The ladies' garland. [volume] (Harpers-Ferry, Va. [W. Va.]) 1824-1828, 1826-06-10
ERRY, VIRGINIA, JUNE 10, 1926.

hNA VI t't'iiIS' NAAGI ~ do ilCi tdStt ldu DtkH
formed ny minute acquaintance with nature
into intense feeling Of art She had that real
extra sense, an eye for color too, as well as an
| ear Tor music. Not one IN twenty, not one in
| hundred OF our sketchng and copying ladies
| could love and appreciate a picture where there
was colour and mind. picture by Claude, or
| by our English Claudes Wilson and Holland,
as she could; for she loved landscape best be
cause she understood it best; it was a portrait
OF which she knew the original Then her
needle was IN her hand almost pencil never
! knew such an embroidress; she would sit print
ing her thoughts on lawn, till the delicate crea-
! ton Wed with the snowy drapcry the richness
Of Gothic architecture, or of that which so much
resembles it, the lnxuriant fancy of old point
lace That was her only accomplishment, and
| rare artist she was; muslin and net were her
| canvass. She had no French either, not a word:
| no Italian; but then her English was racv I'M
| hackneyed, proper to the thought to degree
that only original thinking could give. She had
not much reading, except Of theBible and Shak-
| speare, and Richardson's novel, in which she
was learned; bat then her powers of observa-
ton were sharpencd and quIckened in very
unusual degree, by the leisure and opportunity
afforded for their Development at a time of life
| when they most acute. She had nothing to
| distract her mind. Her attention was always
|
rous naturalist. merely because she had gone
into the fields with her eyes open and knew all
| the details OF rural mana cement, domestic or
| agnc ultural, as well as the peculiar habits and
| modes OF thinking OF the peasantry, simply be
| cause she had lived in the country. and made
use of her ears. Then she was fanciful, recol-
| lectlve, new; drew her images from the real OBJ
| Jects, not from their shadows in books In short
to listen to her and the young ladies her com
panions, who, accomplished to the height had
trodden the education mill till they all moved
in one step, had lost sense in sound and ideas in
words, was enough to make us turn masters and
| governesses out of doors, and leave our daugh-
| tiers and grand daughters to Mrs C's system of
non instruction. should have liked to meet
| with another specimen, just to ascertain whe-
| Their the peculiar charm and advantage arose
| from the quick and active mind of this fair ig-
| norant, or was really the natural and inevitable
result of the training; but, alas! to find more
than one accomplishing is not to be hoped
for. 50 admired and enved and her fair lns-
women pitied and scosncd and tried to teach;
and Mary. never made for learner and as full
OF animal spirits AS school boy in the holidays,
sang and laughed, and skipped about from
morning tlil night
| 1t must be confessed, as a counterbalance to
her other perfections that the dear cousin Mary
was, as far as great natural modesty and an oc-
caslonal touch Of shyness would let her not the
least IN the world of a romp. She loved to toss
about chlldren to jump over stiles, to scrabble
throuc hedges. to climb trees; and some of her
knowledge of plants and birds NAV certainly
have arisen from her delight in those boyish