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ON FEMININE TASTE IN RURAL AFFAIRS. 



tinct of civilized nations, in their nation- 

 ality. But they had almost as mixed an 

 origin as ourselves, — Anglo-Saxon, Celts, 

 Roman, Danish, Norman ; all these appa- 

 rently discordant elements, were fused so 

 successfully into a great and united peo- 

 ple. 



That a hundred years hence will find us 

 quite as distinct and quite as developed, in 

 our national character, we cannot doubt. 

 What that character will be, in all its pha- 

 ses, no one at present can precisely say ; 

 but that the French and the English ele- 

 ments will largely influence it in its growth, 

 and yet, that in morals, in feeling, and in 

 heart, we shall be entirely distinct from 

 either of those nations, is as clear to us as 

 a summer noon. 



We are not going into a profound philo- 

 sophical dissertation on the political or the 

 social side of national character. We want 

 to touch very slightly on a curious little 

 point that interests us ; one that political 

 philosophers would think quite beneath 

 them ; one that moralists would not trouble 

 themselves about ; and one that we are very 

 much afraid nobody else will think worth 

 notice at all ; and therefore we shall set 

 about it directly. 



What is the reason American ladies dont 

 looe to work in their gardens 1 



It is of no use whatever, that some fifty 

 or a hundred of our fair readers say, " we 

 do." We have carefully studied the mat- 

 ter, until it has become a fact past all 

 contradiction. They may love to "potter" 

 a little. Three or four times in the spring 

 they take a fancy to examine the colour of 

 the soil a few inches below the surface ; they 

 sow some China Asters, and plant a few 

 Dahlias, and it is all over. Love flowers, 

 with all their hearts, they certainly do. 

 Few things are more enchanting to them 

 than a fine garden ; and bouquets on their 



centre tables are positive necessities, with 

 every lady, from Maine to the Rio Grande. 

 Now, we certainly have all the love of 

 nature of our English forefathers. We 

 love the country ; and a large part of the 

 millions, earned every year by our enter- 

 prise, is spent in creating and embellishing 

 country homes. But, on the contrary, our 

 wives and daughters only love gardens as 

 the French love them — for the results. 

 They love to walk through them ; they en- 

 joy the beauty and perfume of their pro- 

 ducts, but only as amateurs. They know 

 no more of that intense enjoyment of her 

 who plans, creates, and daily watches the 

 growth of those gardens or flowers, — no 

 more of that absolute, living enjoyment, 

 which the English have in out-of-door 

 pursuits, than a mere amateur, who goes 

 through a fine gallery of pictures, knows of 

 the intensified emotions which the painters 

 of those pictures experienced in their souls, 

 when they gazed on the gradual growth 

 and perfected splendor of their finest mas- 

 ter-pieces. 



As it is plain, from our love of the coun- 

 try, that we are not French at heart, this 

 manifestation that we complain of, must 

 come from our natural tendency to copy 

 the social manners of the most polished 

 nation in the world. And it is indeed 

 quite wonderful how, being scarcely in 

 the least affected by the morale., we still 

 borrow almost instinctively, and entirely 

 without being aware of it, so much from la 

 Belle France. ^That our dress, mode of 

 life, and intercourse, is largely tinged with 

 French taste, every traveller notices. But 

 it goes farther. Even the plans of our 

 houses become more and more decidedly 

 French. We have had occasion, lately, to 

 make considerable explorations in the do- 

 mestic architecture of France and Eng- 

 land, and we have noticed some striking 



