you as you are, not as you have been; far less, as you might have been. Do not expect your customers to recognize you in the street. This is not customary in England; and even in republican countries, such practices are more theoretical than otherwise. Society would come to an end if distinctions of class were to cease. Your husband is right about treating your customers with civility; but as to the "silent contempt" part of his advice, do not despise your fellow-creatures without some better cause than that you mention. As to the remarks made about your book, it was rude in the extreme. "Such a place" is not a term to be used by anyone in reference to the home of another. Don't let that gentleman into your parlour again. You ask what can be done under the circumstances. My reply is, "Nothing." Your own self-respect will teach you to be independent of the opinion of people whom (since you call them "shabby genteel ") you do not esteem. Do nothing unworthy of your gentle birth; and remember, above all, that no treatment that we can receive from others can degrade us. It is only our own actions that can do that. I do not know exactly what you mean by "shabby-genteel people." Do you mean the ladies and gentlemen of the neighbourhood?]

THALIA presents her compliments to the Editor of THE YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN, and would be pleased if he or any of his correspondents can tell her the words of the comic song which commences with " What are little boys made of?" it consists of about a dozen verses. Thalia has taken your magazine for some time, and likes it exceedingly. She is in great want of a good remedy for chapped lips, having tried cold-cream and rose-salve without effect.

C. E. J. will feel much obliged if the Editor or one of his readers will give her some instructions how to do skeleton leaves. She has seen so many, that she is anxious to try. In your magazine for March last, a young lady wished for the pattern of jacket-bodice that was given in one of your numbers for last year, and that she would give in exchange an onyx ring. Having the pattern, I thought I would oblige her with it; but have never had a reply. C. E. J. would be glad if some patterns of leather work could be inserted in THE YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN. She has taken in the magazine for some time, and looks forward to it every month with great pleasure. [Sophy, to whose advertisement you allude, had upwards of 124 answers, to many of which she replied, but at last gave up in despair.]

C. J. R. writes,-I shall be much obliged if some of your correspondents can tell me how to prepare shells for shell-work. Some acid is sed which leaves the shells bright and polished; but I do not know the right sort, nor how to use it. Also, can you inform me where I could get work-boxes relined with silk? [I will inquire.]

MAGDALEN ventures to suggest that a few simple styles for dressing the hair would be very acceptable to many young subscribers. She would be very glad if any correspondent could give her a remedy for enlarged joints. Magdalen hopes she has not violated any of the rules.

COUSIN MAGGIE writes,-Will the kind Editor or any of his numerous correspondents suggest to Cousin Maggie a few fancy things for a birthday-present for a young lady under twenty; something that Cousin Maggie could make herself. By so doing, she will greatly oblige her. [Work some lace for her, or make a handkerchief sachet, or embroider her initials on a dozen pockethandkerchiefs.]

MRS. J. SMITH would be very much obliged if Sylvia would tell her if there is any substitute for crinoline worn, as she is very tall and thin, and the total want of it makes her look so odd. [There is a corded white material sold that makes very good stiff petticoats.] Also, what sort of tablecloth is most suitable for a drawing-room? [Those called chenille are very

pretty, but tablecloths are seldom used in drawing-rooms.] And can Sylvia or any of her correspondents tell her of a good translation of J. P. Richter's works, and if Jean Ingelow's poems have been published in a collected form.

FORDYCE has taken your magazine for a year past, and is much pleased with it. Would Sylvia think her forward if she suggested that a picture of the cut-out paper pattern be always given in the same number, as myself and one or two other readers (who may be rather thickheaded) sometimes find it difficult to put the pieces together. For instance, in arranging the back of the jacket-bodice in the April number, it will not sit nicely, it is so gathered like, and does not form a proper tab as described, I think the letters on Politeness most useful. Can you tell me, in receiving callers and giving them a glass of wine in an easy way, 'should the glasses be handed in the hand or on a salver? [On a salver. Wine is scarcely ever given to callers now.] Living in the country, I think it is stiff for a servant to hand afternoon tea or wine, unless the callers are strangers; am I right? Have I written according to your rules? [It is not at all "stiff" for a servant to bring in the tea and hand it round; but perhaps it is more sociable to have a table, pour it out yourself, and hand the cups about without a servant. You have complied with our rules, except that you omitted to leave spaces for replies.]

LILLA would be obliged if Sylvia will kindly answer the following questions in the July number of THE YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN: Would black or white hats and bonnets be best for young ladies of nineteen and twenty-one to wear in summer? [Whichever they prefer.] When one wears a frill round the throat, should the same be tacked round the sleeves? [Not necessarily.] And would one require cuffs as well? [Frills and cuffs do not look well together. Could sapoline be rubbed, in the clothes like other soaps, or must it be dissolved? [It must be cut up and dissolved.] On what kind of dish should cheese be put on the table? [You have asked this question in your other letter. You will find the answer elsewhere.] How small should veal, etc., be minced? Should it be in lumps as large as nuts, or very small? [Quite fine.] Would a little round glass dish, that is for holding preserves on the tea-table, do to hold horseradish on the dinner-table? [Yes.]

WINNIE sends compliments to the Editor, and would he kindly say in next magazine if oatmeal used in the water one washes in whitens the skin? or why is it used? [It purifies the skin, and consequently improves the complexion.] Also, if Hagan's Magnolia Balm be a good cosmetic?

ETHEL would be much obliged if the Editor would answer the following questions in the July number. Is it right at a wedding breakfast to put the pastry on the table with the meat? [Yes.] And when should it be served, before of after the cake? [The cake is cut almost the last thing.] Should cretonne curtains for bed and windows be lined? if so, what with? [Any colour that will harmonize with the cretonne.] In sending the wedding-cake to friends, what should be written with it; should the bride's maiden-name be used at all? [No; with Mr. and Mrs. -'s compli

ments.

J. V. writes,-Seeing in THE YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN (to which we have been subscribers for many years) that young ladies are recommended to try to obtain certificates for schoolmistresses, I should feel obliged if you could tell me the names of any training-schools, or colleges, where said certificates might be obtained, as I have two sisters who would like to try for them. [You will find all the necessary information, with complete list of the Training Schools recognized by Government, in Sylvia's article in the present number, on "Something to Do."]

LENORE wishes to know the superstition

2. All letters must contain a large, fullydirected, stamped envelope, the stamp to be enclosed, not affixed.

3. Notices must be written legibly on one side of a sheet of paper, separate and distinct from communications for the Drawing-room or Work-room.

4. Announcements of the nature of an Advertisement cannot appear in this column.

5. The charge for insertion in THE YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN'S Exchange is threepence for every twelve words, and one penny extra for every additional four words, except in cases where the address is published. The insertion, in these cases, is free.

6. The only articles that can be advertised for sale are Books and Music.

7. All articles of wearing apparel advertised for exchange must be new; Furs, Laces, Shawls, and Rugs alone excepted.

8. Notices must be sent before the 10th of preceding month.

9. We cannot continue to publish long lists of music. These form uninteresting matter for general readers. Therefore, advertisers will oblige by substituting for the lists these words, "Lists sent on application."

LOUIE will give full price or price and a ha!! for the March number of 1874.—Address, 168, Albany Street, Regent's Park.

A. B. has some bright silks and satins for patchwork; would exchange for music or anything useful for a lady.-Address, A. B., PostOffice, Harswell, York.

IDA G. has the Argosy for 1874, unbound: story complete, "In the Dead of Night," 45 Address with Editor.

Advertisements of Lady's Work, Pet Animals, etc., for this part of the Paper, are charged for at the rate of One Shilling for Twike Words.

MISS CLYDE, Northdown Lodge, Bideford, Devon, sends 20 roots of Devonshire ferns, 6 varieties, or 100 leaves, for 12 stamps. She sends a box containing 100 roots, 9 varieties, for 55.

Correct delineation of character from handwriting. 13 Stamps. Young Englishwomen, please send to N. N. Address with Editor.

MISS LAWRENCE has for disposal a large quantity of music remarkably cheap. Send for list to 82, Victoria Park Road, South Hackney.

IDA G. has raised Berlin square for sofapillow. Wants offers. I. G. paints handkerchief-sachets, 25. Address with Editor.

ARMANDE has music for sale at 3d. each piece. Also books for exchange. Lists sent. Address, 2, King's Cottages, Hornsey Road,

London.

[Your other advertisement will cost rs. 6d.] MADELINE has a number of pianoforte pieces and songs she wishes to dispose of at greatly reduced prices. List sent on application.-Address, Madeline, The Limes, Burnham, near Maidenhead, Berks.

HERE must have been bright girls in England in the

THER

Tudor times. With all respect for the supreme genius of Shakespeare, we can scarcely believe that he created, from the fertility of his own imagination, and without studying living models, the wonderful women of his dramas. Neither can we think that the cluster of poets who lived contemporaneously, or just before and after him, Surrey, Spenser, Sidney (what a lustre the constellation of "S's "shed upon that age!), quite invented the Geraldine, the exquisite Una of the "Faerie Queene," and the gracious beauty who inspired the " Arcadia," without having lived in the presence of, loved and reverenced, some very charming exemplars of the sex. The "Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother," of Ben Jonson's famous epitaph, could have been no ordinary woman. Rugged Ben was not given to sentimentality, but he recognized goodness and greatness, and wrote of "the fair and wise and good," not in courtly affectation, but with very genuine respect and admiration. As for Shakespeare, we believe that his immortal women are as veritable studies from the life as the painted series of painted beauties of a later and worse time, which preserve to posterity the charms of the fair frequenters of the Stuarts' court. We do not, indeed, suppose that Portia, Rosalind, Viola, Beatrice, or Imogene are individual portraits of Elizabethan ladies, but there must have been abundant materials in the society to which Shakespeare had access, from

which he obtained the ideal of his characters; and what a charming society that must have been where native wit was ripened by literary culture, beauty allied with tenderness and unaffected grace, spirit and courage with modesty and delicate sensitiveness, a charming sauciness of occasional manner with intense sincerity and devotedness, and a frank unconsciousness of superiority with instinctive feminine dignity and the simplicity of true greatness of soul.

In that sixteenth century, so full of wonders, the age of the Reformation and of the discovery of a new world, there was, too, a new development of national and social life. Imagination was aroused to co-operate with manly courage, warriors became adventurers, and the old sea-king spirit of our Scandinavian ancestors appeared to be revived. Thinkers, too, pined to conquer new worlds, and poets to penetrate to hitherto unknown spheres, and catch the echoes of immortal music. Women shared with men the same impulse. At no period of English history were pure-minded, tender-hearted maidens, and faithful, generous-souled, even heroic matrons, unknown; but in the later Tudor times, heart and brain shared alike in the new enlarged life. So girls of high station were not satisfied to be the mere ornaments of social life, court beauties only, the recipients of vapid compliments, and lay figures only in the great gallery of life. They studied. hard, read much, thought much, developed and strength

ened their intellectual life, and were withal none the less charming and merry-hearted. Not only was the fluent command of the French and Italian tongues, including a considerable acquaintance with the associated literature, a general accomplishment, but the classical languages were by no means strange. We all know that Jane Grey was Roger Ascham's ripest scholar in Greek, and Jane was only seventeen when the headsman's cruel axe fell on her fair neck on Tower Hill; Elizabeth, in her enforced seclusion during the reign of her sister Mary, made herself mistress of Latin and Greek, and was no contemptible Hebraist; and Jane Grey and the Princess Elizabeth were by no means singular in their scholarship. There were many others in that gay and brilliant gathering who smiled, and almost wept sympathetically, upon the adventurous gallants who followed the sea with Howard of Effingham or shared the enterprise of Raleigh, and, like Desdemona, almost wished that Heaven had made them such men. There were many who could quote Plato or Sophocles, or the soft couplets of the Italian poets. They could, too, achieve marvels in needlework, sing well, and dance merrily; were, in short, fine light-hearted, high-bred, clever, sympathetic, and very womanly girls, well worthy of the admiration they received, with a certain indefinable brightness which Shakespeare focussed into a centre, and preserved as "a bright particular star" for all time.

We need not, of course, suppose that in the smaller towns and country places remote from towns, intellectual cultivation, to the extent we have mentioned, was so general as in the courtly circle at Greenwich or Whitehall; but there was, no doubt, a reflection of the light. The Reformation produced great social agitation and remodelling, as it were, of the aspect of social life. There was a removal of barriers, and opening up of new vistas to the eye of the imagination, in which all classes shared in different degrees. Learning was no longer monopolized by the clerical class, but was claimed as a right for all. Girls were not trained for the convent, but to be wives and mothers; they awakened to the sense that their consciences were in their own keeping, and the same sense of responsibility imparted an activity to their mental life. The country girl of good position enjoyed a great deal of out-of-door life, and preserved her health, spirits, and good-humour. If ever this country deserved to be called "Merry England "- not in the riotous, shouting, romping, grosser sense of the much misused word-it was in the Elizabethan days. There was a cheerful, sunshiny gaiety, an innocent freedom, which we see reflected in the domestic comedy of Shakespeare, which shines in the face of Anne Page, which the poet must have studied in many a country house, where the merry talk and laugh of young English girls resounded in oaken chambers or among the parterres of the garden.

There is another period in English history, when the poets and wits of the time took great pains to paint fulllength portraits of the young beauties of the court and

society. Pope, Addison, Steele, and others have preserved for us some dainty sketches. The ladies of Queen Anne's time were not such ideals of womanly perfection as those of the earlier age, but they were very engaging and charming; and there were the same merriment and wit, a little more subdued and artificial, but nothing like the same culture as in the Tudor times. With all the grace and good-humour, there was just a little silliness and affectation which the wits laughed at, although apparently admiring and enjoying it greatly. French romances, lap-dogs and monkeys, perfumed billets-doux, all sorts of little vanities and affectations, were the fashion, and gave rise to abundance of banter in Pope's poems, and Addison and Steele's "Spectators." But there was a great deal of sound sense and spirit under the external aspect of fashionable ways, and now and then the wits caught quite as good as they sent. The four Marys, the beautiful madcaps who must have astonished the newly-imported glum Hanoverians of the Court, were not "chaffed" with impunity, and could well hold their own with a repartee.

Let it be observed of the most satirical writers of the first half of the last century, that it was only modes and fashions, external affectations, paints, patches, little sillinesses of manner which they joked about, not the real beauty, ésprit and tender delicacy of the feminine nature. Those qualities they recognized as fully as did Shakespeare and his associates, much more than the heartless poets and wits of the intermediate century, who saw only the curls and the jewels, the outward manners, not the inward nature. Pope's Belinda sailing up the Thames to Hampton Court, is a picture perfectly delicious in its beauty, a beauty certainly of a somewhat artificial kind, but not wanting in true elements. Pope and Addison were not men to respect shams, and that they did really respect the ladies of their time even when they were readiest with the jokes about the manners of their time, is a proof that there was a good deal worthy of the respect of such men, in the lively, clever, quick-tongued, bright-eyed beauties who clustered in gay groups in the gardens at Kensington, and made life at Leicester House, "the pouting place of princes," not quite unendurable.

It is, too, well worth noting that the most attractive character in the novels of the last century are always the young ladies. Fielding, who wrote in the middle of the century, was indebted for the models of the heroines of his pages to the girls, mostly secluded country girls, of the same age as the more sparkling beauties of the "Spectator." His heroes are generally what, in common language, may be styled, a "bad lot." He seems to have enjoyed but a slight acquaintance with really good and noble men; but his Sophia Western and Amelia are true, good women; and in depicting them the generally too free painter of manners is delicate and reverential. He would not have been so if the young ladies of his day had not been worthy of his reverence.

THE EDITOR.