d if they declined my visit, as I was led to fear, to storm
the cottage. Here, as elsewhere, however, in England, a title easily
opened the door, and I immediately received a gracious invitation to
a second breakfast. Passing along a charming road, through a trim
and pretty pleasure-ground, in a quarter of an hour I reached a small
but tasteful gothic cottage, situated directly opposite to Dinas
Bran, various glimpses of which were visible through openings cut in
the trees. I alighted, and was received at the door by the two
ladies. Fortunately I was already prepared by hearsay for their
peculiarities; I might otherwise have found it difficult to repress
some expression of astonishment. Imagine two ladies, the eldest of
whom, Lady Eleanor, a short robust woman, begins to feel her years a
little, being now eighty-three; the other, a tall and imposing
person, esteems herself still youthful, being only seventy-four.
Both wore their still abundant hair combed straight back and
powdered, a round man's hat, a man's cravat and waistcoat, but in the
place of 'inexpressibles,' a short petticoat and boots: the whole
covered by a coat of blue cloth, of a cut quite peculiar,--a sort of
middle term between a man's coat and a lady's riding-habit. Over
this, Lady Eleanor wore, first, the grand cordon of the order of St.
Louis across her shoulder; secondly, the same order around her neck;
thirdly, the small cross of the same in her button-hole, and 'pour
comble de gloire,' a golden lily of nearly the natural size, as a
star,--all, as she said, presents of the Bourbon family. So far the
whole effect was somewhat ludicrous. But now, you must imagine both
ladies with that agreeable 'aisance,' that air of the world of the
'ancien regime,' courteous and entertaining, without the slightest
affectation; speaking French as well as any Englishwoman of my
acquaintance; and above all, with that essentially polite,
unconstrained, and simply cheerful manner of the good society of that
day, which, in our serious hardworking age of business, appears to be
going to utter decay. I was really affected with a melancholy sort
of pleasure in contemplating it in the persons of the amiable old
ladies who are among the last of its living representatives; nor
could I witness without lively sympathy the unremitting, natur