ON FEMININE TASTE IN RURAL AFFAIRS. 49 







was to see some of the finest, and largest and most aged trees in the 

 park, the size of which was truly magnificent ; and I sympathized in 

 the veneration which she expressed for them, which was like that with 

 which one recalls the illustrious memory of a remote progenitor. Our 

 next visit was to the green-houses and gardens ; and she explained to 

 me the mode adopted there, of managing the most delicate plants, and 

 of cultivating, in the most economical and successful manner, the fruits 

 of a warmer region. From the garden we proceeded to the cultivated 

 fields ; and she informed me of the system of husbandry pursued on 

 the estate, the rotation of crops, the management and application of 

 manures, the amount of seed sown, the ordinary yield, and the appro- 

 priation of the produce, with a perspicuous detail of the expenses and 

 results. She then undertook to show me the yards and offices, the 

 byres, the feeding stalls, the plans for saving, increasing, and managing 

 the manure ; the cattle for feeding, for breeding, the milking stock, the 

 piggery, the poultry-yard, the stables, the harness-rooms, the implement- 

 rooms, the dairy. She explained to me the process of making the dif- 

 ferent kinds of cheese, and the general management of the milk, and 

 the mode of feeding the stock ; and then, conducting me into the bailiff's 

 house, she exhibited to me the Farm Journal, and the whole systematic 

 mode of keeping the accounts and making the returns, with which she 

 seemed as familiar as if they were the accounts of her own wardrobe. 

 This did not finish our grand tour ; for, on my return, she admitted me 

 into her boudoir, and showed me the secrets of her own admirable 

 housewifery, in the exact accounts which she kept of every thing con- 

 nected with the dairy, the market, the table, and the drawing-room, and 

 the servants' hall. All this was done with a simplicity and a frank- 

 ness, which showed an absence of all consciousness of any extraordi- 

 nary merit in her own department, and which evidently sprang solely 

 from a kind desire to gratify a curiosity on my part, which, I hope, un- 

 der such circumstances, was not unreasonable. 



" A short hour after this brought us into another relation ; for the 

 dinner bell summoned us, and this same lady was found presiding over 

 a brilliant circle of the highest rank and fashion, with an ease, elegance, 

 wit, intelligence, and good humor, with a kind attention to every one's 

 wants, and an unaffected concern for every one's comfort, which would lead 

 one to suppose that this was her only and her peculiar sphere. Now I 

 will not say how many mud-puddles we had waded through, and how 

 many manure heaps we had crossed, and what places we had explored, 

 and how every farming topic was discussed ; but I will say that she 

 pursued her object without any of that fastidiousness and affected deli- 

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