rting themselves honestly, and are kept till they are old enough
to be put apprentice to some good person who will treat them well. So,
instead of six hundred and fifty ignorant, reckless vagrants, the
community receives that number of well-instructed, well-brought-up
individuals, who can support themselves decently and respectably.

An English country home, where education, high breeding, easy
circumstances, old trees, room enough, and a merry family circle, make
life beautiful--this had always been one of my dreams of earthly
happiness. All this was realized at Mrs. C--'s, at Chobham, where I
stopped for a visit on my way to London.

Every day my kind friends devised some little plan for my amusement,
beyond the constant pleasure of the every-day life. One day they took
me to Windsor, which, you know, is one of the queen's country palaces.
We approached it through the famous avenue of elms in the park. The
effect of the castle, seen through that long, long vista, is very fine.
The English elm, though not so graceful as ours, is more grand and
stately, and better for architectural effects. There were many deer in
the park, which added much to its beauty. At last we were at the
castle; it is a fine building, but would be far more picturesque in
ruins than in its present perfect state. We went first into the chapel;
this is exquisitely beautiful. The Gothic clusters of pillars springing
up from the floor rise unbroken to the roof, and spread out like palm
trees. The emblazoned coats of arms of the knights of the garter
hanging all around on the pillars of the chapel, the beautiful carved
ornaments like lace-work, and many other rare and lovely objects, make
the royal chapel very magnificent. There was a horrible old woman who
went screeching about the room, showing the pictures, &c. She was
particularly apropos in calling us, when she found we were Americans,
into a corner of the chapel to show us the tomb of Lord Harcourt, who
is there represented receiving the sword of some unfortunate American
general, and shrieked out with her cracked voice, "I thought this might
interest you."

After feasting my eyes long enough upon the chapel, I went into the
castle, and joined one of those batches of human beings which are
driven through the state apartments by the guide. The rooms are
magnificent. One contains a beautiful collection of pictures by
Vandyke. We saw the grand malachite vase, presented to Victoria by the
Emperor