The chase for the fox and the red deer
pervaded almost universally the higher walks of life. The topography of
the country was such as to make these, in the fearless rides they
compelled, extremely hazardous, familiarizing their votaries with
danger and inspiring fearlessness and daring. Almost every gentleman
had his hunting steed and kennel of hounds; and at the convivial dinner
which always followed the hunt, he could talk horse and hound with the
zest of a groom or whipper-in, and at the evening _soiree_ emulate
D'Orsay or Chesterfield in the polish of his manners and the elegance
of his conversation. This peculiarity was not alone confined to the
gentlemen. The ladies were familiar with every household duty, and
attended to them: they caught from their husbands and brothers the open
frankness of their bearing and conversation, a confident, yet not a
bold or offensive bearing in their homes and in society, with a
polished refinement and an elevation of sentiment in all they said or
did, which made them to me the most charming and lovely of their
sex--and which made Mississippi forty years ago the most desirable
place of rural residence in the Union.
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