i88o.] 
35 
English and American Physique, 
incomparable when partially veiled, or when a few rods 
away; but as she comes nearer, these excelling charac- 
teristics retreat behind the irregularities of the skin, the 
thickness of the lips, the size of the nose ; and the observer 
is mildly stunned by the disappointment at not finding the 
nimble and automatic play of emotion in the eyes and 
features without which female beauty must always fall below 
the line of supreme authority. The English beauties of 
national and international fame, at whose feet the empire of 
Great Britain is now kneeling, are of the American type, and 
in this country they would be held simply as of average 
rather than exceptional excellence. 
It is no hard task for one travelling in Great Britain or 
on the Continent to distinguish American ladies from those 
of any other nationality ; the practised observer would make 
a mistake but rarely. At the great watering-places, as 
Homburg and Baden-Baden, in the lines where travel is 
thickest, as on the Rhine and through Switzerland, we may 
often see a face which, far away, seems to be purely American, 
but which, as we gain a closer view, is found to be all 
English ; should there be a doubt, the voice — the speaking 
of a single word — often solves the problem. 
Riding, once, from Paris to Calais, there stepped into the 
coach a lady whom for various reasons I assumed to be 
English, although her whole appearance — her voice, her 
conversation — were completely American. I concluded that 
at last I had found a case where it was impossible to make 
a differential diagnosis between an American and an English- 
woman ; and I very soon found that my reasons for believing 
her English were not well founded — that she was an Ameri- 
can, and a typical American, in her voice, face, expression, 
gait, and bearing, and even in the functional nervous disease 
from which she had long suffered. 
It were well if these two extremes could be united ; an 
American beauty slowly approaching, an English beauty 
slowly vanishing, present together a picture of human beauty 
the fairest that could fall on mortal vision. An American 
lady who unites the American qualities of intellect, of 
manners, and of physique , and who at one period lived for 
years in English territory, compresses it all in one sentence : 
“The English face is moulded, the American is chiselled.” 
The superior fineness and delicacy of organisation of the 
American woman, as compared with the women of Great 
Britain, Germany, and Switzerland, is shown in every organ 
and funaion— revealing itself in the play of the eyes, in the 
voice, in the response of the facial muscles, in gait, and 
D 2 
