the corporation were painted over doors on each side, and were struck
with amazement, when, at the end of this, we entered a hall, as light
and bright-looking as St. James' Hall in London, and though not perhaps
so large, still of considerable dimensions, and well proportioned. The
walls were stone-colour, and the wood-work of the roof and light
galleries were buff, picked out with the brightest scarlet. On a
platform at one end of the room were seated the Mayor of Springfield,
and many guests whom he introduced one by one to the audience in short
speeches. These worthies delivered harangues on the subject of horses
and their uses; and the speeches were really very respectable, and not
too long, but were delivered in general with a strong nasal twang.
There were persons from all parts of America; Ohio, Carolina, &c. &c.

We made out our night tolerably well, and next morning went to look at
the arsenal, and depôt of arms, and were shown over the place by a
person connected with the establishment, who was most civil and obliging
in explaining the nature of all we saw. The view from the tower was most
lovely. The panorama was encircled by high hills, clothed with wood; and
the town, and many villages and churches, all of dazzling whiteness, lay
scattered before the eye. We drove next to the Horse Fair, which was
very well arranged. There was a circus of half a mile, forming a wide
carriage road, on which horses were ridden or driven, to show off their
merits. The quickest trotted at the rate of twenty miles an hour. When
the horses were driven in pairs, the driver held a rein in each hand.
There was a platform at one end filled with well-conducted people, and a
judge's seat near it. The horses in single-harness went faster even than
those in pairs: one horse, called Ethan Allen, performing about
twenty-four miles an hour; though Edward may arrive nearer than this
"about," by calculating at the rate of two minutes and thirty-seven
seconds, in which it went twice round this circle. The owner of this