The Open Air 



the future. Secondly, the absence of fresh air, and 

 that volatile essence, as it were, of woods, and fields, 

 and hills, which can be felt but not fixed. Thirdly, 

 the sedentary employment. Let a family be never so 

 robust, these must ultimately affect the constitution. 

 If beauty appears it is too often of the unhealthy 

 order; there is no physique, no vigour, no richness of 

 blood. Beauty of the highest order is inseparable 

 from health; it is the outcome of health centuries 

 of health and a really beautiful woman is, in pro- 

 portion, stronger than a man. It is astonishing with 

 what persistence a type of beauty once established 

 in the country will struggle to perpetuate itself against 

 all the drawbacks of town life after the family has 

 removed thither. 



When such results are produced under favourable 

 conditions at the yeoman's homestead, no difficulty 

 arises in explaining why loveliness so frequently 

 appears in the houses of landed proprietors. Entailed 

 estates fix the family in one spot, and tend, by inter- 

 marriage, to deepen any original physical excellence. 

 Constant out-of-door exercise, riding, hunting, shoot- 

 ing, takes the place of manual labour. All the refine- 

 ments that money can purchase, travel, education, 

 are here at work. That the culture of the mind can 

 alter the expression of the individual is certain; if 

 continued for many generations, possibly it may leave 

 its mark upon the actual bodily frame. Selection 

 exerts a most powerful influence in these cases. The 

 rich and titled have so wide a range to choose from. 

 Consider these things working through centuries, 

 perhaps in a more or less direct manner, since the 

 Norman Conquest. The fame of some such families 

 for handsome features and well-proportioned frames 

 is widely spread, so much so that a descendant not 



188 



