114 



®l)c iTatmer'js iHontljln lltsttor. 



From Colroan's European Life and Manners. 



NEATNESS OF ENGLISH WOMEN. 



The neatness of the better classes of English 

 women is quite striking. The majority of them 

 wear white cotton stockings, without those dirty 

 pantalets which yon see bobbing about the an- 

 kles of our women, and they have too much 

 good sense under nn affected modesty to let their 

 clothes draggle in the mud; but they raise their 

 skirts a little, anil you will see them elegantly 

 dressed, and walking through and crossing the 

 muddiest streets in the rain, and not a speck of 

 dirt upon their shoes or stockings. I wish our 

 ladies at home eould take some lessons from 

 them. Another thing shows their good sense. 

 They all, in walking, wear pattens, or thick-soled 

 Bhoes, as thick as cork shoes, or else galoshes. 

 India rubbers are not seen. They have another 

 practice which I greatly admire. They seldom 

 wear false curls; but women whose hair is gray, 

 wear it gray; and seem to .take as much pains 

 with, and as much pride in their silver locks as 

 the younger ones do in their auburn tresses. I 

 baste met a good many ladies in company, but I 

 do not find them to differ greatly from those i 

 left at home, among the well-educated classes. 

 Manners, however, are certainly much more a 

 study than with us, and upon the whole make 

 society much more agreeable.; for they are not 

 put on for the occasion, but grow up with them 

 as matter of course. Every thing in society 

 proceeds much more quietly than with us. 

 From what I can see the English women must 

 be excellent house-wives, as nothing can exceed 

 the neatness and comfort of their establishments. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGLAND. 



Eight of us were mounted by our host at half 

 eight o'clock, and off we galloped, a sort of stee- 

 ple chase, with all the exhiliration of a fine day, 

 and with capital objects in view. Our excursion 

 was altogether agricultural ; and our first visit 

 was to a meadow, where by a moveable railway, 

 large amounts of loam were to be removed on 

 to peal or bog land, and the meadow brought in- 

 to cultivation. The result of what had been 

 done exhibited this as a successful and beautiful 

 experiment. The object was, an experiment on 

 a very bold scale ; no other than the redemption 

 of four thousand acres into one body of peat 

 and bog meadow, into arable land ; and this all 

 undertaken by the capital and energy of one in- 

 dividual. On this place is the dry bed of an old 

 river, filled with rich alluvial deposits. He has 

 undertaken to excavate this feed of mud to the 

 extent of eleven hundred feet in length, three 

 hundred and sixty feet in width, and twenty, 

 eight feet in depth ; all of which is to be dug 

 out and carried by railroads and cars to the ne- 

 cessary distance, and spread upon his meadows 

 at the rate of eight inches in depth. He ac- 

 complishes four acres per day. This is an as- 

 tonishing work, and will surely succeed, because 

 many acres which have already been redeemed, 

 present the appearance of very fine crops. The 

 next object was several miles farther off, to see 

 the process by which the waters of a very muddy 

 river were made by dikes, &.c. to overflow exten- 

 sive tracts of land, in which there is left a depo- 

 sit of eighteen inches of mud a year. This is 

 called warping. These were, you mav be sure 

 most interesting and valuable experiments, and 

 prove what may be done for land, otherwise 

 worthless, by skill, labor and capital ; and show 

 an extraordinary expenditure, which, in the end, 

 fully remunerates the proprietor. 



SCOTCH FARMS AND FARMERS. 



You would be surprised at the extent of their 

 farming. Mr. Oliver, the farmer with whom I 

 dined on Wednesday, pays an annual rent of 

 more than five thousand dollars for his farm, 

 which he has on a lease of nineteen years; and 

 Mr. Finnic, whom 1 mentioned, has this year six 

 hundred acres under the plough ; both of them, 

 though rich men, are only tenants. The tables 

 of some tenant farmers, who are men of wealth, 

 are covered with silver, and furnished with 

 wines of the most costly character. They took 

 me to visit the farm of a Mr. Hope, in their 

 neighborhood, who also is a tenant, and who 

 has made a fortune of sixty thousand dollars by 

 (arming. I never saw cultivation so fine as his 

 farm, and the extent of his cultivation is ab- 

 solutely immense. The farmers here are what 

 we should call gentlemen-farmers. They never 

 do the slightest work of any kind themselves; 

 but, then, they are thoroughly acquainted with 

 their business, and make it as much a matter of 

 calculation and study as any professional man 

 or merchant does his business. They have none 

 of their laborers in their houses, and, in most 

 cases, the laborers provide for themselves. You 

 would he surprised to find how poorly they live; 

 at least, we should think it so. They have oat- 

 meal porridge and skim milk for breakfast ; bread 

 and potatoes for dinner, with beer; and porridge 

 again at night. They cook their porridge for 

 themselves, and, 1 was going to add, do their 

 own washing; but 1 am inclined to believe that 

 a Scotch laborer never sees any washing, either 

 for his person or his clothes. The degree of dirt 

 in which they live in a Scotch bolide is unsur- 

 passed. And I have forgotten to tell you how fine 

 the small fruits are here — gooseberries, currants, 

 strawberries, and raspberries. Strawberries were 

 in the market when I arrived, or rather in May, 

 and are still to be had. They are sold now for 

 about twelve and a half cents a pint, and the best 

 raspberries for less. I saw strawberries in Hun- 

 dee, of which ten weighed a pound ; and one I 

 measured was nearly as long as my finger. 



CROPS IN ENGLAND. 



In New England you hear nothing of the 

 crops; in England you hear scarcely any thing 

 else. In the United States there is no dread, 

 and not even a thought of a famine. In Eng- 

 land the population increases at the rate of 

 more than four hundred thousand per year ; 

 that is, more than the whole population of 

 the city of New York ; and how they are to be 

 fed becomes a matter of great concern to every 

 one. In England, likewise, the incomes of most 

 of the people are limited, and they live up to 

 them. They have no extra resources. They 

 confine themselves to one business or pursuit ; 

 and if that fails, or the profits are diminished, 

 they are. reduced to hardships and distress. 

 The price of bread affects the price of almost 

 every thing else, and therefore becomes a matter 

 of universal solicitude. 



DISTRIBUTION OF BREAD IN PARIS. 



The French have adopted in Paris a most pol- 

 itic arrangement in regard to the supply of bread 

 to the poor. They do not limit its [nice, nor or- 

 der it to be given away, but they issue, from the 

 maries and public offices, to the poor who apply, 

 tickets which enable them to obtain, at the ba- 

 ker's shops, bread, at the former, oral reasonable 

 prices; and the government themselves make 

 good to the bakers, in these cases, the difference 

 between the prices at which the poor, by their 



tickets, receive bread, and the current prices of 

 the article at that lime in the markets— which, of 

 course, bears its usual relation to the price of 

 wheat or other bread grains. 



FLOWER MARKETS OF PARIS. 



No person can walk through the flower mar- 

 kets of Paris, which are held twice a week in 

 three different parts of the city, without admir- 

 ing that where there is a demand which will 

 warrant to such an extent the cultivation of the 

 most beautiful and an infinite variety of plants 

 and flowers, there must be a very high percep- 

 tion of what is lovely and charming in nature. 



THE FRENCH FARMERS. 



I was in the midst of the land of grapes, trav- 

 elling for miles and miles, and day after day, 

 through vineyards loaded with their products, 

 and seeing hundreds and hundreds of men, and 

 women, and children, gathering the most abun- 

 dant harvest which has been known for years. I 

 hav3 never seen, so far as they have come un- 

 der my observation, a more civil, clean, well- 

 dressed, happy set of people than the French 

 peasantry, with scarcely an exception ; and they 

 contrast most strongly, in this respect, with ths 

 English and the Scotch. I seldom went among 

 a field of laborers in England or Scotland, es- 

 pecially if they were women, without some coarse 

 joke, or indecent terms; and seldom without be- 

 ing solicited for something " to drink your hon- 

 or's health ;" and never, especially in Scotland, 

 without finding them sallow, haggard, bare-foot- 

 ed, ragged and dirty. In France it is the reverse ; 

 they are well clad, with caps as white as snow, or 

 neat handkerchiefs tied around their heads; the 

 men with neat blouses or frocks, and good hats; 

 I have scarcely ever seen a hare-footed or a bare- 

 legged woman in Fiance ; let them be doing 

 what they will, they are always tidy ; the address 

 even of the poorest, (I do not at all exaggerate,) 

 is as polite as that of the best people you find in 

 a city ; and so far from ever soliciting money, 

 they have repulsed it in repeated instances, when 

 for some litile service, I have offered some com- 

 pensation. Count de Gourcy told me again and 

 again, that even the most humble of them would 

 consider it as an offence to have it offered to 

 them. I do not believe there ever was a happier 

 peasantry than the French; drunkenness is en- 

 tirely unknown among them ; and they are pre- 

 eminent for their industry and economy. I went 

 into one field, with a large farmer, where there 

 were nearly a hundred, principally women and 

 children, gathering grapes, and 1 did not see one 

 among them, whom I should not have been per- 

 fectly willing to meet at the table, or in any other 

 situation. 



I visited several plain substantial farmers, and 

 several of the old nobility. They do not live in 

 the same splendor as the English; they have 

 not so many horses and carriages and servants ; 

 but they live elegantly. Their houses are most 

 comfortable, and their tables are covered with 

 more luxuries than 1 almost ever before saw 

 brought together in the same abundance. 



Lawyers and Mechanics.— The New York Mir- 

 ror, in a late number, says:— "The bar is no 

 longer the resort of the ambitious youths of our 

 country. The mechanical departments are be- 

 ginning to be preferred. There are now twenty- 

 six young gentlemen in this city, that have re- 

 ceived a liberal education, who are serving their 

 times as ship-carpenters, &c. In a few years 

 the United Slates will have the most accom- 

 plished mechanics in the world. The union of 

 a substantial education with mechanical skill 

 will effect this. 



