A PENCIL SKETCH. 253 



me, a dozen of my charming friends, God bless them ! with 

 their bright eyes, and their gentle entreaties, will be pressing me 

 for a disclosure ; but I tell them beforehand, I am panoplied in a 

 stern philosophy, and shall remain immovable. 



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 highest triumphs of art and taste : in the 

 midst of books, and statues, and pictures, and all the elegances 

 and refinements of luxury ; in the rnidst of titles, and dignities, 

 and ranks, allied to regal grandeur, there was one object which 

 transcended and eclipsed them all, and showed how much the 

 nobility of character surpassed the nobility of rank, the beauty 

 of refined and simple manners all the adornments of art, and 

 the scintillations of the soul, beaming from the eyes, the purest 

 gems that ever glittered in a princely diadem. In person, in 

 education and improvement, in quickness of perception, in facility 

 and elegance of expression, in accomplishments and taste, in a 

 frankness and gentleness of manners tempered by a modesty 

 which courted confidence and inspired respect, and in a high 

 moral tone and sentiment, which, like a bright halo, seemed to 

 encircle the whole person, I confess the fictions of poetry 

 became substantial, and the beau ideal of my youthful imagina 

 tion was realized. 



But who was the person I have described ? A mere statue, to 

 adorn a gallery of sculpture ? a bird of paradise, to be kept in a 

 glass case ? a mere doll, with painted cheeks, to be dressed and 

 undressed with childish fondness? a mere human toy, to lan 

 guish over a romance, or to figure in a quadrille ? Par other 

 wise : she was a woman in all the noble attributes which should 

 dignify that name ; a wife, a mother, a housekeeper, a farmer, a 

 gardener, a dairy-woman, a kind neighbor, a benefactor to the 

 poor, a Christian woman, &quot; full of good works, and alms-deeds 

 which she did.&quot; 



In the morning, I first met her at prayers ; for, to the honor 

 of England, there is scarcely a family, among the hundreds 

 whose hospitality I have shared, where the duties of the day are 

 not preceded by the services of family worship ; and the master 

 and the servant, the parent and the child, the teacher and the 

 22 



