Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/511

 and Sentiments. 49 A^o. 3 1 3 . Bu ds and Birdcage. not fo well known before. Thus, in the fixteenth century, monkeys appear to have been much in fafliion as domeftic favourites, and we not unfrequently find them in prints in attendance upon ladies. Since the difcovery of the Weft Indies, and the voyages of the Portuguefe to the coaft of Africa, parrots had become much more common than formerly. In pi6tures of the period of which we are fpeak- ing, we often find thefe, as well as fmaller domeftic birds, in cages of various forms. In our cut No. 313, taken from Whitney's "Emblems" (printed in 1585), we have a parrot in its cage, and a fmall bird (perhaps meant for a canary), the latter of which is drawing up its water to drink in a manner which has been praftifed in modern times, and fuppofed to be a novelty. It is very unfafe indeed to aflimie that any ingenious contrivances of this kind are modern, for we often meet with them unexpeftedly at a com- paratively early date. With the multiplicity of new faftiions in drefs now introduced, the work of the toilette became much greater and more varied, and many cuftoms were introduced from France, from Italy, and from the Eaft. Among cuftoms derived from the latter quarter, was the introdudion of the eaftern hot and fweating baths, which became for a confiderable period common in England. They were ufually known by the plain Englifli name of hothuufes, but their eaftern origin was alio fometimes indicated by the prefervation of their Perftan name of hiimmiims. This name is ftill retained by the two modern hotels which occupy the fites of eftabliftiments of this defcription in Covent Garden. Sweating in hot- houfes is fpoken of by Ben Jonfon 5 and a charafter in the old play of "The Puritan," fpeaking of a laborious undertaking, fays, "Marry, it will take me much fweat ; I were better go to fixteen hothoiifcs." They feem to have been moftly frequented by women, and became, as in the Eaft, favourite places of rendezvous for goflip and company. They were foon ufed to fuch an extent for illicit intrigues, that the name of a hothoufe or bao-nio became equivalent to that of a brothel ; and this circumftance probably