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 repi\blic— -I mean the 

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

 that Yankee glass covers, tahav^ 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 daughter. It would be difficult, perhaj)s, to have 

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

 class of this cpuntry, than in such hotnes as tjiis. , 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 haye a,t home).. The young English woman is less conspic- 

 uously accomplished tha,n our yoijng women of the same position in 

 America. , There is, perhaps, a little less of that je ne sais qjmi- — 

 that nameless grace which captivates at fu-st sight' — than with us,' 

 but a better and more sojid 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 m,ak$s 

 a woman really a^companion for an intelligent man in his seriou? 

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

 of social and dbmestie life, the English women haye, I imagine, few 

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

 most, in English society, would b® 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,— foj their . 

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

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

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

 some'bf my young friends at home, who are educated^ in the fash- 

 ionable boarding-school . of Madame to consider all such 



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

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

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



