326 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



want to know what men thought and did in the thir- 

 teenth century, not out of any dilettante or idle anti- 

 quarian's curiosity, but because the thirteenth century is 

 at the root of what men think and do in the nineteenth. 

 Well, then, it cannot be a bad educational rule to start 

 from what is most interesting, and to work from that 

 outwards and backwsirds.' 



I mourned a good deal in my own youth over the fact 

 that I had been very badly educated, and this certainly 

 stimulated me, at a period when time was wanting, to do 

 what I could for myself. But on looking back over the 

 last thirty-five years — and speaking again, of course, only 

 from my own very limited experience — I should say that 

 all the women who have done best in lite among my 

 married kinsfolk and acquaintances were those who were 

 most superficially and casually educated. Two women 

 are known to me who have filled the highest positions 

 admirably, who have been crowns of glory to their 

 husbands, and have been universally recognised as 

 women of the noblest type by aU who have come in 

 contact with them in many parts of the world. As 

 children they were by no means exceptionally clever, 

 and their regular governess education ceased at the 

 extremely early age of twelve. They were left, with 

 occasional masters, to learn what they could and improve 

 themselves; but they had from their earliest years the 

 great advantage of constantly moving about. Some- 

 times town, sometimes country, and often abroad, they 

 were never in one place for six months at a time. Many 

 parents are so afraid of making these breaks in the 

 continuity of their girls' education, and — as is only 

 human — the governesses and teachers are always against 

 it. One of the disadvantages of classes and competitive 

 education is that ambitious children themselves often 

 object to their studies being broken into. But all the 



