Page:Manners and customs of ye Englyshe.djvu/25



O ee the Nobility and Gentry, and other great Company, go to the Queen's Drawing-Room, with a Friend to St. James's Street, where did ſtand in front of Boodle's Club-Houſe in the Rain, which was heavy, and ſpoiled my Paris Hat, coſt me twelve Shillings. But the Sight of the Show was al mod worth the Damage; for the Red and Blue Uniforms of the Army and Navy Officers, with their Orders on their Breads, and their Cocked Hats and Plumes in their Laps, and the Ladies of Quality in their Silks and Satins of all Manner of Colours, and their Hair crowned with Oſtrich Feathers, and ſparkling with Pearls and Diamonds, did much delight me to behold. I do not remember that, when I was a Boy, I was ever more taken with a Pageant at Bartholomew Fair. Though I wiſh I could have had as good a View of the Gentlefolks within the Carriages as I had of the Lackeys outſide, who, with their vupcrcilious Airs, and their Jackanapes Garb, did divert me more than ever. I do continually marvel at the enormous Calves of thoſe Varlets, for which one might almoſt think they were reared, like a ſort of Cattle. Indeed, I mould have believed that their Stockings were ſtuffed, if I had not ſeen one of them wince when a Horſe chanced to lay hold of his leg. It did more and more amaze me to obſerve how high they carried their Notes, eſpecially as moſt of them had Poſies in their Boſoms; whereas they looked as though, inſtead, there were ſome unſavoury Odour beneath their Noſtrils. But much as the Servants reſembled Zanies and Harlequins, yet