MANNERS IN ARCADY. 303 



notoriously bad, whether they live in the 

 country or in the town, but I do not think 

 that any one class is worse than another. On 

 the whole, I am inclined to agree with Mr. 

 Stephen Reynolds and with Mr. Chesterton 

 that the poor are more ceremonial and 

 courteous than the rich. They are not, it is 

 true, gifted with the graciousness of the 

 Spaniard or the Breton peasant. English 

 mechanics do not struggle with their bags 

 of tools in their hands in order to take off 

 their cap to a fellow-workman, and to bid him 

 " Good morning " as one sees the workman do 

 on the Danish highroad. Nor can they refuse 

 a tip — a rare occurrence — with the graciousness 

 of the French workmen who helped Stevenson 

 with his canoe on his " Inland Voyage." 



" At Hautmont," he wrote, " near a dozen 

 grimy workmen lent us a hand. They refused 

 any reward, and, what is much better, refused 

 it handsomely, without conveying any sense 

 of insult. 'It is a way we have in our 

 countryside,' they said. And a very becom- 

 ing way it is. In Scotland, where also you 

 will get service for nothing, the good people 

 reject your money as if you had been trying 

 to corrupt a voter. When people take the 



