autiful.--Oh, what a contrast to horrid Nova
Scotia, with her barren hills, and everlasting bleak mountains!--The
picture from the banks of the river to the top of the landscape, is
truly delightful, and beyond any thing I ever saw in my own country;
and this is owing to the hedges, which are novelties in the eyes of an
American. In our country, the fields, meadows and pastures are divided
by stone walls, or the rough post-and-rail fence; but here their
fields, pastures and enclosures, which are very small, compared with
ours, are made by hedges, or living growing vegetables, of a deep and
most beautiful green. It gives a richness to the English landscape,
beyond all expression fine. How happens it, I wonder, that hedges have
never been introduced into _New_ England, who has copied so closely
every thing belonging to _Old_ England? Should I ever be permitted to
leave this Babylonish captivity, and be allowed once more to see our
own Canaan, the enclosures of hedge shall not be forgotten.

Nearly opposite our doleful prison stands the village of _Gillingham_,
adorned with a handsome church; on the side next _Chatham_, stands the
castle, defended by more than an hundred cannon. These fortifications
were erected soon after the Dutch republicans sailed up to Chatham,
and singed John Bull's beard; since which it is said, he changes
countenance at the name of a republic, or republican. We are told in
the history of Gillingham, that here, the famous Earl Goodwin murdered
six hundred Norman gentlemen, belonging to the retinue of Prince
Alfred. But some such shocking story is told of almost every town in
England that has an old castle, an old tower, or an old cathedral.
This village once belonged to an Archbishop of Canterbury, vestiges of
whose palace are yet to be seen. This place is also noted for making
what is absurdly called _copperas_, which is the chrystalized salt of
iron, or what is called in the new chemical nomenclature _sulphate of
iron_; or in common parlance, _green vitriol_; which is manufactured,
and found native in our own country, in immeasurable quantity.

Near this village of Gillingham, is a neat house, with a good garden,
and surrounded by trees, which was bequeathed by a lady to the oldest
boatswain in the Royal Navy.--The present incumbent is eighty years of
age. Within our view is a shepherd attending his flock, with his
canine lieutenants, who drive them into their pen in the evening, as
our shepherds