48 HORTICULTURE. 



Mr. Oolman, in his European Tour, seems to have been struck 

 by this trait, and gave so capital a portrait of rural accomplish- 

 ments in a lady of rank he had the good fortune to meet, that we 

 cannot resist the temptation of turning the picture to the light once 

 more : 



" I had no sooner, then, entered the house, where my visit had been 

 expected, than I was met with an unaffected cordiality, which at once 

 made me at home. In the midst of gilded halls, and hosts of liveried 

 servants, of dazzling lamps and glittering mirrors, redoubling the high- 

 est triumphs of art and of taste ; in the midst of books, and statues, 

 and pictures, and all the elegancies and refinements of luxury ; in the 

 midst of titles, and dignitaries, and ranks allied to regal grandeur, 

 there was one object which transcended and eclipsed them all, and 

 showed how much the nobility of character surpassed the nobility of 

 rank, the beauty of refined and simple manners all the adornments of 

 art, the scintillations of the soul, beaming from the eyes, the purest 

 gems that ever glittered in a princely diadem. In person, in education 

 and improvement, in quickness of perception, in facility and elegance of 

 expression, in accomplishments and taste, in a frankness and gentleness 

 of manner, tempered by a modesty which courted confidence and in- 

 spired respect, and in a high moral tone and sentiment, which, like a 

 bright halo, seemed to encircle the whole person, I confess the fictions 

 of poetry became substantial, and the beau ideal of my youthful imagi- 

 nation was realized. 



" In the morning I first met her at prayers ; for, to the honor of 

 England, there is scarcely a family, among the hundreds whose hospi- 

 tality I have shared, where the duties of the day are not preceded by 

 family worship j and the master and the servant, the parent and the 

 child, the teacher and the taught, the friend and the stranger, come to- 

 gether to recognize and strengthen the sense of their common equality, 

 in the presence of their common Father, and to acknowledge their equal 

 dependence upon his care and mercy. She was then kind enough to 

 tell me, after her morning's arrangements, she claimed me for the day. 

 She first showed me her children, whom, like the Roman mother, she 

 deemed her brightest jewels, and arranged their studies and occupations 

 for the day. She then took me two or three miles on foot, to visit a 

 sick neighbor ; and, while performing this act of kindness, left me to 

 visit some of the cottages upon the estate, whose inmates I found loud 

 in the praises of her kindness and benefactions. Our next excursion 



