Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/339

 314 ENGLISH SERVANTS.

He now desired George to come to the palace again the next day, but he looked on him already as a dead man, and on going to the palace gate, found him too ill to be seen by any one, and in a few days he died.&quot;

There are multitudes of pictures at Hampton Court, and a ceiling, painted by Sir James Thornhill, which many admire. Here, also, are the cartoons of Raphael, purchased and placed there by Charles the First. Yet the principal fascinations of this interesting spot, seemed to me of a rural order. The gardens ; the velvet turf of the broad parks ; the sound of the crystal fountains, sometimes falling into basins, where leaped up silver and golden-coated fishes ; the lofty trees, mu sical with birds ; and the quiet seats amid shaded gravel walks, all conspired to soothe the feelings into serenity and repose.

Much agreeable conversation had we amid those pleasant haunts, with loved English friends. A mar riage which we had that morning attended, led our minds to the congenial subject of domestic happiness, and to the science of home-comfort, which seems to me better understood in the Mother Land, than in any other which I have critically examined. Among the details which promote it, is undoubtedly the excellent attendance of the servants. Each one is at his post, in the neatest costume, ready to maintain the clock-work regularity of the establishment. The interests of those whom they serve are their own ; in their sickness or sorrows they are afflicted, in their joys they rejoice, to their guests they show observance and honor. Thus

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