cessor is admirably sketched by Miss Mitford; and the mutual antipathy
which existed between the French and English teacher, in whom we at once
recognise Miss Rowden:--

"Never were two better haters. Their relative situations had
probably something to do with it, and yet it was wonderful that two
such excellent persons should so thoroughly detest each other. Miss
R.'s aversion was of the cold, phlegmatic, contemptuous, provoking
sort; she kept aloof, and said nothing. Madame's was acute, fiery,
and loquacious; she not only hated Miss R., but hated for her sake
knowledge, and literature, and wit, and, above all, poetry, which she
denounced as _something fatal and contagious_, _like the plague_."

Miss Mitford's literary and dramatic tastes seem to have been acquired
from Miss Rowden, whom she describes as "one of the most charming women
that she had ever known:"--

"The pretty word _graziosa_, by which Napoleon loved to describe
Josephine, seemed made for her. She was full of a delicate grace of
mind and person. Her little elegant figure and her fair mild face,
lighted up so brilliantly by her large hazel eyes, corresponded
exactly with the soft, gentle manners which were so often awakened
into a delightful playfulness, or an enthusiasm more charming still,
by the impulse of her quick and ardent spirit. To be sure she had a
slight touch of distraction about her (distraction French, not
distraction English), an interesting absence of mind. She united in
her own person all the sins of forgetfulness of all the young ladies;
mislaid her handkerchief, her shawl, her gloves, her work, her music,
her drawing, her scissors, her keys; would ask for a book when she
held it in her hand, and set a whole class hunting for her thimble,
whilst the said thimble was quietly perched upon her finger. Oh!
with what a pitying scorn our exact and recollective Frenchwoman used
to look down on such an incorrigible scatterbrain! But she was a
poetess, as Madame said, and what could you expect better!"

Such was Miss Landon's schoolmistress; and under this lady's especial
instruction did Miss Mitford pass the years 1802, 3, and 4; together they
read "chiefly poetry;" and "besides the readings," says Miss Mitford,
"Miss R. compensated in another way for my unwilling application. She
took me often to the theatre; whether as an extra bran