Mr Jones is a most attentive landlord in all respects,offered us his services on the day after we arrived, and which, too, we spent at Ithaca, to show us the village, and every thing in the neighbourhood which we had any curiosity to see. Ithaca is a very flourishing village, the centre of several great roads, with a population of between 3000 and 4000, and buildings in rapid progress. It is surrounded on all sides, but that towards the lake, by hills 300 and 400 feet high. The soil of the low grounds rich. Public or tea-gardens are common in the American towns. In one of the gardens here, kept by an Irish gardener, formerly employed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the gardens

at Lambeth, we saw some fine fruit, especially grapes, of which he sent us a liberal present to the hotel.

The falls of Fall Creek, a river of considerable size, which discharges itself into the Cayuga Lake, within a very short distance from Ithaca, almost in the environs, are very remarkable,—the descent being about 350 feet in the course of a mile and a-half, the last fall tumbling from a height of ninety feet; the river banks rocky, wild, and romantic.

There was a great deal of keen discussion in the bar-room of this hotel, on the subject of the approaching election of a President of the United States. Upon one occasion it was carried so far, and apparently as methodically, as if a regular meeting had been arranged to debate the merits of the two candidates. Rather too great warmth was displayed, but we afterwards found that one of the parties was a gentleman travelling through the State in order to learn the general sentiments as to one of the candidates, and that on this occasion he had accidentally got into collision with a gentleman similarly engaged on the other side. They addressed each other, the one as judge, probably a justice of peace, the other as colonel. A good many people were present, but took hardly any share in the disputation.

During the night we were disturbed by a band of music, clarionets, hautboys, and wind instruments,—— close to the hotel for several hours. Scots airs were chiefly played. Auld Lang Syne, John Anderson my Joe, &c. It turned out that a marriage had taken place the day before, in a house a door or two from the hotel,

and that the friends of the party had ordered a serenade for them. We had not previously observed any public musical performers, not even an organist on the street, at New York, or anywhere else.

At the Ithaca hotel, both brandy and white wine were set before us at dinner, and though we partook of the latter, no separate charge was made. The bill, instead of stating so much for board for a certain period, as is usual, was made out at so much for each meal,breakfast at 1s. 6d.; dinner, ls. 6d.; tea and supper, 1s. 3d., and lodging, 8d. per night for each; so that the whole charge for two nights' lodgings; supper on the evening of our arrival, and meals during the next day,―at all of which there was animal food and poultry in profusion,-amounted, for three persons, to 5 dollars, 13 cents, or L. 1, 6s. 9d. No waiter or boots to be paid, nor extra charge of any kind. In general in this part of the country, we are told, that the charge per day for persons travelling is a dollar,-probably not more than three dollars a week for resident regular boarders.

We pursued our journey on the 5th towards Geneva. Looking back from a height about two miles from Ithaca, and to the north-west of it, we were delighted with a view of the village, the falls, the hills covered with wood, and the lake. We breakfasted at a hotel by the roadside, kept by a person of the name of Pratt. The farm-labourers were seated at table with us, but the breakfast was good. We were hungry, and we solaced ourselves after breakfast with as many fine peaches in