AN OCTOBER ABROAD 149 



and the number of plum puddings and amount of 

 Welsh rarebit he devours annually would send the 

 best of us to his grave in half that time. We have 

 not enough constitutional inertia and stolidity; our 

 climate gives us no rest, but goads us day and night ; 

 and the consequent wear and tear of life is no doubt 

 greater in this country than in any other on the 

 globe. We are playing the game more rapidly, and 

 I fear less thoroughly and sincerely, than the mother 

 country. 



The more uniform good health of English women 

 is thought to be a matter of exercise in the open 

 air, as walking, riding, etc., but the prime reason 

 is mainly a climatic one, uniform habits of exercise 

 being more easily kept up in that climate than in 

 this, and being less exhaustive, one day with another. 

 You can walk there every day in the year without 

 much discomfort, and the stimulus is about the 

 same. Here it is too hot in summer and too cold 

 in winter, or else it keys you up too tight one day 

 and unstrings you the next ; all fire and motion in 

 the morning, and all listlessness and ennui in the 

 afternoon; a spur one hour and a sedative the next. 



A watch will not keep as steady time here as in 

 Britain, and the human clock-work is more liable to 

 get out of repair for the same reason. Our women, 

 especially, break down prematurely, and the decay 

 of maternity in this country is no doubt greater than 

 in any of the oldest civilized communities. One rea- 

 son, doubtless, is that our women are the greatest 

 slaves of fashion in the whole world, and, in follow- 



