TRAILING MRS. TROLLOPE
The Mountaineer has lent us a copy of "Domestic Manners of the Americans," in which Mrs. Trollope, the mother of Anthony, recorded her numerous chagrins during a three-year tour among the barbarians in 1827-30.
She visited Philadelphia in the summer of 1830, and remarks as follows upon some scenes familiar to us:
"The State House has nothing externally to recommend it . . . there is a very pretty inclosure before the Walnut street entrance, with good, well-kept gravel walks... . Near this inclosure is another of much the same description, called Washington Square. Here there was an excellent crop of clover; but as the trees are numerous, and highly beautiful, and several commodious seats are placed beneath their shade, it is, in spite of the long grass, a very agreeable retreat from heat and dust. It was rarely, however, that I saw any of these seats occupied; the Americans have either no leisure or no inclination for those moments of délassement that all other people, I believe, indulge in. Even their drams, so universally taken by rich and poor, are swallowed standing, and, excepting at church, they never have the air of leisure or repose. This pretty Washington Square is surrounded by houses on three sides, but (lasso!) has a prison on the fourth; it is, nevertheless, the nearest approach to a London square that is to be found in Philadelphia."
