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Passages from the English Notebooks, Volume 2. by Nathaniel Hawthorne
page 65 of 349 (18%)
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Southampton is a very pretty town, and has not the dinginess to which I
have been accustomed in many English towns. The High Street reminds me
very much of American streets in its general effect; the houses being
mostly stuccoed white or light, and cheerful in aspect, though doubtless
they are centuries old at heart. The old gateway, which I presume I have
mentioned in describing my former visit to Southampton, stands across
High Street, about in the centre of the town, and is almost the only
token of antiquity that presents itself to the eye.


June 17th.--Yesterday morning, June 16th, S-----, Mrs. ------, and I took
the rail for Salisbury, where we duly arrived without any accident or
anything noticeable, except the usual verdure and richness of an English
summer landscape. From the railway station we walked up into Salisbury,
with the tall spire (four hundred feet high) of the cathedral before our
eyes. Salisbury is an antique city, but with streets more regular than I
have seen in most old towns, and the houses have a more picturesque
aspect than those of Oxford, for instance, where almost all are
mean-looking alike,--though I could hardly judge of Oxford on that hot,
weary day. Through one or more of the streets there runs a swift, clear
little stream, which, being close to the pavement, and bordered with
stone, may be called, I suppose, a kennel, though possessing the
transparent purity of a rustic rivulet. It is a brook in city garb. We
passed under the pointed arch of a gateway, which stands in one of the
principal streets, and soon came in front of



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