summer to have furnished a gallery with chairs and couches of her own and her daughters' working, and at the same time to have heard all Dr. Tillotson's sermons twice over." How many old families are still able to display, as the monuments of ancestrial industry, the ❝ needle-work sublime," so humorously described in Cowper's Task, in which are to be seen The piony spread wide, The full-blown rose, the shepherd and his lass, . I am afraid, however, that the ladies of the present generation look with some scorn upon these elaborate works of their progenitors, in which, indeed, the total want of skill in the rudiments of draw. ing is too conspicuous. This pleasing and useful art, the foundation of good taste in ornament, was then little cultivated by either sex; and the cuts, with which books were adorned at that period, were comparatively as defective in their execution, as the female designs for chair-bottoms and samplers. The superior taste and ingenuity exhibited in all articles of modern and domestic manufacture cannot but be admitted, even after all deductions for the assistance of the paper-stainer, varnisher, cabinet-maker, and other artists. It is to be regretted that they are rendered so expensive by these auxiliaries, as to preclude every idea of economy in the industry bestowed upon them; but if they furnish an elegant and innocent amusement to the class which wants it so much, they sufficiently answer their purpose. To one habituated to modern manners, it must seem extraordinary that so few traces are to be found in these papers, of the practice of music as a female accomplishment. It is made no part of the em-ployment of the Lizard family, though one of the young ladies is represented as romantic, and another, as an admirer of high life; nor does it employ a single half hour of the fair journalist, though her attention was certainly not occupied by more important concerns. In all Congreve's plays, songs are introduced, but the performers are either the men, or professed musicians. Perhaps no one change in the manners of genteel life is so remarkable as the very great consequence attached to the musical art in modern times, on which more time and care are bestowed in the education of young ladies, than upon any other single accomplishment, with the exception, perhaps, of dancing. I do not presume to appreciate the value of what is thus acquired; but from the high degree of science and execution that is now expected in musical displays, I think it probable that nine tenths of learners will lay aside their instruments in despair as soon as they are quit of their masters, and that the remainder will play so finely, that their performance can be relished only by a proficient. It ought, however, to be acknowledged, that the present attention to accomplishments merely ornamental in female education, does not preclude preclude a much more enlarged plan of instruction with respect to scientific and literary objects, than seems to have been common formerly. There is reason to believe that grammatical accuracy was then rare among the women, that they were generally strangers to the rudiments of geography and astronomy, and that few understood any language except their own. There is, indeed, a letter in the 328th number of the Spectator, which, describing a lady of fashionable acquirements, mentions that " she sings, dances, plays on the lute and harpsichord, paints prettily, is perfect mistress of the French tongue, and has made considerable progress in the Italian;" but she is represented as a great rarity, and indeed a very expensive one to her husband, who writes in the character of a complainant. Certainly, such a list of accomplishments, with the additional one of a good acquaintance with history and other solid branches of knowledge, would now excite little astonishment. Unless Addison be regarded as an extravagant satirist, his catalogue in the Spectator of a lady's library, conveys a mean idea of the furniture of a woman's mind. The very sound of a lady's library, it seems, gave him a great curiosity to see it; and he takes care to inform us that Leonora, the proprietor, was distinguished for her love of books and retirement. The list is sufficiently multifarious, ascending from Durfey and Culpepper to Locke and Newton; but the writer observes, that the lady had bought a few of them for her own use, and the greater part because she had heard them praised, or was acquainted with the authors; and he plainly insinuates that her study chiefly lay in romances. All these books are in English, which appears also to have been the only language known by the Lizards, though represented as women of education. Upon the whole, it would seem that female reading at that time was nearly limited to plays and romances, and what are called good books. The latter were, doubtless, in greater proportion than at present, both on account of the narrower range of general reading, and the more religious character of the age. Of the difference in the latter respect, at least in externals, a remarkable instance appears in the 503d number of the Spectator, in which a correspondent describes at length the airs played off by a fine young lady, to attract admiration in a city church beyond the limits of her own parish. An expression of the deepest and most heartfelt devotion, and profound attention to every part of the service, were the leading points of her acting and at the sermon, it is said, she took out her tablets and gold pen, and began writing after the preacher. Nothing, I suppose, would be more contrary to probability, than to represent a coquet of the present day, employing artifices of this kind to captivate the young men, unless it were within the pale of some particular sects. Card-playing seems to have been as serious a business at the commencement of the past century, as at any subsequent period. Its use in filling up the vacuities of society will, indeed, always be the same; and if conversation was then more languid from the deficiency of ge neral neral information, cards must have been a more necessary relief. Of public amusements, there were plays and operas, which occupied the same place in the system of fashionable life then, as at present; and whatever improvements have since been made in the spaciousness and splendour of the theatres, a dramatic critic will scarcely admit that there has been any in the pieces exhibited, (except in point of decorum) or in the actors. Several satirical strokes are bestowed in these papers upon the encouragement given by people of fashion to Powel's puppet-shew. If this was a proof of a childish taste at that period, the successful translation of the tales of the nursery to the royal theatres, and the crowds collected by any new combination of sound and scenery without a particle of sense or poetry, will hardly allow a higher estimate of the taste of a modern audience. One of Addison's entertaining papers in which Sir Roger de Coverley is the hero, relates the good knight's visit to Spring-gardens or Foxhall, the modern Vauxhall. The time was May 20th. O. S. in the evening. The knight sets out, as he now might do, in a boat from the Temple-stairs. In the voyage, he is scandalized with the contrast between the city and the west end of the town with respect to the number of steeples in view; and were he to revive, he would find the prospect little mended in that particular, notwithstanding the fifty new churches." The beauty of the gardens at that time consisted of the shady walks and green bowers, and no hint is given of the illuminations that now render them so brilliant, but convert them into a night instead of an evening scene. The nightingales, which then inhabited the trees, are flown; but the loose women who walked beneath them remain. There is no mention of music as part of the entertainment; and the refreshments seem to have been of humbler quality than such as would satisfy modern luxury. A mask, who taps Sir Roger on the shoulder, asks him to treat her with a bottle of mead. The knight and his friend regale themselves with hung beef and Burton ale. I doubt not but there are admirers of simplicity who would prefer the ancient Spring-gardens to the modern Vauxhall, of which the expence is much more increased than the entertainment. It is as difficult to ascertain the origin of a new folly, as of a new invention. The passion of young men for exercising the whip on the coachbox, has, at different times within memory, excited censure or ridicule. It is, however, at least as old as the Spectator, two papers of which are employed in exposing it. The gentlemen of the inns of court were particularly addicted to this amusement, which they were accustomed to take from the box of a hackney-coach; and driving the vehicle over the rough pavement and through the narrow passes o the metropolis at that period, must have demanded no small share of steadiness and dexterity. The genuine hackney-coachmen, it seems, regarded those interlopers with an insolent kind of familiarity; for it was their custom to take measure of their shoulders with their whips as they passed their stands. Gentlemen at present, I believe, 'seldom of mount mount any boxes but those of their own carriages; though certain academical amateurs have been known to assume the office of mailcoach drivers to and from town. It would bear a dispute whether the spectacle of the prize-fighting swordsmen of old, or of the modern pugilists, most deserved the imputation of barbarity, but I think it cannot be denied that the former has the appearance of the more gentleman-like diversion. The relation of the combat between Miller and Buck has, I doubt not, interested every reader of the Spectator; and to me it appears abundantly more elegant than the technical description of the rounds between Big Ben and the Ruffian, and other heroes of the fist, with which we are often favoured in our politest morning papers. It is, indeed, singular, that the progress of civilization among us should have restored to our scientific combatants the use of more natural weapons. Whether the titled amateurs of boxing have derived their taste for that art from classical example, or from the practice of the vulgar, I shall leave to the learned to determine. Another remarkable change, connected with the preceding, is the almost total disuse of the small sword in our honourable duels, and the adoption of the pistol. This is, likewise, apparently a retrogradation in politeness, since the pistol is a vulgar weapon compared to the rapier, and more worthy of the highwayman than the gentleman. The exact time when it took place would be a curious subject of enquiry: certainly, no token of it appears in the papers before us; and the Tatler makes frequent reference to the long sworded duellists of his day, who alarmed the peaceable in coffeehouses and other places of resort. Probably, the disuse of the sword as a part of dress, and the consequent neglect of the "noble science of defence," were the causes of this important alteration. That disuse dates considerably later than the period we are treating of, and the sword was the gentleman's appendage within the memory of many of that class now living. It is singular that the physicians were those who retained it latest as a part of their common dress, and were accustomed thus doubly armed to invade their patient's chambers. To return to the pistol-it was, doubtless, at first supposed to put combatants nearly upon a par, and I believe it was long reckoned somewhat dishonourable to practice firing with it at a mark. At pre-sent, the difference of skill in this weapon seems to be nearly as great as in the sword; and pistol duels are now become sufficiently murderous to satisfy the nicest honour. If the frequency of private combats is likely to bear a proportion to the number of individuals subjected to the laws of honour, it might be concluded that the present age, in which every man who does not work at a manual trade, or stand behind a counter, assumes the rank of esquire, would be abundantly productive of such encounters. But neither is this a new folly. The 19th number of the Tatler is devoted to the ridicule of self-created squires, who at that time seem to have consisted of the generality of house-keepers west of Temple-Bar, and especially of all the retainers of the law, of VOL. I. whatever. whatever rank or condition. The writer speaks of a couple of clerks of his own who leave notes on each other's desks, directed to Degory Goosequill Esq. and Nehemiah Dashwell Esq. But although he asserts that this humour has gone so far, that Englishmen may be termed "Populus Armigerorum," I think it cannot be doubted that the abuse is now much more prevalent than formerly. Of this we may be convinced on looking over any list of subscribers to a charitable institution, or of the members of any public establishment, in which nothing is more rare than to find a name undecorated by the above three letters. The excess, indeed, to which this petty vanity is carried, is likely to prove its own remedy, since it will soon be a more obvious mark of distinction to write plain Mr, than Esquire. To be continued. For the Athenæum. VIEW OF THE ELY FENS. F the majority of our summer tourists were asked what were their visitone part of only reason they could honestly give would be, that other people did so. Curiosity and the desire of change lead them annually to spend a certain portion of their time and money in travelling; but the direction of these propensities is left entirely to the capricious Goddess of Fashion, and they would follow her as cheerfully to the moors of Cornwall or the wolds of Yorkshire, as to the lakes of Westmorland or the mountains of Wales. There is, however, a numerous tribe whose acquired taste for that undefinable thing the picturesque, limits their rambles to the spots where that is to be found; and in their lists of places to be seen, they comprehend only those to which it is worth while to carry a portfolio. Others, again, with tastes more expanded, but still exclusive, can take delight in nothing but the sublime and beautiful of nature, and look with coldness on the creations of human art, or the ordinary variations of rural scenery. But surely an enlarged and liberal curiosity would scorn to be confined to any particular set of objects, and would wish to extend its researches to every thing that the creator has made, and that man has occupied. Independently of the purpose of storing the mind with useful knowledge, even amusement, the great aim of persons of leisure, requires a large range for the pursuit of that novelty which is essential to its gratification; for nothing is more certain than that a single set of objects, however splendid, will pall and become insipid by repetition. Perhaps, of all tastes, that for the mere picturesque soonest becomes tiresome; for when the most striking scenes of this class have been surveyed, nothing is left but inferior ones of the same kind, and disappointment and disgust succeed to rapture. I have not unfre quently |