544 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



glossy leaves all English gardens and pleasure-grounds, and which 

 I never cease to reproach for their monarchical habits since they 

 so obstinately refuse to be naturalized in our republic I mean the 

 English and Portugal laurels. I would give all the hot-house plants 

 that Yankee glass covers, to have these two evergreens as much at 

 home in our pleasure-grounds as they are every where in England. 



There are other guests in the house Sir Charles M , 



Lady P., some Irish ladies without titles (but so rich in natural gifts 

 as to make one feel the poverty of mere rank), and a charming fam- 

 ily of grown up daughters. It would be difficult, perhaps, to have 

 a better opportunity to judge of the life of the educated middle 

 class of this country, than in such homes as this. And what im- 

 pressions do such examples make upon my mind, you will ask ? I 

 will tell you (not without remembering how many fair young read- 

 ers you have at home). The young English woman is less conspic- 

 uously accomplished than our young women of the same position in 

 America. There is, perhaps, a little less of that je ne sais quoi 

 that nameless grace which captivates at first sight than with us, 

 but a better and more solid education, more disciplined minds, and 

 above all, more common sense. In the whole art of conversation, 

 including all the topics of the day, with so much of politics as makes 

 a woman really a companion for an intelligent man in his serious 

 thoughts, in history, language, and practical knowledge of the duties 

 of social and domestic life, the English women have, I imagine, few 

 superiors. But what, perhaps, would strike one of our young women 

 most, in English society, would be the thorough cultivation and re- 

 finement that exist here, along with the absence of all false delicacy. 

 The fondness of English women (even in the highest rank) for out- 

 of-door life, horses, dogs, fine cattle, animals of all kinds, for their 

 grounds, and in short every thing that belongs to their homes 

 their real, unaffected knowledge of, and pleasure in these things, and 

 the unreserved way in which they talk about them, would startle' 

 some of my young friends at home, who are educated in the fash- 

 ionable boarding-school of Madame to consider all such 



things " vulgar," and " unlady-like." I accompanied the younger 

 members of the family here this morning, in an exploration of the 

 mysteries of the place. No sooner did we make our appearance out 



