Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/633

TO 1760.] sacredness of the marriage tie and the purity of domestic life were thus set at open defiance by them, how were these virtues likely to flourish amongst their subjects? The nobles imitated their sovereign, and the people the



nobles. It was not likely that, under such circumstances, the female part of the community could be superior in information, or in that highest of attractions, the possession of a pure mind, full of religious and domestic grace and love. Women of rank and fortune were without education, and therefore without the means of making home delightful. They, like the gentlemen, sought coarse pleasures in public places, and the scenes which shock us in the theatres, fashionable parties, and places of public resort as detailed in novel and play, give us a fearful idea of the vacuity and corruption of the female mind of that time. Ill educated, with nothing but ill examples and conversation around them, they passed their time in the most frivolous show and conversation. It was unfashionable to be religious, and the ladies spent their Sundays in the parks, and adjourned thence to card-parties in the evening. If they went to church, it was to see and to be seen. At home they received the visits of the most profligate of the opposite sex, and listened to the most filthy talk without blushing. Abroad, they appeared with four laced and powdered footmen standing behind their carriages. They spent their time amongst opera singers, and French milliners, and hair-dressers; amongst monkeys, parrots, and lap-dogs. They spent vast sums in old china and Indian trinkets; and lost still greater sums at play, which they were sometimes reduced to pay at the expense of their honour. This must be considered as the fashionable extreme; but the general state of society in which such life could be tolerated without infamy, must have been awful. The ease with which early and clandestine marriages could be made, led to much profligacy and concealment. In short, the state of society was never worse. As the masters and mistresses were, so were, as a matter of course, their servants. The servants of the great aped the manners and language of their employers; they assumed the names and titles of their masters and mistresses in their high-life-below-stairs jollifications; drank their best wines, and then detailed to their associates all the secrets of the family. At the theatres, where the gallery was appropriated to them, whilst waiting for their employers, they became so outrageous, that they were obliged to be shut out; but they forcibly broke their way in, and were only at length excluded by a guard of military being placed round the theatres. With such a state of society, it may be imagined there was very little security in the streets. These still remained, for the most part, unpaved, and the kennels on each side of the street were still open, loaded with all manner of filth. The footpaths were little better. They were merely railed off from the main road, and only paved before the shops, which was done at the expense of the shopkeepers. In summer, the dust blowing was intolerable; but in winter and wet weather the nuisance was still worse. When heavy rains fell, the kennels and gutters became torrents, and discharged their Stygian contents into Fleet Ditch and other open channels; the whole thoroughfare was one scene of mud, whilst the coachmen and carmen delighted to drive along the kennels, so as to dash the dirt on the foot passengers.



Fortunately there were then, as now, crossing-sweepers and shoe-blacks. Instead of the conveniences of cabs and omnibuses, the citizens then depended on coaches and sedans, the fares of which were moderate. There was