One of the first results of increasing wealth was a desire for a better education than the district school afforded. Already in 1792 Miss Sally Pierce had established her famous school in Litchfield under the patronage of Chief Justice Tapping Reeve, Gov. Wolcott, Col. Tallmadge, and other distinguished men, probably the first female seminary in America. Here were sent the young ladies of this village until the Farmington Academy was established. E. D. Mansfield LL.D., once connected with the “Old Red College” of Deacon Hooker, gives us in his “Personal Memories” an outside view of the school as it appeared a few years later, on his first visit to Litchfield. “One of the first objects which struck my eyes was interesting and picturesque. This was a long procession of school girls, coming down North Street, walking under the lofty elms, and moving to the music of a flute and flageolet. The girls were gayly dressed and evidently enjoyed their evening parade, in this most balmy season of the year. It was the school of Miss Sally Pierce, one of the earliest and best of the pioneers in American female education. That scene has never faded from my memory. The beauty of nature, the loveliness of the season, the sudden appearance of this school of girls, all united to strike and charm the mind of a young man, who, however varied his experience, had never beheld a scene like that.” He was about to enter the Litchfield Law School, a famous institution which gathered numerous brilliant young men, especially from the South. Their proximity might have been a disturbing element in the quiet of the young ladies school had Miss Pierce lacked the wisdom to manage discreetly what would have ruined a weaker administration. The young men were allowed to call on certain evenings, but woe to the man who transgressed ever so slightly the laws of strict decorum. To be denied admission to Miss Sally Pierce’s parlor was the deepest disgrace which could befall a young man. A school girl writes home that a “Mr. Lyde was very attentive to Miss Norton (of Farmington) and gazed at her so much that it mortified Miss Norton, and Miss Sally spoke to him and he has not been in the house since March.” It was only after much correspondence and penitence that Mr. Lyde was reinstated. On leaving the school, each girl was expected to bring home to her admiring parents some evidence of proficiency in her studies. Those who could, exhibited elaborate water-color drawings which have hung ever since on the walls of Farmington parlors. Others less gifted were advised to paint their family coat of arms, and, if they had never heard of any, they soon learned how all this could be remedied without any correspondence with the Herald’s College. One Nathan Ruggles who advertised in the Connecticut Courant “at his Looking Glass and Picture Store, Main Street, opposite the State