SOCIETY. 545 



of doors, than we were saluted by dogs of all degrees, and each had 

 the honor of an interview and personal reception, which seemed to 

 be productive of pleasure on both sides. Then some of the horses 

 were brought out of the stable, and a parley took place between 

 them and their fair mistresses ; some favorite cows were to be petted 

 and looked after, and their good points were descanted on with 

 knowledge and discrimination ; and there was the basse cour, with 

 its various population, all discussed and shown with such lively, un- 

 affected interest, that I soon saw my fair companions were " born to 

 love pigs and chickens." I have said nothing about the garden, be- 

 cause you know that it is especially the lady's province ^iere. An 

 English woman with no taste for gardening, would be as great a 

 marvel as an angel without wings. And now, were these fresh look- 

 ing girls, who have so thoroughly entered into these rustic enjoy- 

 ments, mere country lasses and dairy maids ? By no means. They 

 will converse with you in three or four languages ; are thoroughly 

 well-grounded in modern literature ; sketch from nature with the 

 ease of professional artists, and will sit down to the piano-forte and 

 give you an old ballad, or the finest German or Italian music, as 

 your taste may dictate. And yet many of my young countrywomen 

 of their age, whose education wholly intended for the drawing- 

 room is far below what I have described, would have half fainted 

 with terror, and half blushed with false delicacy, twenty times in the 

 course of the morning, with the discussions of the farm-yard, meadow 

 and stables, which properly belong to a wholesome country life, and 

 are not in the slightest degree at variance with real delicacy and re- 

 finement. I very well know that there are many sensibly educated 

 young women at home, who have the same breadth of cultivation, 

 and the same variety of resources, that make the English women 

 such truly agreeable companions ; but alas, I also know that there 

 are many whose beau ideal is bounded by a circle that contains the 

 latest fashionable dance for the feet, the latest fashionable novel for 

 the head, and the latest fashionable fancy-work for the fingers. 



If I have unconsciously run into something like a sermon, it is 



from the feeling that among my own lovely countrywomen is to 



be found the ground-work of the most perfectly attractive feminino 



character in the world. But of late, their education has been a little 



35 



