Country life in the old mansions and manor houses, with the exception of certain "superstitions," remained much the same as in the days before the wars. And city life in the main ran on as it did before the fall of monarchy; merchants and tradesmen lived as of yore; and mayors and corporations feasted as they had ever done in guildhalls. Wives were handed by wealthy husbands, and maidens by ambitious lovers, up staircases of polished oak, to drawing rooms, profusely carved, and full of furniture curiously fashioned. The dining-room wore an air of enticing comfort, and the hearth blazed, as family and friends sat down to a well-spread table after a long grace. Probably the feast did not break up until a godly minister had expounded a chapter and offered a prayer. And if the guests did not quaff as much sack as some of their royalist friends, and although they did abstain from drinking healths, they were not more addicted to asceticism than excess; all this it would be idle to mention, but for the preposterous notions so widely prevalent, that the Independents and other "sects" of the Commonwealth were an exceptional order of beings, living somewhere quite beyond the outskirts of civilized life. If their connexion with Cromwell's Court somewhat affected the social habits of Independents, and spread amongst them rather more of indulgence in luxury than might be witnessed in other Puritan dwellings, it should be stated, that before any such influence existed, even amidst the early controversies between Presbyterians and Independents, the latter were charged with worldly conformity. They were reproached for riding about in coaches and four on the lord's Day, and so acting the gallant, that they might have been taken "for roarers and ruffians, rather than saints." They wore cuffs and silver spurs, and gold upon their clothes. Their houses were furnished like those of noblemen and peers. More plate was in their cupboards than in the palaces of grandees. Their fare was delicious, set out with "such curiosity of cookery," and all sorts of wines and delicacies.[438] This picture is connected with accusations of unkind conduct towards those of "the presbyter way," which clearly prove the animus of the writer, and justify us in toning down considerably the colours in which he has painted the Independents. But, after due abatement, enough remains to shew that they were less precise in their habits, and more conformed to the fashion of the age in dress, equipage, and entertainments, than some of their Puritan contemporaries. [Sidenote: _Cromwell's Court._]