The abolition of serfdom and the reforms that followed stimulated the economic development and the rise of an Estonian class of small landowners, peasants with some civil rights. At the same time the rise of national self-consciousness encouraged Estonians into purposeful efforts to acquire education. Some important preconditions for this had been obtained. Teachers received their education mostly from the pedagogical seminaries in the towns of Tartu and Valga. Village teachers and parish clerks were called “the salt of the earth” and their manifold educational and cultural activities inspired the people. The first choirs and later brass bands were organised in rural areas during the 1820s and 30s. Singing and instrumental playing were included in the curriculum of parish schools by the second quarter of the century. By the end of the century, due to
not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of making themselves agreeable when they chose it, but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother's fortune and their own had been acquired by trade. Mr
annaabi.ee 
