t human female I ever saw outside of a caravan.
She was a fearful manifestation of the enormous development of solid
flesh which the British fair sometimes attain. As she stood by her
husband she was the taller from the ear upward. She weighed about
twenty stone. I think that a plumb line dropped from the front of her
corsage would have reached the deck without touching her skirts. Her
tread was hippopotamic. And yet she showed traces of beauty, and not
improbably had been a fine fair girl; and even at the present time she
managed to effect a very palpable waist. I mused wonderingly upon the
process by which she did this; but still more upon that sad gradual
enormification by which she passed from a tall blooming beauty into her
present tremendous proportions. The other was exactly the reverse. She
could hardly be called ill looking in the face, but her pale, blank,
unfeatured countenance reminded one instantly of a sheep. She was a
washed-out, and although young, a faded creature, with no more
shoulders or hips than my forefinger. And yet she was a perfect English
type, and so like some of John Leech's women that I could not look at
her without internal laughter. Her husband--for even such women by some
mysterious process known to themselves will get husbands--was like unto
her in face, in feature, and in expression; and yet he was so
strikingly, so aggressively British in look and in manner that I heard
some Yankees on board say that they would like to kick him. And I
somewhat shared their prejudice; of which before we landed I learned to
be ashamed; for I found him a very intelligent, well-informed, pleasant
man, reserved in his manners, and although firm in his opinions, which
were strongly British, very respectful of other men's, and very careful
of giving offence. His union of firmness and courtesy seemed to me
worthy of admiration; and if he did wish to kick any of the Yankees on
board, for which in one or two cases I could have forgiven him, I am
sure that he never let the desire manifest itself in their presence.

Another prevalent notion, which is reciprocal between the people of the
two countries, is mistaken according to my observation. It is generally
believed, or at least very often said in "America," that the men in
England are very much handsomer than the women; and conversely it is
commonly believed in England, or said, that the women in "America" are
handsomer than the men. An absurd and truly preposter