454 



ON FEMININE TASTE IN RURAL AFFAIRS. 



tory of any plant, shrub, or tree, from the 

 time it was so small as to be invisible to 

 all but their eyes, to the time when every 

 passer by stops to admire and enjoy it; to 

 live, in short, not only the in-door but the 

 out-of-door life of a true woman in the 

 country. Every lady may not be "born to 

 love pigs and chickens," (though that is a 

 o-ood thing to be born to ;) but, depend upon 

 it, she has been cut offby her mother nature 

 with less than a shilling's patrimony, if she 

 does not love trees, flowers, gardens, and 

 nature, as if they were all part of herself. 



We half suspect, if the truth must be told, 

 that there is a little affectation or coquetry 

 among some of our fair readers, in this want 

 of hearty interest in rural occupation. We 

 have noticed that it is precisely those who 

 have the smallest gardens, and, therefore, 

 who ought most naturally to wish to take 

 the greatest interest in their culture them- 

 selves, — it is precisely those who depend 

 entirely upon their gardener. They rest 

 with such entire faith on the chivalry of 

 our sex, that they gladly permit everything 

 to be done for them, and thus lose the 

 greatest charm which their garden could 

 give — that of a delightful personal inti- 

 macy. 



Almost all the really enthusiastic and 

 energetic lady gardeners, that we have the 

 pleasure of knowing, belong to the wealthi- 

 est class in this country. We have a neigh- 

 bor on the Hudson, for instance, whose 

 pleasure-grounds cover many acres, whose 

 flower-garden is a miracle of beauty, and 

 who keeps six gardeners at work all the 

 season. But there is never a tree trans- 

 planted that she does not see its roots care- 

 fully handled ; not a walk laid out that she 

 does not mark its curves ; not a parterre 

 arranged that she does not direct its colours 

 and grouping, and even assist in planting 

 it. No matter what guests enjoy her hos- 



pitality, several hours every day are thus 

 spent in out-of-door employment ; and from 

 the zeal and enthusiasm with which she 

 always talks of everything relating to her 

 country life, we do not doubt that she is 

 far more rationally happy now, than when 

 she received the homage of a circle of ad- 

 mirers at one of the most brilliant of fo- 

 reign courts. 



On the table before us, lies a letter from 

 a lady of fortune in Philadelphia, whose 

 sincere and hearty enthusiasm in country 

 life always delights us. She is one of 

 those beings who animate everything she 

 touches, and would make a heart beat in n 

 granite rock, if it had not the stubbornness 

 of all "facts before the flood. ' She is in 

 a dilemma now about tlie precise uses of 

 lime, (which has staggered many an old 

 cultivator, by the way,) and tells the story 

 of her doubts with an earnest directness 

 and eloquence that one seeks for in vain in 

 the essays of our male chemico-horticultural 

 correspondents. We are quite sure that 

 there will be a meaning in every fruit and 

 flower which this lady plucks from the gar- 

 den, of which our fair friends, who are the 

 disciples of the Sevigne school, have not 

 the feeblest conception. 



There are also, we fear, those who fancy 

 that there is something rustic, unfeminine 

 and unrefined, about an interest in country 

 out-of-door matters. Would we could pre- 

 sent to them a picture which rises in our 

 memory, at this moment, as the finest of 

 all possible denials to such a theory. In 

 the midst of the richest agricultural region 

 of the northern states, lives a lady — a young, 

 unmarried lady ; mistress of herself ; of 

 some thousands of acres of the finest 

 lands; and a mansion which is almost the 

 ideal of taste and refinement. Very well. 

 Does this lady sit in her drawing-room 

 all day, to receive her visitors ? By no 



