OCR Rendition - approximate

8   Art of Travel.

warm at night ; and in fact there is no such thing as travelling any considerable distance, or for any length of time, in this country without their assistance.' ` Women,' said he again, `though they do everything, are maintained at a trifling expense : for, as they always stand cook, the very licking of their fingers, in scarce times, is sufficient for their subsistence."'

Strength of Women.-I believe there are few greater popular errors than the idea we have mainly derived from chivalrous times, that woman is a weakly creature. Julius Caesar, who judged for himself, took a very different view of the powers of certain women of the northern races, about whom he wrote. I suppose, that in the days of baronial castles, when crowds of people herded together like pigs within the narrow enclosures of a fortification, and the ladies did nothing but needlework in their boudoirs, the mode of life was very prejudicial to their nervous system and muscular powers. The women suffered from the effects of ill ventilation and bad drainage, and had none of the counteracting advantages of the military life that was led by the males. Consequently women really became the helpless dolls that they were considered to be, and which it is still the fashion to consider them. It always seems to me that a hard-worked woman is better and happier for her work. It is in the nature of women to be fond of carrying weights; you may see them in omnibuses and carriages, always preferring to hold their baskets or their babies on their knees, to setting them down on the seats by their sides. A -woman, whose modern dress includes I know not how many cubic feet of space, has hardly ever pockets of a sufficient size to carry small articles ; for she prefers to load her hands with a bag or other weighty object. A nursery-maid, who is on the move all day, seems the happiest specimen of her sex ; and, after her, a maid-ofall-work who is treated fairly by her mistress.

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