CHAPTER XV. 



MANNERS IN ARCADY. 



That manners in rural England may have 

 been better before 1870, as a writer in a high- 

 class sporting paper would have us believe, is 

 quite conceivable. Of that time, however, I 

 cannot speak, for I was not old enough to 

 hold intelligent conversation with my fellow- 

 countrymen ; but from all accounts it appears 

 that hat-brims are now in better condition 

 than they were then, and the hems of the 

 cottage women's skirts are now less soiled. 



I remember, some years ago, a revolutionary 

 act in manners taking place in a Kentish 

 village. A gallant young butcher lifted his 

 cap to the wife of a knight, whom he served 

 with beef — and very good beef too. As Sir 

 Leicester Deadlock might have observed, this 

 was opening the floodgates with a vengeance ! 



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