Travellers, as they pass through the country, usually stop to inquire whose are the splendid mansions which they discover among the woods and plains around them.

The families, titles, fortune, or character of the respective owners engage much attention.

Perhaps their houses are exhibited to the admiring stranger.

The elegant rooms, costly furniture, valuable paintings, beautiful gardens and shrubberies, are universally approved; while the rank, fashion, taste, and riches of the possessor, afford ample materials for entertaining discussion.

In the meantime, the lowly cottage of the poor husbandman is passed by as scarcely deserving of notice.