invitation of Lord Spencer, chiefly for the purpose of attending a cattle-show in its neighborhood. This noble place, consisting of ten thousand acres, "all lying together in woods, meadows, pasture, gardens and parks," is described at length. The size of the mansion may be inferred from its furnishing sleeping-rooms for seventy guests, a gallery of pictures one hundred feet in length, and a library covering the sides of eight large rooms and halls, and comprising more than fifty thousand volumes. This is the well-known great 'Spencer library," made immortal by its catalogue through the laborious compilations of the indefatigable bibliographer, Dibden, who passed nine years turning over its volumes, imbedded in its classical tomes; extracting line by line from their contents, and, according to his own testimony," counting lines, leaves, and signatures with scrupulous exactnesscomparing whole phalanxes of bibliographical writers--detecting errors, confirming fidelity, expanding what was meagre, and compressing what was unnecessarily diffuse." If our author had the slightest taste for bibliophilism, such a private library as this, equal in size to our largest public collections, might well have astonished and delighted him. The very stables at Althorpe are described as being elegant and neat even as a private dwelling, and the greenhouse, conservatories, dairy-house, and farm-houses--the hundreds of sheep and cattle grazing round the house and park, were objects, of all others, to arouse the interest of our traveller. While at Lord Spencer's he was invited to Goodwood by the Duke of Richmond, to see his farms and farmers, and attend a sheep-shearing. The "home farm," as he calls it, of the Duke, is said to consist of 23,000 acres, and the whole estate to comprise 40,000. This wealthy nobleman is the owner of various other farms; and of Gordon Castle, an estate of 300,000 acres in Scotland. At Goodwood our author fairly gives up all attempt at description, and declares it impossible to give an adequate idea of the magnificence and beauty he has witnessed--of the pictures, statues, and rooms hung with tapestry of the most exquisite workmanship; of the parks through which he rides "miles and miles," and especially of an enclosed aviary of six acres, containing for the feathered gentry conveniences so appropriate and elegant, and making with its grottoes, groves, parrots, canaries, gold and silver fish, peacocks, and gold and silver pheasants, so delightful and romantic a scene, that he imagines himself, as well he might, to be in fairy-land, and is half inclined, he says, should there be a vacancy, "to apply for the office of keeper.” The dinner at Goodwood was given in the tennis-court; and here Mr. Colman takes occasion to repeat a toast given by a gentleman present, in reference to a party of ladies who had assembled to hear the speeches, behind a wooden grating which separated one end of the apartment. The toast was, "The hens in the Coop," "and was received with no little cheering." Four Next comes Chatsworth, the far-famed palace of the Duke of Devonshire, exceeding all others for its splendor within and its beauty without. This well-known showplace, it has been stated in a petition to Parliament, is visited in the course of a year, by not less than 80,000 persons. The Duke is represented as living in a style of splendor quite in accordance with his princely income of two hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum. teen hundred deer and four hundred head of cattle stock the open park around the house. The kitchen garden, with its perfect and abundant produce, covers twelve acres; the conservatory, covered by seventy-six thousand square feet of glass, contains a passage large enough for a carriage to drive through; there is an aquarium, an arboretum of many acres, thousands of rare and beautiful plants and fountains, one of which, "considered the highest jet d'eau in the world," throws water 276 feet. An agriculturist and man of taste like Mr. Colman might well have revelled in the enjoyment of such scenes. After describing the interior of this splendid establishment, we have thrown in a little sketch of Haddon Hall in ruins, presenting a strong contrast, moral as well as artistical. "I went after this to see Haddon Hall, an ancient castle, once the seat of elegance and luxury, of revelry and banqueting, now in ru- | ins, its halls empty, its tapestry defaced and hanging in shreds, its turrets overhung with ivy, its paved courts overgrown with weeds, and all its magnificence and glory departed, a most striking contrast to the other scene. So human pride rises and sets, and the fashion of the world passes away." At each new exhibition our author's wonder seems to increase, still finding something more remarkable than all that had preceded. "I have seen nothing in England on such a scale of magnificence," is his exclamation on visiting Blenheim, the celebrated show-place, built by the nation as a present to the great Duke of Marlborough. Beneath this noble pile, conceived by the genius of Vanbrugh, lie the remains of the great warrior, in whose honor it was erected. It stands a monument of a nation's gratitude, and it is forgotten how many attempts were made, by delay of payments from the treasury, to throw the cost of completing it upon the hero's own hands. good looks and good manners; and quite as tenacious and observant of their rank as their superiors. "At Welbeck," he says, "there were six of us at dinner daily, and eleven servants, most of them in livery; the Welbeck livery consists of light-yellow shorts and waistcoat, with white stockings and pumps, a long blue coat trimmed with silver lace and buttons, and silver epaulets and white cravats. If you meet the female servants of the upper class, you must take care not to mistake them for the ladies of the house, as there is little to distinguish them in point of elegance of dress." The latter part of this remark is, perhaps, as applicable here as in England, but our own country women are not so individualized with their outward attire, as to render caution necessary in regard to separating, even at a glance, the lady from the servant, Sir Charles Morgan's house at Tredegar is an enormous pile, more than two hundred feet square, standing in a park of thirteen hundred acres. Sir Charles is designated as the largest farmer in Wales; he has five hundred tenants on his different farms, and displays, to the edification of his guest, his slaughter-house, drymeat house, beer and wine cellars, and his herds of deer, &c. "One hundred and eleven servants were dined daily in the servant's hall, with large additions when there were visitors; a lady seldom going without her maid, or a gentleman without his valet, coachman and postillion. When an invited guest, who was coming to Tre"Al-degar with his family, sent word he must bring eight horses, Sir Charles wrote him to bring as many as he pleased. Such things show at once the opulence and the hospitality of the host. Welbeck Abbey, the seat of the Duke of Portland, is minutely described. He supposed that he had seen several times before the summit of luxurious and elegant living, but this again went beyond all the rest. He is astonished at the method and quiet order prevailing in so large an establishment, and understands not how it is that where there are so many parts, wheel within wheel, and one spring depending for its tension and its movements upon another, there should not be the slightest jarring or creaking. though," he says, "there were not less than one hundred house servants, yet from any noise, either by night or day, it would not be supposed there was one within a mile." At another house he speaks of ringing in his own room for a servant, who always appears as instantaneously as if he had been concealed in the wainscoat. Such readiness might have reminded him of the story of the Yankee "help" who, after being rung for repeatedly, called up from the bottom of the stairs, "The more you ring the more I sha'nt come." Mr. Colman remarks that English servants generally are proverbially clean, and, in their dress, gentlemen and ladies; distinguished, the women especially, for Our author's sense of the ridiculous is gratified by an exhibition of the battue. This sport, in which the game being beat from covert by the servants, their masters have only to await their appearance to shoot them down, he thinks admits but of one improvement, which would be to have an arm-chair placed in the poultry-yard, and the hens and chickens tied by the legs, and shot at leisure. Woburn Abbey, "the place of all others best worth visiting," contains 20,000 acres in one body, and is the seat of the Duke of Bedford, next to the Duke of Portland the largest improver in Eng- | sans ceremonie, and every one ordered what he land. This extensive agriculturist is said to pay more than 400 laborers weekly, through the year, and in his home park, which, to be sure, is thirteen miles in circumference, he has laid pipe drains for several years past, to the extent of fifty miles each year, and upon his other estates he makes about two hundred miles of drains every year--drains dug three feet deep, and laid with pipe tiles. In this house they make up one hundred beds constantly for the regular family. "The house is very large, consisting of four sides, three stories high on three sides, and two stories on the other, each of the sides more than two hundred feet long, enclosing a court-yard of great extent, and having three long galleries, the length of the whole sides, full of pictures and works of art. At the dinner bell, I found the usher of the hall, with the appearance of a gentleman, dressed in a suit of black, with black shorts and knee-buckles, silk stockings and shoe-buckles, waiting in the entry, to show me into the drawing-room, where the Duke met me, and where I found a very large party of elegantès. At half-past seven, we went into dinner. I have never seen anything so splendid. The service was all of gold and silver, except the dessert plates, which were of Sevrès porcelain, and presented to one of the former Dukes by Louis the Fifteenth. I observed many large, massive pieces of gold plate in the centre of the table, and a silver waiter or tray, to support them, more than eight feet long and nearly two wide. There were two large gold tureens, one at each end of the table. Besides the gold service on the table, there were, among other plate, two large gold waiters on the side-board, presented to the former Duke, as agricultural premiums. The arms of the family are a deer; and there were four salts in my sight, being a deer, about five inches high, of silver, with antlers, and two panniers slung over his back, one containing coarse, and the other fine salt. The servants, in livery and out of livery, were numerous, and the dinner, of course, comprising every possible delicacy and luxury in meats, wines, fruits, &c., &c. The evening was passed in the drawing-room, some of the party at cards, some at billiards, some reading the papers, some at work, until eleven o'clock, when the party take their wine and water, or seltzer, or soda water, and their candles, and retire. The dress of the ladies was more splendid than I can describe, and the jewels and diamonds on the head, and neck, and wrists, and fingers, as brilliant as their own bright eyes. At ten, we met for breakfast, wanted. "At one elegant mansion, in which I stayed nished with his own silver urn, with boiling several days, each guest, at breakfast, was furwater, and a spirit lamp under it, with his own silver coffee-pot, if he preferred coffee; or, if tea, with a separate tea-caddy, with two kinds of tea, a separate tea-pot, cream-pot, and sugarbowl, all of silver; his cup, saucer, and plate, of course-making a complete and most elegant establishment for this purpose. At breakfast the arrangements were made for the day. The first day the rain was considerable, and the Duchess undertook to show us the house. It is full of everything magnificent in the way of pictures, and works of art, and furniture, and the apartments occupied by the Queen and Prince, on their visit here, were extremely splendid. The library contained twenty-one thousand volumes. The gallery for statuary, which is a separate building, was full of works of art of the chief masters, which almost compelled my adoration. The original group of "The Three Graces," in marble, by Canova himself, is here, and is surpassingly beautiful. Then I was shown the theatre, for private theatricals; the aviary, full of birds and three black swans; the grassarium, where grasses alone are cultivated for experiment; the Chinese dairy, full of everything exquisite; the heathery, containing heaths only; the house for tropical plants; the pinetum, for pines only; the lakes; the shrubberies; the statues in the open grounds; the kitchen and fruit garden, a wonder in itself; the Temple of Liberty, containing the busts and statues of some of the most distinguished friends of the Duke's father; then the horses and stables, which were, in fact, almost palaces in their way; then the saddle-room, where there were certainly fifty saddles, all in order for use; then the carriagehouse, where were twenty-seven four-wheeled carriages; then the tennis-court; then the riding-school. The women, too, in this place, at the different lodges, who opened and shut the gates of the park, were in livery, being dressed in bright scarlet gowns, with white caps and aprons, presenting a gay and pleasing costume." the nerves of our simple republican, and This is splendor quite sufficient to stir gives, perhaps, a fair sample of the style of living among the higher nobility. Mr. Colman adds however, recollectively, that some of the arrangements at Woburn Abbey are not universal; such as an usher of the hall, and groom of the chambers; the elegance of the housekeeper's room, equal in its furniture to that of most drawing-rooms; a professional musician employed every evening for the piano, and the Duchess's page constantly in attendance on her, dressed in green and gold lace, and epaulets, with a sword by his side. That Mr. Colman does not forget the object of his mission, under the excitement of these splendid entertainments, is manifest from the zest with which he describes the results of his agricultural observations, fully testifying that he is refreshed, not enervated, by the fascination of high life, and ready on the spur of occasion, "To scorn delights and live laborious days," and eager for "fresh fields and pastures new." At the farms and agricultural shows, Mr. Colman finds exercise for his organ of wonder. Lord Yarborough's 60,000 acres of plantation and 600 tenantseighteen thousand bushels of wheat raised in one year by one man-stacks of grain containing 800 bushels, and barley stacks, one, fifty-four yards long, and others, forty-eight in height, with width proportional.This," cries our agriculturist, "is farming with a witness." He represents the farmers' wives and daughters, as well as the noblesse, at the fairs and shows, as not only taking interest in all these matters, but actually inspecting the implements and the cattle; and showing the remarkable points of the animals like experienced breeders of live stock. "Some of them are really such, and also competitors for the premium." Many ladies of the highest rank, he says, take a deep interest both in agriculture and politics; and one lady of rank is represented to have introduced him in person to the farm offices on her husband's estate; the stables, cow-houses, pig-sties and barnyards, explaining all the modes of management with the most perfect understanding. At Ayre, in Scotland, Mr. Colman was shown some of the best farming he had ever seen. At Falkirk Tryst, the largest market in the world, he reports having seen "between sixty and seventy thousand sheep, and from forty to fifty thousand head of cattle, with horses innumerable." The farmers generally are represented as extremely rich and intelligent. Mr. Colman defends the custom, so widely censured, of exacting fees for visit- | | ing "show-places" as they are termed, the seats of the nobility. He never feels that he has purchased dearly the benefit and pleasure he receives, and is altogether too good-humored to quarrel with anything short of immorality. He has a nice sense of the beautiful, and discerns it not only in the objects connected with his mission, in fields, dairies, and cattle-but also, with considerable gusto, in such animal specimens as are the more refined and. delicate product of nature's handiwork. English women, Scotch, Irish, Dutch, and French; their characters, manners and costumes, are observed with a discriminating eye. Accustomed to the keen, quiet humor, so common to the women of America, he remarks that "fun" is a rare quality among those of England. The English ladies impress him agreeably. "I do not think they are better informed than the same class of people among ourselves, but if I may use an Hibernianism, which I think you will understand, they seem to me much more independent. They have quite as much more manly than most of our women, and far delicacy and modesty, but no affectation or fastidiousness." He finds a surpassing elegance, though not always the best taste, in the style of dress of ladies in the higher classes, but the dress and appearance of the middle classes, with many exceptions, appears to him much inferior to ours. "I am free to say that my respect for the English ladies has been constantly increasing; they seem to be well educated, with great self-respect, without any painful reserve." He gives, by the way, a little anecdote, showing how a slight trait of selfishness, insinuating itself like disunion among the graces, can put the manners of a court quite on a level with the less studied etiquettes and elegancies of a republic. The Queen is described reading her speech in the House of Lords. "The House, excepting the seats occupied by the peers, was filled with ladies of rank and distinction." He goes on to describe the dress and appearance of the Queen and her attendants, the splendid array of crown and coronets, jewels and diamonds, and the formulas of office and etiquette. Some of the peeresses and ladies in front of the bar stood upon benches, so as to interrupt the view of the gentlemen behind, who accordingly took the liberty of forwarding a piece of paper to them, on which they had written, not in the most complimentary style, "Ladies, you are not transparent," upon which hint the ladies had the grace to get down. Our close observer is struck by the neatness of the better class of women in the streets; "the majority of whom," he says, "wear white stockings, without those dirty pantalettes which you see bobbing about the ankles of our women; they have too much good sense, under an affected modesty, to let their clothes draggle in the mud; but raising their skirts a little, you may see them walking through and crossing the muddiest streets in the rain, and not a speck upon their shoes or stockings." From Paris he writes to the same effect. He hopes to be excused for speaking of a lady's stockings; but in Paris new revelaupon his mind, and the most modest man," he says, "cannot help discovering that the French women generally wear high clocks to their hose, and snaps instead of quality binding or red tape.' At the great agricultural dinner at Northampton, England, our friend displayed his gallantry with considerable effect. tions burst 66 It will do "I sat at the high table, directly under the gallery, which was filled with ladies, to hear the speeches. After the cloth was removed, several beautiful bunches of flowers, which had been placed as ornaments on the table, remained. I said to Dr. Buckland, who sat near me, that I had a mind to hand one of them to the ladies. Said he, "It will not do ;" and in rather a cynical manner, which disturbed me a little, added, "such things may do in your country, but they won't do here." Mr. C, a distinguished member of Parliament, who heard the remarks, said at once, do it" and I immediately took two of the finest bunches, and stood up in a chair and presented them to the ladies who were nearest to me. Nothing could be more gracious than the manner in which they received the compliment, and the whole building rang with applause from all who witnessed the action. Immediately, several other gentlemen sprang upon their feet and followed my example, in presenting the bouquets near them, and there was a tremendous clapping of hands and cheering above and below. Lady Easthope says that she and Lady Palmerston were those who received the bouquets from me." by a grave clergyman, we find the two He thinks the Irish "I think some of them the fairest and handsomest creatures I ever looked upon, and made of the finest unmixed porcelain clay. Before the fairest I had ever seen-I now consider I left England, I thought the English women Dutch women much exceed them. them as belonging to the colored races. The Take the fairest rose that was ever plucked, with the glittering dew-drops hanging among its petals; take the fairest peach that ever hung upon the tree, with its charming, blended tints of red and white, and they are eclipsed by the transparency and beauty of complexion of the fairest of the Dutch women, as I saw them at Broeck and at Saardam. If their minds are as fair, and their manners as winning as their faces, then I can easily understand the history of Adam's fall. It was impossible, poor fellow, that he should resist. Then their costume is so pretty and elegant. A sort of thin, gold helmet, fitting close to the head, leaving enough of the hair to part gracefully over the brows; a thin, but wide band of highly wrought and burnished gold, extending across the forehead; at the ends of this, some most rich and elegantly wrought filagree ornaments of gold, with splendid ear-drops of gold or of diamonds set in gold, with a beautiful cap of the finest Brussels lace, covering, but not concealing, the whole head; and all the rest of the dress of vestal purity; white, tasteful, transparent, with short coats, shoes as bright as mirrors, and stockings of the purest white, and fitting the ankle as if they were knit upon the limb; with no drabbling train to sweep the pavement, and no oversized shawl, and loose and ill-fitted sleeves and skirts, hanging about the person, like clothes upon an old tree on a washingday, and you'll have some faint notion of what In the streets of Genoa, accompanied one of these beautiful creatures is." |