MANNERS TN ARCADY. ni3 



daughters of the labourers who were being 

 confirmed at the same time ! 



On the whole, I am inclined to think that 

 in spite of a British churlishness which seems 

 to paralyse country people and to prevent 

 them at times from behaving graciously, in 

 comparison with the manners of the continental 

 peasant, our country poor, in spite of their 

 poverty (or is it because of their poverty ?), 

 are more generous than any other class of 

 society ; certainly, I believe, that the act of 

 giving fills them with greater pleasure than 

 the class which has superfluous wealth, and it 

 would make for greater social solidarity if 

 the well-to-do could habituate themselves to 

 receive presents from the humblest of the poor. 

 Lady Bountiful too often forgets that the 

 poor cottage woman she visits sometimes 

 finds it more blessed to give than to receive. 



The ever-shifting economic conditions of 

 those who rent the big houses, displacing the 

 old families, are puzzling to the old labourers. 

 In their conservative natures there is still a 

 lingering respect for " the gentry," because 

 these belong to the soil on which they and 

 their fathers worked. " A gentleman " to 

 them is essentially a member of the unem- 



