122 BRIT ANN Y AND THE CHASE. 



fitting accompaniments, are brouglit to the level of 250Z. 

 per annum, the country may be pronounced not bad for a 

 gentleman to live in. Horses are not bad, and very cheap. 

 From 51. to \0l. you have a first-rate cob of 14 hands ; 

 and then no horse-tax, carriage-tax, dog-tax, servant-tax, 

 &c. &c., none of that long list of taxes which in England 

 press so heavily on a certain style of living. Schooling 

 is somewhat difficult ; but perhaps the want will bring a 

 remedy, and in many parts there are Protestant places 

 of worship. True that they are generally filled by English 

 Dissenting ministers ; but dissent abroad is quite different 

 from dissent at home — -all obtrusive points gone; and an 

 English gentleman may, on the broad basis of Protes- 

 tantism, attend such services without in any way com- 

 promising his position as a member of the Church of Eng- 

 land. In fact, I always felt a warming of the heart 

 in entering such a chapel, and have observed almost all 

 Englishmen who had any feelings on the subject distin- 

 guished by their attention and regularity. They have 

 seemed to feel that as Englishmen they were regarded 

 with care, and their movements watched, and on that ac- 

 count that an extra degree of attention was due from them. 

 Abroad, as at home, society has its divisions and its cliques, 

 and they are all much alike ; but a man of good temper 

 and good sense can steer his course so as to avoid diffi- 

 culties, and in case of need live them down. 



Such was the aspect of Britanny when I left it in 

 1851, and I do not imagine that material changes have 

 since occurred. Since I arrived in England I have often 

 wished myself there again, and perhaps shall ere long 



