who filled the back seats, and a small gallery beside the organ;
and of the poor of the parish, who were ranged on benches
in the aisles.

The service was performed by a snuffling, well-fed vicar,
who had a snug dwelling near the church. He was a privi-
leged guest at all the tables of the neighborhood, and had been
the keenest fox-hunter in the country, until age and good liv-
ing had disabled him from doing anything more than ride to
see the hounds throw off, and make one at the hunting dinner.

Under the ministry of such a pastor, I found it impossible
to get into the train of thought suitable to the time and place;
so having, like many other feeble Christians, compromised
with my conscience, by laying the sin of my own delinquency
at another person's threshold, I occupied myself by making
observations on my neighbors.

I was as yet a stranger in England, and curious to notice
the manners of its fashionable classes. I found, as usual, that
there was the least pretension where there was the most ac-
knowledged title to respect. I was particularly struck, for
instance, with the family of a nobleman of high rank, consist-
ing of several sons and daughters. Nothing could be more
simple and unassuming than their appearance. They gener-
ally came to church in the plainest equipage and often on foot.
The young ladies would stop and converse in the kindest
manner with the peasantry, caress the children, and listen to
the stories of the humble cottagers. Their countenances were
open and beautifully fair, with an expression of high refine-
ment, but at the same time, a frank cheerfulness, and engag-
ing affability. Their brothers were tall, and elegantly formed.
They were dressed fashionably, but simply; with strict neat-
ness and propriety, but without any mannerism or foppishness.
Their whole demeanor was easy and natural, with that lofty
grace, and noble frankness, which bespeak free-born souls
that have never been checked in their growth by feelings of
inferiority. There is a healthful hardiness about real dignity,
that never dreads contact and communion with others, how-

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