Punch (7.1844)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

165

PUNCH'S COMPLETE LETTER-WRITER.

LETTER XXIX.

FROM THE HON. MRS. FLINT TO LADY HONORIA ASPHALT.
ON THE CHOICE OF A GOVERNESS.

Dear Madam,

I resume my pen to finish my
subject ; and as I have had considerably more
experience than yourself in the article of
governesses, I will briefly tell you how /
have always dealt with these people. You
will then be able to contrast my practice with
your own. Like myself when a very young mother, you have been
too considerate—too yielding. Firmness, dear madam, firmness is
the first essential — young governesses are as difficult to break
as young horses ; but it is to be done.

I told you that I always had my suspicions of Sinclair's German
—I am sure it was not the true Saxon. Now I have never engaged
a governess unless she had acquired French, German and Italian in
their separate countries. Nothing like studying a language on its
proper soil, otherwise the accent of the children becomes irretrievably

perfectly well understood who she was, and she was never drawn
out of her place — never for a moment confounded with any of the
ladies present. It is convenient, too, now and then, to have these
persons with you : they relieve a dull moment or so in an evening,
when desired to take the stool and play. And even here, one must
be very guarded, lest the governess forgets herself. I remember on
one occasion, a governess I had—a pale, puling thing, with large blue
eyes and flaxen hair, and by the way, a cough that entirely made
her singing a bad bargain—I remember that whilst she played, she
once suffered my nephew Adolphus to turn the music ! But when
we retired, didn't I school her ? She had red eyes for a fortnight.

I had written thus far, when I received the letter that accom-
panies this. It is from a young woman who has never yet been
from home. She has been splendidly brought up, but her father
would speculate in hops or some such things, and they are all
beggars Having a sort of feeling for the family, and hearing that
the girl must go into the world, I wrote to her—with a view to your
service—asking her notions of the duties and responsibilities of a
governess—the treatment she expected, &c. &c. You will read her
reply. It is exquisite. Quite a leaf from an old French romance.
Poor thing ! with such ideas, what will become of her ? I will,
'lowever, look somewhere else for you ; in the mean time,

Believe me, yours always,—

Dorothea Flint.

LETTER XXX.

FROM A YOUNG LADY DESIROUS OF AN ENGAGEMENT AS FAMILY

GOVERNESS.

Madam,

It is, indeed, true that the sudden and total wreck of my
father's fortune, renders it necessary for me to earn my own bread ;
and, unhappily, not mine alone. Your letter, kind madam, came
like a sunbeam upon our darkened dwelling. Now, indeed, do I feel
grateful—past expression—for the few attainments I possess, for they
will enable me to bear with cheerfulness the change prepared for
me. They will raise me above the indifference and contempt of the
world ; and whilst they supply me with the means of honourable
existence—and what, indeed, so honourable, so truly lofty, as a life
dedicated to the mind of childhood ?—they may haply not be
deemed wholly useless to others. I am now tranquil—decided,
ruined. It was only last week that my dear friend, Lady Dinah I When the truth first came upon me that I must henceforth exist by

Grosbeak, called me in to examine a candidate for the place of daily
governess. The creature had certainly learned French in Paris, hut
she knew no more of Florence or Dresden than the city giants. She
played the piano remarkably well, and brought excellent testimonials
to her knowledge of thorough bass. She sang, too, very nicely—and
if the water-colour paintings she produced were really her own, they
were—for I always like to do justice to everybody—very pretty.
However, with all her accomplishments, humility was not among
them, for what do you think she asked of Lady Dinah to attend
only her three children as daily governess ? Positively, thirty pounds
a year, and, by way of climax—her dinner !

However, to proceed with my own experience. Knowing the
artifice of governesses—feeling assured that it is necessary to be quite
alive to their whims and caprices, I always made it a principle to
deduct their salary for any week or even day of illness. Bless you,
madam, without this precaution, there is no knowing what one might
lose in sham fevers and surreptitious headaches. Let your governess
be aware of your inflexibility on this point, and be assured she is
aever ill; or if she is, it is all the same, you never hear of it. Again,
I never allowed a bell in the bed-room of a governess—otherwise,
the poor servants would, I knew, be continually rung up and down.
No ; if the governess wanted anything, she could certainly somehow
get it, without rai-ing the house for it. On one occasion, too, when
we left town—leaving some of the children at home,—I gave to the
governess a proper dietary ; a certain scale of food which it was un-
order was not to be departed from. As / had to pay for the meat,
bread, butter, milk, &c. to be consumed, I was of course the only
fitting judge of the quantity—that is, for a governess.

There are, however, occasions when appearances may justify a
little extra outlay on a governess. For instance, when my dear
father died—ha, madam ! if ever there was a true Christian, he was
one—I made my person a present of a dress and bonnet. In fact, I
had three dresses for my maid, the nurse, and governess, all alike.
A little liberality of this sort towards our fellow-creatures is, after
all, not lost in this world, and can do us no harm in the next.

Whenever it was necessary that my governess should join any of
my little social parties, I of course never introduced her. No—it was

my own exertions, I own it, old vanities—the follies born of fortune
—clung for a moment closer to me. But I have laid apart false
pride like a masque-night garment.—I am instantly prepared to
begin my working life.

You ask my notion of the duties, the cares, the responsibilities of
a governess. Alas, madam ! it is a contemplation of their seriousness,
nay, of their solemnity, that makes me pause—falter, in my hopes.
I cannot but fear my own unworthiness for the task—it is so vital.
For is not the mind of childhood the tenderest, holiest thing, this
side heaven ? Is it not to be approached with gentleness, with love,
—yes, with a heart-worship of the great God from whom, in
almost angel-innocence, it has proceeded ? A creature undefiled by
the taint of the world—unvexed by its injustice—unwearied by its
hollow pleasures? A being fresh from the source of light, with some-
thing of its innocent lustre in it ? If childhood be this—how holy the
duty to see that, in its onward growth, it shall be no other ! To
stand, as a watcher at the temple, lest any unclean thing shall enter
it. This, surely, is one of the loftiest duties that can elevate infirm
humanity ; and this duty is especially required of him or her who
tends upon the growing mind of youth : it is a task that, however
misunderstood by the many, ennobles the doer. I know that all the
world thinks not thus. I know, alas ! that there are mothers who
place their mere jewellery under bankers' locks, who, nevertheless,
trust the jewelled minds of their children to the keeping of a stran-
ger, with scarcely a thought of the fidelity of the keeper.

You have, now, madam, my idea of the duties of a governess—of
her hard, her earnest, yet rewardful labours. As to her treatment,
she is—if conscientious in her vocation—a gentlewoman. She has
within her trust the greatest treasures that human life—with all its
pride—can know ; the hearts and, indeed, the future souls of children.
As her mission is a noble one, respect and courtesy are hers by right.
To look upon her as a better-dressed drudge is, in very truth, not
poorest insolence alone, but darkest error. Her patient, quiet labours
are to insure the best triumphs of life ; for they make, or should
make, good daughters, good wives, good mothers. In these the
truthfulness and happiness of the world have, surely, some stake,
and are, indeed, her lasting debtors.