A Tour through North America by Patrick Shirreff

_Company at Saratoga-Fast Eating-Notices of Buel Farm-Mr Buel-New York-State Agricultural Society-Advantages of a young country-Farmers of Britain and the States-British Agricultural Societies._

We reached Saratoga, the most celebrated watering-place in America, about two o'clock, and found accommodation at Congress Hall, the principal hotel in the village, and capable of accommodating 300 individuals. On retiring to prepare for dinner, my friend and I debated the nature of the attire in which we should appear-he conceiving it unnecessary to change our travelling garb, and I thinking it proper to assume full dress, in expectation of meeting the gay, wealthy, and polished of the land. We soon found ourselves seated at a second dinner table, consisting of a numerous company, which the railway coaches had just brought from Albany. The party displayed few symptoms of refinement. A gentleman on the opposite side of the table deliberately folded up the sleeves of his coat before commencing dinner, planted both elbows on the table, and swallowed his food voraciously, without once looking to the right or left. I felt, and perhaps looked, disappointed at the hurried manner in which the party dined; and on the company leaving table immediately afterwards, my friend enjoyed his triumph of opinion, and quizzed my shoes and stockings, as a marked singularity which both of us were anxious to avoid. Tea was served at seven o'clock, and, as usual, the repast was a regular feeding race. Business may have originated, but it cannot always excuse the practice of fast eating; and the inmates of Congress Hall were in perfect idleness.