iet, orderly,
respectful mode of doing their duties. They are always neat in their
persons, and appropriately, and, if I may use the phrase, technically
dressed; they move about the house without hurry or noise; there is
nothing of the bustle of employment, or the voice of command; nothing of
that obtrusive housewifery that amounts to a torment. You are not
persecuted by the process of making you comfortable; yet everything is
done, and is done well. The work of the house is performed as if by
magic, but it is the magic of system. Nothing is done by fits and
starts, nor at awkward seasons; the whole goes on like well-oiled
clockwork, where there is no noise nor jarring in its operations.

English servants, in general, are not treated with great indulgence, nor
rewarded by many commendations; for the English are laconic and reserved
towards their domestics; but an approving nod and kind word from master
or mistress, goes as far here, as an excess of praise or indulgence
elsewhere. Neither do servants exhibit any animated marks of affection
to their employers; yet, though quiet, they are strong in their
attachments; and the reciprocal regard of masters or servants, though
not ardently expressed, is powerful and lasting in old English families.

The title of "an old family servant" carries with it a thousand kind
associations in all parts of the world; and there is no claim upon the
home-bred charities of the heart more irresistible than that of having
been "born in the house." It is common to see grey-headed domestics of
this kind attached to an English family of the "old school," who
continue in it to the day of their death in the enjoyment of steady
unaffected kindness, and the performance of faithful unofficious duty. I
think such instances of attachment speak well for master and servant,
and the frequency of them speaks well for national character.

These observations, however, hold good only with families of the
description I have mentioned, and with such as are somewhat retired, and
pass the greater part of their time in the country. As to the powdered
menials that throng the walls of fashionable town residences, they
equally reflect the character of the establishments to which they
belong; and I know no more complete epitomes of dissolute heartlessness
and pampered inutility.

But the good "old family servant!"--The one who has always been linked,
in idea, with the home of our heart; who has led us to school in