'Or perhaps she [Madame de Stael] may wish to have it appear as if she thought so [that English women were less uncouth than they used to be] since she wrote the history of Lady Edgermond's Society "elles sont d'une grace d'une simplicite charmante et belles comme le jour", but I am not certain that she would not place us all or at least with a very few exceptions on Lady Cooke's bench of idiots'.