1825.] REVIEW-Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn. suitable to their birth by their father's side), Evelyn then tells us how absolute Monarchy was established in France, viz. by this means, among others: "As for the Parliaments of France (be sides the name and formality), there is in truth now no such thing in nature; which, together with their ancient liberties, how easily deservedly they lost them, may be discovered in their frequent rebellions." P. 57. France is necessarily, in self-defence, a military nation'; and it is the natural tendency of military habits to look to a supreme Chief. Besides, the Baron de Stael says, that no fortunes are made in France, but by public employments. Things in England are otherwise; and we know that Holland, Switzerland, and Great Britain, where free Governments long continued, were not military countries. For this favour of military despotism, however, the French were, it seems, partly indebted to the English, in return for excluding their Kings from the succession. Evelyn shows us how this happened in manner following: "For this slavery of theirs, they may in 433 the people could never recover or seize on ever. Passing over passages without end, which abound with edification, we come to some interesting comparisons between the French and ourselves. The plebeians or roturiers were immeasurably exhausted by taxations, cabals, impositions, spoils, and contributions, and so possessed with litigious dispositions, that what with these, "The delays of their process, and the abominable corruption of justice, this rank of people seldom or never arrive to any considerable fortune or competency by their own wit or industry, as do so many of our yeomen and farmers in England. By these means also their spirits becoming so ab-. jectly debased, they are not able to afford their Prince that ready service in matter of armes, as indeed their multitudes and necessities require. To supply which defect in all expeditions of consequence, the King makes use of the gascons, &c." P. 80. The tradesmen were superior to the roturiers, many of them living very decently and handsomely in their houses, especially the better sort of merchants, who are better furnished than the rest; howbeit in competition with our countrymen of the same quality to be esteemed in truth but as mean mountebanks and inconsiderable pedlars." (p. 81.) No gentleman in France would suffer his youngest son to belong to any trade or mechanical living whatever. For this oppression of the people, Providence, in retributive justice, permitted ample vengeance to be taken in the late Revolution. We shall continue the present notice with the following comparison be tween the nobility and gentry of the two kingdoms: "The nobility and gentry of this kingdom differ much from the garb of living in England, both within and (till of late) without doors; they have many of them vast estates, either in lands or offices; the revenues whereof they chuse rather to spend at Paris and other great cities in a specious retinue of coaches, pages, and laquaies, then suffer themselves to be eaten up at home in the country in the likenesse of beef and mustard among their unthankful neighbours. This affection of theirs to reside for the most part in the chief towns of the kingdom, is the reason why the Corpora tions al 434 REVIEW.-Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn. [Nov. tions are little considerable, as not daring take away all interest in cleanliness, to be brewing and hatching such factions, because, under the circumstances, as as where the gentry and civiller sort of impracticable as in a counting-house mankind are universally given to solitary or public office. Under this situation and unactive lives in the country. Besides, of living, as at an inn, with no feelthe gentlemen are generally given to those ings of home, and no furniture that laudable magnificencies of building and furnishing their palaces with the most precious we fear to spoil, trouble squats like moveables, much of the luxe and excesse of the night-mare upon cleanliness, and Italy, being now far entred amongst them, paralyzes all her limbs. as may well serve to exemplifie, when in the Dutchess of Chaulmes her palace neer the Place Royal in Paris, the pennaches or tufts of plumes belonging to one of her beds only, are estimated worth fourteen thousand li vers, which amount to neer a thousand pounds sterling of our money. Every great person who builds here, however qualified with intellectuals, pretends to his elaboratory and library, for the furnishing of which last he doth not much amuse himself in the particular elections of either authors or impressions; but having erected his cases and measured them, a6cords with a stationer to furnish him with so many gilded folios, so many yards of quartos and octavos, by the great, till his bibliotheke be full of volumes. And yet some of them both have excellent books, and are very polite scholars; but the noblesse do not naturally so addict themselves to studie as the gownmen do; accounting it a life so contemplative and below their spirits, that no gentleman's necessity whatsoever shall easily engage him to seek any support either by Physick or Law; both which professions are (as in truth they highly merit) in very laudable esteem and reputation amongst us in England." pp. 81, 82. Cleanliness is the concomitant of industry; but Evelyn very justly also áttributes dirty habits to the custom of living in lodgings; and we know that at Edinburgh the people so live in what they call flats or stories, and that there is an old joke among these our gallant and able fellow countrymen, That nae good comes of cleanliness." "Most of the houses [at Paris] ordinarily harbour six or often ten families betwixt heaven and hell, the garrets and the cellars; and this I take to be the true cause of that nastinesse which we usually impute to the nation: persons of quality, and such as have room enough, being far more proper and sumptuous in their houses then the best of us here in England, however we arrogate the contrary." P. 93. The French mode of living is certainly very uncomfortable to an Englishman. Brick floors without carpets, and people eternally (in colloquial language) bobbing in and out, Mr. Evelyn makes the following comparison between London and Paris: it hath been and still is a great controversie "Touching the extent of this city [Paris], is the larger, this or London; every one amongst our countreymen travellers, which the figures of them both are so different, speaks according to his inclinations; but that it would be a very difficult matter to reconcile them, by making an exact tryall: and, peradventure, all things considered, there is as yet no very great inequality: but if we may conjecture from the buildings at present, and prodigious enlargements of their suburbs on all sides, what a little time and peace will render it, it must without doubt in a short time outgrow the contention and far exceed it: for I finde no end of their erecting not onely of particular houses, but even of whole streets, and those would imagine yourself rather in some Itaso incomparably fair and uniform, that you lian opera, where the diversity of scenes surprise the beholder, then beleeve yourself to be in a reall citie. This is onely to be obthat the best fabricks commonly promise served in their prime buildings and palaces, less towards the front or streets than you will finde them within the court; which is caused by the high walls and tarraces that thwart them; a piece of modestie which in other appearances and outsides they do not usually practise. "But what our city of London hath not in houses and palaces, she hath in shops and taverns; which render it so open by day, and cheerfull in the night, that it appears to be a perpetuall wake or wedding to the beholder; for so mad and lowd a town is no where to be found in the whole world." P. 94. Hence, perhaps, was originally derived the French insult of “a nation of shopkeepers." The next extracts which we shall make are from a Character of England by a French Protestant, in the Commonwealth æra. Evelyn was much offended with it; but though an illnatured essay, it nevertheless contains facts upon which a foreigner might be supposed to put illiberal constructions. The traveller, upon his arrival at Dover, was "entertained by the people of the town with suspicious and forbidding 1825.] REVIEW.-Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn. forbidding countenances, whispering, and stiff postures. (p. 149.) When he had taken post, and was scarce out of the village, he was amazed at the acclamations of the boys "running after and affrighting the horses, hooting and crying out, French dogs, French dogs, a Mounser, a Mounser!"" (ibid.) And when he arrived at Rochester, it appeared a new thing to him that his confident host set him down cheek by joul by him, belching and puffing tobacco in his face, though he afterwards found it to be the usual stile of this country, and that the gentlemen who lodged at their inns entertained themselves in their company, and were much pleased at their impertinences." P. 150. This tract was written in 1659, and the blessed effects of liberty and equality are thus exhibited : Arrived at the Metropolis of civility, London, we put ourselves in coach with some persons of quality who came to conduct us to our lodging; but neither was this passage without honour done to us; the kennel dirt, squibs, roots, and rams' hornes, being favours which were frequently cast at us by the children and apprentices without reproofe; civilities than in Paris a gentleman as seldom meets withall, as with the contests of carmen, who in this town do domineer in the streets, o'erthrow the hell-carts (for so they name the coaches), cursing and reviling at the nobles: you would imagine yourself amongst a legion of devils and in the suburbs of hell. I have greatly wondered at the remissness of the Magistrate, and the temper of the gentlemen, and that the citizens who subsist onely upon them, should permit so great a disorder, rather joyning in the affronts then at all chastizing the inhumanity. But these are the natural effects of parity, popular libertinism, and insulary manners." P.150. The situation of London he admires, but says that the town itself consists of a wooden, Northern, and inartificial congestion of houses, and the principal streets narrow; the Banqueting House at Whitehall "built about and converted into raskally warehouses; the Churches made jakes and stables, markets and tippling houses" (p. 151); the congregations at the Meetings set ting with their hats on, when the Psalms were read, and bare-headed when they were sung; insipid, tedious, and unmethodical prayers; sermons of speculative and abstracted notions and things, which not the people nor preachers themselves understood. P. 152. 435 "The minister uses no habit of distinc tion or gravity, but steps up in guerpo; and when he laies by his cloak (as I have observed some of them), he has the action rather of a thrasher than a divine. This they call taking pains, and indeed it is so to those encouraged every pert mechanick to invade, that hear them; but thus they have now affront, and out-preach them; and having uncancelled all manner of decency, prosti tuted both their persons and function to usurpatiou, penury, and derision. You may well imagine by the manners of the people, and their prodigious opinions, that there is no catechism nor sacraments duely admipistered: the religion of England is preaching and sitting still on Sundaies." P. 153. Our author next declaims against ritual disdain, incharity, and imposthe tyranny, ambition, ignorance, spis ture, which thus " deformed the oncerenowned Church of England" (pp. 155, 156); and then proceeds again to the buildings. If he says a whole street of this wooden city were burnt down, the Magistrate had either no power nor care to make them build with any uniformity, and thus it hap pened, that London, "though a large was yet a very ugly town, pestred with hackney coaches and insolent carre men, shops and taverns, noyse, and such a cloud of sea-coal, as if there be a resemblance of hell upon earth, it is this volcano in a foggy day."-P. 157. He next proceeds to the prodigious number of houses, where they sold a certain drink called ale, a muddy kind of beverage, in drinking which, and smoking tobacco, gentlemen spent much of their time (p. 157); though others frequented taverns, where they drank Spanish wines, and other sophisticated liquors, to fury and intemperance (p. 157); and to these taverns transferred the organs out_of_their churches, singing to them Bacchanalian dithrambicks. (p. 158.) Ladies of the greatest quality suffered themselves to be treated in these taverns as if they were courtezans, drank their crowned cups (bumpers) roundly, danced after the fiddle, and kissed freely. [Lord Clarendon mentions this practice in his own Life.] Drinking healths (a very rare thing in France) to every one at the table, made, he says, the whole company ready to fall asleep before the cloth was removed; the females, he adds, boasted of making all advantages at play; 436 REVIEW. Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn. play; and then, like a true Frenchman, he says, "There is here no such thing as courtship after the decent mode of our circles; for either being mingled in a room, the gentlemen separate from the conversation of the ladies, to drink, or else to whisper with one another at some corner, or bay window, abandoning the ladies to gossip by themselves." P. 161. And thus he says it ensued, that these beautiful creatures had not the assurance, &c. of the French damoiselles, which made them so charming, and that the gentlemen were clowns. (p. 161.) There being no court to set the fashions, the women too were much affected with gaudry, and old ladies wore colours, a thing which neither young nor old of either sex do with us [the French], save in the country and the camp, but widows at no time." pp. 161, 162. Our satirist proceeds to servantmaids dressing like their mistresses; to ladies familiarly calling gentlemen Tom A. or Jack B. instead of Mous. A. or Mons. B. and bragging of tavern treats; of the superciliousness of our nobility, who, from intemperate habits, gave birth to the proverb, "as drunk as a Lord" (p. 163); and of the ignorance of our gentlemen in dancing. Speaking of a ball, he says, "I was astonished to see when they were ready to move, that a dancing-master had the boldness to take forth the greatest ladies, and they again the dancing master, who performed the most part of the ball, whilst the gentlemen that were present were least concerned, and stood looking on, so as it appeared to me more like the farce of a comedy at the Hotel de Bourgoyne [the Play-house at Paris], than a ball of the noblesse." P. 164. He then condemns our ample pay of dancing-masters, who rode in their coaches,-ladies attending their schoolballs (p. 164); our coarseness in raillery, as degenerating into personal abuse. (p. 165.) The incumbrance of Hyde Park, which was farmed of the Crown, with wretched jades [horses] and hackney coaches. (p. 165.) The fast walking of the ladies in St. James's Park, and the stay of some of them till midnight, the place being furnished with thickets, "contrived to all advantages of gallantry," after taking a collation at a certain cabaret in the middle of this paradise, where the forbid den fruits were certain trifling tartes, [Nov. neates tongues, salacious meates, and bad Rhenish." P. 165. After condemning our courts of justice, where our barristers " supplied the defects of the cause by flat, insipid, and gross abuse of each other," he commends our bowling-greens, races, horses, dogs, incomparable parks of fallow deer, and laws of hunting; but this he qualifies with a remark, that "all Englishmen rode so fast upon the roads, that you would swear there were some enemie in the ariere; and all the coaches in London seemed to drive for midwives." P. 167. He ends with the affliction (as he calls it) of not rising from dinner, one by one, as the respective persons diued, and the tediousness of visits, observing, as a finale, that "there were so many particulars worthy of reproof," that in speaking of England, he found it " difficile satyram non scribere." P. 167. It is known, that in the middle age fashions travelled from Italy to France, and from France to England, but that the forms of Government have made great difference in the habits of the two last countries. France being under absolute dominion, and accustomed to look to the court as the sole means of advancement in life, imitated that; but the English, a free people, insulated from the Crown, and devoted to making fortunes, contented themselves with manners similar to that of the class of society to which they belonged; for their estimation did not depend upon their refinement, but their wealth. fit atas, as a tenet, unphilosophical Without any adoption of the pejor and untrue, there is something so comfortable and domestic in the picture of our grandmothers, drawn by Evelyn himself, that we are satisfied of one thing; viz. that wives were so useful, and so less expensive, that the chance of obtaining husbands, though they had no fortunes, was then much greater, and parents and daughters far more happy. We do not think that our ancestors were greater fools for studying comforts more than display. Evelyn, after speaking of the beauism and belleism of his age, treats at the play, the park, and musick, presents at the raffle, following Miss to Tunbridge, praising her singing and dancing, fribbleisms on the part of the suitor, and attractions, on that of fe males, L 1825.] REVIEW.-Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn. males, properly appertaining to ac- manner: stile and method of wooing is quite changed, "Thus you see, young sparks, how the as well as the language, since the days of our forefathers (of unhappy memory, simple and plain men as they were), who courted and chose their wives for their modesty, frugality, keeping at home, goodhousewifery, and other economical virtues, then in reputation, and when the young damsels were taught all these in the country, and at their parents' houses, the portion they brought was more in virtue than in money; and she was a richer match than one who brought a million and nothing else to commend her. The presents which were made when all was concluded, were a ring, a necklace of pearls, and perhaps another fair jewel, the bona paraphernalia of her prudent mother, whose nuptial mirtle gown and petticoat lasted as many anniversaries as the happy couple lived together, and were at last bequeathed with a purse of old gold, rose-nobles, spur-royals, and spankees *, as an heir-loom to her grand-daughter. "They had cupboards of ancient useful plate, whole chests of damask for the table, and store of fine Holland sheets (white as the driven snow), and fragrant of rose and lavender for the bed; and the sturdy oaken bedstead, and furniture of the house, lasted one whole century; the shovel-board [explained in Encyclopædia of Antiquities, ii. 605], and other long tables, both in hall and parlour, were as fixed as the freehold; nothing was moveable save joynt-stools, the black-jacks, silver tankards and bowls; and though many things fell out between the cup and the lip, when happy ale, March beer, metheglin [a mixture of water, honey, and all sorts of herbs. Encyclop. of Antiq. i. 405], malmesey, and old sherry, got the ascendant amongst the blew coats and badges [uniformly the livery of servants. Encycl. of Antiq. ii. 564, 661]. They sung Old Symon and Cheviot Chase, and danc'd Brave-Arthur, and were able to draw a bow, that made the proud Monsieur tremble at the whizze of the grey-goose feather. 'Twas then ancient hospitality was kept up in town and country, by which the tenants were enabled to pay their landlords at punctual day; the poor were relieved bountifully, and charity was as warm as the kitchen, where the fire was perpetual." pp. 700, 701. Thus it appears that our ancestors considered hospitality, by its implying consumption of the commodities grown by the farmer, essential towards enabling them to pay their rents. Spanish gold coins, we presume, then in circulation. See Ruding, iii. 131.-Rev. To resume: 437 "In those happy days, Sure-foot the grave and steady mare carried the good without so many hell-carts [the term is knight and his courteous lady behind him to church, and to visit the neighbourhood, before used for coaches, see p. 150], rattling coaches, and a crew of lacqueys, which a grave livery servant or two supyly'd, who rid before, and made way for his worship. Things of use were natural, plain, and thing necessary wanting; and men of eswholesome; nothing was superfluous, notate studied the public good, and gave examples of true piety, loyalty, justice, sobriety, charity, and the good neighbourhood composed most differences; perjury, suborning witnesses, alimony, avowed adulteries, and misses [then the term for kept women, repeatedly used by Evelyn in his Diary], publickly owned, were prodigies in those days, and laws were reason, nor craft, when mens titles were secure, and they served their generation with honour, left their paheir, who, passing from the free school to trimonial estates improved to an hopeful the college, and thence to the inus of court, acquainting himself with a competent tinc ture of the laws of his country, followed the example of his worthy ancestors; and if he travelled abroad, it was not to count stee ples, and bring home feather and ribbon, and the sins of other nations, but to gain such experience as rendered him useful to his Prince and his country upon occasion, and confirmed him in the love of both of 'em above any other. "The virgins and young ladies of that golden age, quæsierunt lanam et linum, put their hands to the spindle, nor disdaine they the needle; were obsequious and helpful to their parents, instructed in the managery of the family, and gave presages of making excellent wives. Nor then did they read so many romances, see so many plays and smutty farces; set up for visits, and have their days of audience, and idle passtime, honest gleek [a game in which deuces and trays were thrown out, Complete Gamester, p. 67], Ruff and Honours [English whist, so common in England, as to be played by children of eight years old, id. 841, diverted the ladies at Christmas, and they knew not so much as the names of ombre, comet and basset. [See Nares's Glossary.] Their retirements were devout and religious books, and their recreations in the distillatory, the knowledge of plants and their virtues, for the comfort of their poor neighbours and use of the family, which wholesome plain dyet and kitchen physick preserved in perfect health. In those days the scurvy, spleen, &c. were scarce heard of, till foreign drinks and mixtures were wantonly introduced. Nor were the young gentlewomen so universally afflicted with hysterical fits, nor, though extremely modest, at |