work to repair the building and
cultivate the garden and to observe that at length from this
inhospitable mansion, 'health to himself, and to his children bread, the
labourer bears.' Within it were all the biggest schoolgirls, with one of
their mistresses to direct them in mending such furniture as was not
quite destroyed; and I was pleased to see with how much art they
repaired the decays of time, in things which well deserved better care,
having once been the richest part of the furniture belonging to the
opulent possessors.

On our way home we called at a clergyman's house, which was placed in
the finest situation imaginable and where we beheld that profusion of
comforts which sense and economy will enable the possessors of narrow
fortunes to enjoy. This gentleman and his wife have but a small living
and still less paternal estate, but the neatness, prettiness and
convenience of their habitation were enough to put one out of humour
with riches, and I should certainly have breathed forth Agar's prayer
with great ardour if I had not been stopped in the beginning by
considering how great a blessing wealth may be when properly employed,
of which I had then such hourly proof.

At our return to Millenium Hall we found some of the neighbouring
society who were come to share the evening's concert and sup with us.

But at ten o'clock they departed, which I understood was somewhat later
than usual, but they conformed to the alteration of hours our arrival
had occasioned.

The next day being very hot, we were asked to breakfast in a delightful
arbour in the flower garden. The morning dew, which still refreshed the
flowers, increased their fragrance to as great an excess of sweetness as
the senses could support. Till I went to this house, I knew not half the
charms of the country. Few people have the art of making the most of
nature's bounty; these ladies are epicures in rural pleasures and enjoy
them in the utmost excess to which they can be carried. All that romance
ever represented in the plains of Arcadia are much inferior to the
charms of Millenium Hall, except the want of shepherds be judged a
deficiency that nothing else can compensate; there indeed they fall
short of what romantic writers represent, and have formed a female
Arcadia.

After breakfast all the ladies left us except Mrs Maynard. We were so
charmed with the spot we were in that we agreed to remain there and I
called on my cousin to continue the task she