Time does not appear to have changed the character of the people or their social amenities, for, in 1836, an Englishman, the Honorable Charles Augustus Murray, writes:
"A gentleman must be very difficult to please if he
does not find Charleston society agreeable; there is something
warm, frank and courteous in the manner of a real
Carolinian; he is not studiously, but naturally polite;
and though his character may not be remarkable for that
persevering industry and close attention to minutiæ in
business which are so remarkable in the New England
merchants, he is far from deficient in sagacity, courage
or enterprise."
One characteristic of the Charleston women
which still abides with them is noted by Mr.
Murray, who says:
"They are pretty, agreeable and intelligent, and in
one respect have an advantage over most of their
Northern sisters—(if the judge is to be a person accustomed
to English society)—I mean as regards voice;
they have not that particular intonation which I have
remarked elsewhere, and which must have struck every
stranger who has visited the other Atlantic cities."
There was little of the Puritanical element
in the thriving capital of South Carolina.
Many of its citizens had frequented, in their
college days, the pit of Drury Lane or Covent
