------ and I lost several shillings to a Mrs. Halton
and Mr. Gaskell. . . . . After finishing our games at cards, Mrs. Halton
drove off in a pony-chaise to her own house; the other ladies retired,
and the gentlemen sat down to chat awhile over the hall fire,
occasionally sipping a glass of wine-and-water, and finally we all went
off to our rooms. It was past twelve o'clock when I composed myself to
sleep, and I could not have slept long, when a tremendous clap of thunder
woke me just in time to see a vivid flash of lightning. I saw no ghosts,
though Mrs. ------ tells me there is one, which makes a disturbance,
unless religious services are regularly kept up in the Chapel.
In the morning, before breakfast, we had prayers, read by Mr. ------, in
the oak dining-room, all the servants coming in, and everybody kneeling
down. I should like to know how much true religious feeling is indicated
by this regular observance of religious rites in English families. In
America, if people kneel down to pray, it is pretty certain that they
feel a genuine interest in the matter, and their daily life is supposed
to be in accordance with their devotions. If an American is an infidel,
he knows it; but an Englishman is often so without suspecting it,--being
kept from that knowledge by this formality of family prayer, and his
other regularities of external worship. . . . .
There was a parrot in a corner of the dining-room, and, when prayers were
over, Mrs.
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