Identifier: domesticmannerso01troluoft (find matches)
Title: Domestic manners of the Americans
Year: 1832 (1830s)
Authors: Trollope, Frances Milton, 1780-1863
Subjects: United States -- Social life and customs
Publisher: London Printed for Whittaker, Treacher
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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38 DOMESTIC MANNERS

trees, which had been cut away to open a passage,
were left standing three feet high. Over these,
the high-hung Deerborn, as our carriage was
called, passed safely; but it required some miles
of experience to convince us that every stump
would not be our last; it was amusing to watch
the cool and easy skill with which the driver
wound his horses and wheels among these stumps.
I thought he might have been imported to Bond-
street with great advantage. The forest became
thicker and more dreary-looking every mile we
advanced, but our ever-grinning negro declared it
was a right good road, and that we should be sure
to get to Nashoba. And so we did . . . . . . . . . . and
one glance sufficed to convince me that every idea
I had formed of the place was as far as possible
from the truth. Desolation was the only feeling
—the only word that presented itself: but it was
not spoken. I think, however, that Miss Wright
was aware of the painful impression the sight of
her forest home produced on me, and I doubt not
that the conviction reached us both at the same
moment, that we had erred in thinking that a few
Text Appearing After Image:


SETTLEMENT OF NASHOBA

OF THE AMERICANS. 39

months passed together at this spot could be pro-
ductive of pleasure to either. But to do her
justice, I beheve her mind was so exclusively
occupied by the object she had then in view, that
all things else were worthless, or indifferent to
her. I never heard or read of any enthusiasm ap-
proaching hers, except in some few instances, in
ages past, of religious fanaticism.
It must have been some feeling equally powerful
which enabled Miss Wright, accustomed to all the
comfort and refinement of Europe, to imagine not
only that she herself could exist in this wilderness,
but that her European friends could enter there,
and not feel dismayed at the savage aspect of the
scene. The annexed plate gives a faithful view of
the cleared space and buildings which form the
settlement. Each building consisted of two large
rooms furnished in the most simple manner; nor
had they as yet collected round them any of these
minor comforts wjich ordinary minds class among
the necessaries of life. But in this our philoso-
phical friend seemed to see no evil : nor was
there any mixture of affectation in this indiffer-
ence ; it was a circimistance really and truly

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