Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/502

 Hiftory of Domejiic Manners CHAPTER XXIII. OCCUPATIONS OF THE LADIES. OF ENGLISH SPORTS AT BATHS. THE ORDINARIES. - —GAMES AND ENJOYMENTS. ROUGHNESS THIS PERIOD. THE HOT-HOUSES, OR -DOMESTIC PETS. TREATMENT OF CHIL- DREN. METHODS OF LOCOMOTION.- CONCLUSION. DURING the period at which we are now arrived, almoft all the relations of domeftic hfe underwent a great change, and nothing hardly could produce a wider ditference than that between the manners and lentiments of the reign of Henry VII., and thofe of Charles II. This was efpecially obfervable in the occupations of the female fex, which were becoming more and more frivolous. At the earlier portion of the period referred to, women in general were confined clofely to their domeftic labours, in fpinning, weaving, embroidering, and other work of a fimilar kind. A hand-loom was almoft a necelTary article of furniture in a well regulated houfehold, and fpinning was fo univerfal an occu- pation, that we read fometimes of an apartment in the houfe fet apart for it — a family fpinning room. Even to this prefent day, in legal language, the only occupation acknowledged, as that of an unmarried woman, is that of a fpinfter. Our cut (No. 306) reprefents a party of ladies at their domeftic labours ; it is taken from Ifrael van Mechelin's print of "The Virgin Afcending the Steps of the Temple," where this domeftic fcene is introduced in a fide compartment. Two No. 306. Ladki at Work.