122 MEANNESS 



it the most esteemed virtue, there is little room for 

 the display of those kindly demonstrations of the human 

 heart that render society agreeable. 



To enumerate instances of tlie excess to which this 

 inordinate feeling was carried would neither be profitable 

 nor amusing, yet I cannot help recording my recollection 

 of a wealthy old lady who died while we were there, and 

 it took her daughter-in-law three days to count over the 

 copper coins — pence, halfpence, and farthings — she had 

 hoarded from the sale of milk, and other little o-atherino-s 

 from the poor. Once, I remember, I had occasion to call 

 at the house of a wealthy farmer, on a Sunday evening in 

 the depth of winter, Avhen I observed a poor servant girl 

 sittino" shiverins: over the embers of a wood fire on the 

 hearth, without a candle, and surrounded by appearances 

 of the utmost penury ; while outside the walls immense 

 stacks of corn and hay, and yards full of healthy and 

 thriving cattle, gave unequivocal evidence of wealth and 

 prosperity. 



But these were, perhaps, solitary examples ; for there 

 were many families who did not indulge in this, their 

 seemingly ruling passion, to so great an extent. Among 

 them was my friend the brewer I had inducted into the 

 coaching firm, from whose family we both received every 

 mark of kindness and attention, as we did from a member 

 of the medical profession — a profession that generally 

 forms the advanced guard of intelligence and improve- 

 ment in isolated districts. 



Not to confine myself to one particular class, I must 

 add that it was lamentable to observe the cloud of igno- 

 rance which then overshadowed this part of His Majesty's 



