Ladies had their sober and stinted diversions in the parlour and the garden; and gentlemen had theirs at home and in the field--all measured out sparingly, and by scripture line and rule. The Word of God, said the Puritan licensers, permitted shooting, (2 Samuel i. 18), musical consort, (Nehemiah vii. 67), putting forth riddles, (Judges xiv. 12), hunting of wild beasts (Canticles ii. 15), searching out, or the contemplation of the works of God, (I Kings iv. 33). This enumeration of amusements allowed by Scripture seemed to sanction certain old English field sports, to concede the pleasures of the chase, and to permit ladies from the manor-house and the castle to ride out a-hawking over hill and dale.[436] XV. It is a mistake to suppose that the Independents of the Commonwealth were very ascetic. Even the habits of the Presbyterians in this respect have been considerably exaggerated. They were by no means so rigid and demure as prejudiced writers are wont to represent. They did not look so melancholy, nor dress in such ridiculous garbs, nor act in such absurd ways, as believers in Hudibras imagine. Many were gentlemen of graceful bearing, polite demeanour, and genial sympathies. They had amongst them some of the noblest blood of England, and they included large numbers of genteel descent. Such persons, with multitudes of yeomen of ruddy countenances, would crack a joke, and ring an honest laugh, as they walked through trim flower gardens or rode out to their field sports. But the Independents, perhaps, advanced still further in conformity to the outward world.[437] [Sidenote: _Social Life of the Independents._]