Feminine Taste in Rural Affairs 283 



house, she exhibited to me I lie Farm Journal, and the whole systematic 

 mode of keeping the accounts and making the returns, with which she 

 seemed as familiar as if they were the accounts of her own wardrobe. 

 This did not finish our grand tour; for, on my return, she admitted me 

 into her boudoir, and showed me the secrets of her own admirable house- 

 wifery, in the exact accounts which she kept of every thing connected 

 with the dairy, the market, the table, and the drawing-room, and the 

 servant's hall. All this was done with a simplicity and a frankness, 

 which showed an absence of all consciousness of any extraordinary merit 

 in her own department, and which evidently sprang solely from a kind 

 desire to gratify a curiosity on my part, which, I hope, under such cir- 

 cumstances, was not unreasonable. 



"A short hour after this brought us into another relation; for the 

 dinner bell summoned us, and this same lady was found presiding over a 

 brilliant circle of the highest rank and fashion, with an ease, elegance, 

 wit, intelligence, and good humor, with a kind attention to every one's 

 wants, and unaffected concern for every one's comfort, which would lead 

 one to suppose that this was her only and her peculiar sphere. Now I 

 will not say how many mud-puddles we had waded through, and how 

 many manure heaps we had crossed, and what places we had explored, 

 and how every farming topic was discussed; but I will say that she 

 pursued her object without any of that fastidiousness and affected deli- 

 cacy, which pass with some persons for refinement, but which, in many 

 cases, indicate a weak, if not a corrupt mind. . . . 



"Now I do not say that the lady to whom I have referred was her- 

 self the manager of the farm; that rested entirely with her husband; but 

 I have intended simply to show how gratifying to him must have been 

 the lively interest and sympathy which she took in concerns which nec- 

 essarily so much engaged his time and attention; and how the country 

 would be divested of that dullness and ennui, so often complained of as 

 inseparable from it, when a cordial and practical interest is taken in 

 the concerns which belong to rural life. I meant also to show and 

 this and many other examples, which have come under my observation, 

 emphatically do show that an interest in, and familiarity with, even 

 the most humble occupations of agricultural life, are not inconsistent 

 with the highest refinements of taste, the most improved cultivation of 

 the mind, and elegance, and dignity of manners, unsurpassed in the 

 highest circles of society." 



This picture is thoroughly English; and who do our 

 readers suppose this lady was? Mr. Colman puts his finger 

 on his lips, and declares that however much he may be 

 questioned by his fair readers at home, he will make no dis- 

 closures. But other people recognize the portrait; and we 

 understand it is that of the Duchess of Portland. 



