t came, the ladies told us that the horror they had
conceived of being exhibited as public spectacles had fixed in them such
a fear of being seen by any stranger, that the sound of a voice with
which they were not acquainted at the outside of the paling, or the
trampling of feet, would set them all a running behind the bushes to
hide themselves, like so many timorous partridges in a mew, hurrying
behind sheaves of corn for shelter; they even found a convenience in
their size, which, though it rendered them unwilling to be seen, enabled
them so easily to find places for concealment.

By degrees the ladies brought them to consent to see their head
servants, and some of the best people in the parish; desiring that to
render it more agreeable to their visitors, they would entertain them
with fruit and wine; advising them to assist their neighbours in plain
work; thus to endear themselves to them, and procure more frequent
visits, which as they chose to confine themselves within so narrow a
compass, and enjoyed but precarious health, their benefactresses thought
a necessary amusement. These recommendations, and the incidents
wherewith their former lives had furnished them to amuse their company,
and which they now could relate with pleasure, from the happy sense that
all mortifications were past, rendered their conversation much courted
among that rank of people.

It occurred to me that their dislike to being seen by numbers must
prevent their attendance on public worship, but my cousin informed me
that was thus avoided. There was in the church an old gallery, which
from disuse was grown out of repair; this the ladies caused to be
mended, and the front of it so heightened, that these little folks when
in it could not be seen; the tall ones contrived by stooping when they
were there not to appear of any extraordinary height. To this they were
conveyed in the ladies' coach and set down close to covered stairs,
which led up to the gallery.

This subject employed our conversation till we approached the hall; the
ladies then, after insisting that we should not think of going from
thence that day, all left us expect Mrs Maynard. It may seem strange
that I was not sorry for their departure; but, in truth, I was so filled
with astonishment at characters so new, and so curious to know by what
steps women thus qualified both by nature and fortune to have the world
almost at command, were brought thus to seclude themselves from it, a