At eight we landed again, and travelled by a stage-coach for four
hours through a pleasant and well-cultivated country, perfectly
French in every respect: in the appearance of the cottages; the
air, language, and dress of the peasantry; the sign-boards on the
shops and taverns: and the Virgin's shrines, and crosses, by the
wayside. Nearly every common labourer and boy, though he had no
shoes to his feet, wore round his waist a sash of some bright
colour: generally red: and the women, who were working in the
fields and gardens, and doing all kinds of husbandry, wore, one and
all, great flat straw hats with most capacious brims. There were
Catholic Priests and Sisters of Charity in the village streets; and
images of the Saviour at the corners of cross-roads, and in other
public places.
At noon we went on board another steamboat, and reached the village
of Lachine, nine miles from Montreal, by three o'clock. There, we
left the river, and went on by land.
Montreal is pleasantly situated on the margin of the St. Lawrence,
and is backed by some bold heights, about which there are charming
rides and drives. The streets are generally narrow and irregular,
as in most French towns of any age; but in the more modern parts of
the city, they are wide and airy.
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