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customed to see lands enclosed with thorn hedges; for the animation and variety they communicate to an open and cultivated country, can only be estimated, by contemplating a prospect of which they do not form a part.
The road was enlivened with carriages of va- rious descriptions, but I saw very few foot pas- sengers. Almost every farmer is able to keep what is called an establishment, viz. a horse and calash, and indeed the heat in Lower Canada, during summer, is so extreme, that no person at- tempts to walk any distance except from neces- sity; therefore one seldom sees any of those hum- ble half-gentleman pedestrians, that are so often to be met with on the public roads in Britain, dressed in tarnished clothes, and carrying bun- dles over their shoulders, suspended from the end of their walking-sticks.
I was much struck with the politeness of the common Canadians. They never passed without uncovering; and when two drivers came within call, they always saluted each other by the word monsieur. The children make a low obeisance to every genteel stranger; and I cannot help men- tioning a trifling incident which was occasioned by this custom. A little boy, who had apparently just begun to walk, stood at the door of a cottage, with an immense broad-rimmed hat upon his head. When I approached, he took it off‘ and