Morning journal and courier., 1891-09-24
THEY'RE NOT sTomBoYs.n
The Way Some English Girls Amuse
 TlemAeIYeA.

The Way Some English Girls Amuse
 Themselves.
 GOxford Correspondence of the Boston Herald ]
 There is no rational reason why the American girl cannot initiate her English sisters in their methods of outdoor life and amusment. Here in England no form of sport seems debarred from their indul- gence or enjoyment. To be sure, it is a question whether one wants one's girls to indulge in every kind of sport and out door game. Shooting and hunting have long been practised by women ss well as men in England, but know some persons who draw the line at cricket.
 But why should not girl play cricket, if she chooses, as well as tennisi I know a jolly little team of eleven fair maids in Warwickshire who are the envy of half the young men in the country. The moving spirit is a fetching, dark-eyed maid, with short, curly brown locks, called Nancy by her family and intimates A more win some creature never lived-and, mind you, she is not the least bit of what is called Ca tomboy'' in the states. Not bit of it!
 Yet Nancy not only plays cricket, but hockey and tennis as well. She can TOW like varsity man, and story goes that she was coxswain for a crew in training on the river near her fathers country house not so long ago. Then she will give almost any man fifty points on billiards, and knows how to handle a thoroughbred almost as we'll as a professional trainer. And the resultl Well, about as splendid a sample of physical perfection as it is pos sible to become. At the same time, must repeat that Nancy is not the least forward or "mannish" in appearance or manner. She has almost as many accomplishments in drawing room as in hunting field or tennis court. For she sings exceptionally well and plays the violin equally so. There are any number of English girls who possess similar attsinments Could an American girl pursue such line of amuse- | ment to advantage. I doubt it.
 First of all, she would be at once termed | "fast" or masculine" Her brothers would resent it (probably), and her male | friends would secretly, if not openly, dis approve of her. Men in the states still ad | here, I believe, to fondness for the cling | ing style of women. Then, too, the means for | indulging in outdoor sports to any extent | in America are limited. There is no shoot | ing possible, and scarcely any hard riding. Baseball is certainly out of the question, and cricket not as yet popular. Girls in | America, as a rule, are too dainty and pretty to tan their faces and blister their | soft pink palms with much rowing, to say nothing of our lakes, bays or rivers being | hardly desirable sheets of water upon which to spend many hours unprotected. That is where England again enjoys an advantage over us. Her countless tiny rivers, overhung with foliage and droop- ing willows, afford gentle protection for any wandering water-nymph in modern life.
 River life during the summer in England is portion of every healthy young wo mans existence. They even have races and rowing matches; and at Oxford the other day, saw a capital photograph of 6 six pared cred made up of young women who are students at Somerviile hail, an institu ton in the famous old university city sim liar to the Harvard annex. Somervills hall also has its "eleven" team, by the way, and like the students of Lady Mar gsret Hall at Oxford, and at Girton and Nuneham at Cambridge, it plays in tn. yearly "anti- ti-university matchn at Wimble don.
 And that reminds me that Philadel phia maid at Lady Margaret Hall at OK ford, last year obtained honors of the de gree of master of arts.
 | yard girls something more about the anti university colleges at Oxford. Througt the kindness of some of the faculty I hayt been able to see a good deal of their way and methods. As yet their success seeml checked by the difficulties continually thrust in their ways by the university
 Cambridge is much more chivalrous, an
 told.
 The Oxford colleges are interesting iron
 other points as well as the educationa
 facilities they offer. Lady Margaret Hal i has its first principal, Miss Wordsworth
 still at the head. She is the daughter O
 the bishop of Lincoln, and @ niece of tn,
 pastoral poet Wordsworth.
 Somerville hall owes its name to the yer.
 remarkable woman, Mary Somerville, tn
 first woman to present to the world sucl
 admirable treatises as hitherto only mel
 had attempted. She was the first woman elected member of the Royal Geographi
 cal society, and among her intimates wer
 Miss Milford, Maria Edgeworth, Thoma Moore, Sydney Smith, Lord Macaulay, Mis- Austin and Lord Brougham-