Feminine Taste in Rural Affairs 281 



and ardently believing that the loveliest and best women in 

 the. world are those of our own country, we cannot think of 

 their losing so much of their own and nature's bloom, as 

 only to enjoy their gardens by the results, like the French, 

 rather than through the development, like the English. 

 We would gladly show them how much they lose. We 

 would convince them, that only to pluck the fullblown 

 flower, is like a first introduction to it, compared with the 

 lifelong friendship of its mistress, who has nursed it from 

 its first two leaves; and that the real zest of our enjoyment 

 of nature, even in a garden, lies in our looking at her, not 

 like a spectator who admires, but like a dear and intimate 

 friend, to whom, after long intimacy, she reveals sweets 

 wholly hidden from those who only come to her in full dress, 

 and in the attitude of formal visitors. 



If any one wishes to know how completely and intensely 

 English women enter into the spirit of gardening, he has 

 only to watch the wife of the most humble artisan who 

 settles in any of our cities. She not only has a pot of 

 flowers - - her back yard is a perfect curiosity shop of botan- 

 ical rarities. She is never done with training, and watering 

 and caring for them. And truly, they reward her well; 

 for who ever saw such large geraniums, such fresh daisies, 

 such ruddy roses! Comparing them with the neglected 

 and weak specimens in the garden of her neighbor, one 

 might be tempted to believe that they had been magnetized 

 by the charm of personal fondness of their mistress, into a 

 life and beauty not common to other plants. 



Mr. Colman, in his "European Tour," seems to have 

 been struck by this trait, and gave so capital a portrait of 

 rural accomplishments in a lady of rank he had the good 

 fortune to meet, that we cannot resist the temptation of 

 turning the picture to the light once more: 



"I had no sooner, then, entered the house, where my visit had been 

 expected, than I was met with an unaffected cordiality, which at once 

 made me at home. In the midst of gilded halls, and hosts of liveried 

 servants, of dazzling lamps and glittering mirrors, redoubling the high- 

 est triumphs of art and of taste; in the midst of books, and statues, and 



