254 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



taught, the friend and the stranger, come together to recognize 

 and strengthen the sense of their common equality in the 

 presence of their common Father, and to acknowledge their 

 equal dependence upon his care and mercy. She was then kind 

 enough to tell me, after her morning arrangements, she claimed 

 me for the day. She first showed me her children, whom, like 

 the Roman mother, she deemed her brightest jewels, and 

 arranged their studies and occupations for the day. She then 

 took me two or three miles on foot to visit a sick neighbor, and, 

 while performing this act of kindness, left me to visit some of 

 the cottages upon the estate, whose inmates I found loud in the 

 praises of her kindness and benefactions. Our next excursion 

 was to see some of the finest, and largest, and most aged trees in 

 the park, the size of which was truly magnificent ; arid I sym 

 pathized in the veneration which she expressed for them, which 

 was like that with which one recalls the illustrious memory of a 

 remote progenitor. Our next visit was to the greenhouses and 

 the gardens ; and she explained to me the mode adopted there of 

 managing the most delicate plants, and of cultivating, in the 

 most economical and successful manner, the fruits of a warmer 

 region. From the garden we proceeded to the cultivated fields ; 

 and she informed me of the system of husbandry pursued on the 

 estate, the rotation of crops, the management and application of 

 manures, the amount of seed sown, the ordinary yield, and the 

 appropriation of the produce, with a perspicuous detail of the 

 expenses and results. She then undertook to show me the 

 yards and offices, the byres, the feeding-stalls, the plans for 

 saving, and increasing, and managing, the manure, the cattle for 

 feeding, for breeding, for raising, the milking stock, the piggery, 

 the poultry-yard, the stables, the harness-rooms, the implement- 

 rooms, the dairy. She explained to me the process of making 

 the different kinds of cheese, and the general management of the 

 milk, and the mode of feeding the stock ; and then, conducting 

 me into the bailiffs house, she exhibited to me the Farm Jour 

 nal, 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 



