New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-06-23
he Southerners al Home No. ".
yws, he Journal Of Northern Traveller on Horseback.
WESTERN MIssIssIpPI-NATCIEZ.

From the HomochittO to the suburbs, days
easy ride, found the country beautiful; less mus
Dan before; very rich in soil, and almost all ih-
closed in plantations, the roadside boundaries OF
which are old rose-hedges. The road is well-con-
ptructed and often passing through the hills with
high banks on each side, COPIED with thick and dark
bat free and sportive hedges; avenues of trees
growing careles.y out Of them and bending angel
ieany over the traveller, the sentiment of the most
charming Hereiordshire lanes is delciouIy repro
Auced. There are also frequent woods OF park
IKE character in their Openness; the trees chiefly
oak, and OF great hight. Sometimes these have been
Deosed with neat pangs, and slightly and tastefuly
adjusted 10 form noble grounds around the resi-
1ences Of the planters which always cottages or
very simple aud unostentatiOus mansions. Ncartwo
Of these unusually good ranges OF negro houses.
On many Of the plantations, perhaps most no resi-
aence is visible from the road, and the negro quar-
tiers, when seen, are the usual cOmiortless huts
Within three miles Of the town the country is en-
srely occupied by houses and grounds OF villa char
acter, the grounds usually maniestRg patry taste
with miniature terraces and trees and shrubs plant
ed and trimmed, with no regard to architectural or
landscape considerations. There Is, however, an
abundance OF good trees much beautiful shrubbery,
and the best hedges and screens OF evergreen shrubs
have seen in America. The houses are not re-
Ioarkable.
was amused to recognize specimens of the Swell
Head fraternity, described by my nervous friend
the night before, | got into the villa dis
trict First came two boys in skeleton wagon,
pitehng along with q racking pony, which ran over
Jude she yelped, wheeled round, and they pulled
I'D and looked apologize. She was but slightly
hurt, but thereafter gave a quicker and broader
sheer to approaching vehicles than her Texas e1-
perience had taught her to do.
Then came four ndistinct boards and two Old
roue- looking men, all trOtting horses; the young fell
k,xCa
them cantered muattO groom, white glOved and
neatly dressed, who l noticed, bowed politely lift
ing his hat and smiling, to a ragged old negro, with
q Wheebarrow and shovel, on the toOtpath.
Next came-and ii was sWeltcringly not after
noOn--sn open carriage with two ladies taking an
airing. Mr.. S. had said the Swell-Heads had "gotto
think that their old nanny Diggers were not good
enough for their young ones; and here on the front
seat Of the carriage white and verltabe French
bcnne holding richly -beaced baby. The ladies'
sat back, gOOd-lO0king women enough and prettly-
dressed but ma rbe-lke in prOprety, looking stealth
lily from the of their eyes without turning
their heads as if not that it were best TO see
anything until they had had adequate assurance of
hs responsibility. But the dignity of the turnout
chiefly repOsed in the coachman, an obese Bid black
man, who should have been manufacturer OF iced
root beer in o cool cellar, but who had by some
means been set high up in the SUMS face on the bed
like cushion of the bOX to display a great livery
tOp-cOat with the wOnted capes and velvet buttOned
brightly and tightly to the chin, of course, and
crowned by the narrOw-brimmed hat, with broad
band and buckles his elbows squared, the reins and
whip in his hands, the sweat in gobules all over his
ruefuny decorOus face, and his eyes fast closed in
sleep.
The houses and shops within the town itself are
generally small and always inelegsnt; German
names in ms Ority the signs; the hotel seems
clean and the servants attentive; and the stable at
which have left Belshazzar is excellent, and con-
fains several very fine horses. Indeed, never
such large proportion of fine horses as here, in any
ether town. In the stable and the hotel have
seen also remarkable number of young men, ex-
traOrdnay;iy dressed like New-York clerks their
Sunday excursions, all loungng saunterng, all
smoking, all twisting 1.-THE walking and all
stalking horse"
But the grand feature of Natchez is the cliff, or
bluff broken of and precipitous on the river with
the public garden upon ii. OF this never had
heard and when after seeing my horse dried on aud
eating his oats with great satlsaction-the first
time he has ever tasted oats, suppose strolcd
Of to see the town. l came upon il by surprise
I entered gate and walked up slope supposing
that i was approaching the ridge or summit of a
hill, and expecting TO ace corresponding slope and
the town again, continuing in efrced streets TO the
river found myself almost at the moment dis
covered it was not So on the very edge of stu
pendous cliff and before me an lndescribably vast
eIpanse of forest, wholly unbroken to hazy hor-
xon in which swung the round red, setting sun;
onlH the great food of the Mississippi had swept
broad aisle for ITSELF bending toward me with a
perfect are; the hither shore yet hidden by ckfi-
edge and the ends gradually lost in the dim, endless
forest right and left. Larger than any river you
have had in Imagination before with the CLEAN of
planished steel but the boil and fretted chasing of
swelling torrent and the great West beyond it in all
the untathOmabe obscurity of forest ocean.
Coming closer to the edge and looking under it,
vertically from church steeple and from grand
hight you see the lower town, its roofs with water
flowing all around them, and its pgmy people wad.
ing and laboring to carry upward it's goods and fur
nituc, in danger from rising movement of the
great water. Poor people emigrsnts aud nggers
emily.
l laid down, and woudihave reposed my mind in
The infinite vision westward, but was presently dis
turbed by great hog which came grunting near
me- roofing in the poor turf Of this wonderful town
garden. rose and walked it's length. Little more
has been done than to nclose space along the edge
which would have been dangerous TO build upon,
and to plant few succulent trees upon It. a road
TO the lower town, cutting through il, is crossed by
slight wooden foot-bridges, and there are some
rough plank benches adorned with stenciled
medical advertisements. Some shrubs are
planted the crumbling face of the cliff near the
tops, to which the swine also obtain access.
bearded and smoking man, and woman with him,
sitting at the extreme end, were the only visitors
beside myself and the swine.
As am writing there is hustle in the street. A
young man is being lifted up and carried into the
barToom. He is insensibe. A beautiful mare from
which he has evidently been thrown, is led back
hom around the corner quiverlng with excitement.
ieould lind no recent newspapers except The Ndtch-
90 Free Trader which has nothing but cotton, river
news and steamboat pufs; no magazines but ancient
hsrpers and no recent publications of any sort for