“From Spring Garden we set our Faces towards Hide Park, where Horses have their Diversions as well as Men, and Neigh and Court their Mistresses almost in as intelligible a Dialect. Here People Coach it to take the Air, amidst a Cloud of Dust, able to choak a Foot Soldier, and hinder’d us from seeing those that come hither on purpose to show themselves. However, we made hard shift to get now and then a glance at some of them. “Here we saw much to do about nothing: a World of Brave Men, Gilt Coaches, and Rich Liveries. Within some of them were Upstart Courtiers, blown up as big as Pride and Vanity could swell them to; as if a Stake had been driven through them. It would hurt their Eyes to exchange a Glance upon anything that’s Vulgar, and that’s the Reason they are so sparing of their Looks, that they will neither Bow nor move their Hats to anything under a Duke or a Duchess, and yet if you examine some of their Original; a Covetous, Soul-less Miser, or a great Oppressor, laid the Foundation of their Families, and in their Retinue there are more Creditors than Servants. “‘See,’ says my Indian, ‘what a Bevy of Gallant Ladies are in yonder Coaches; some are Singing, others Laughing, others Tickling one another, and all of them Toying and devouring Cheese-cakes, March Pane, and China Oranges. See that Lady,’ says he; ‘was ever anything so black as her Eye and so clear as her Forehead? one would swear her face had taken its Tincture from all the Beauties in Nature.’ ‘And yet perhaps,’ answered I to my Fellow-Traveller, ‘all this is but Imposture; she might, for ought we know, got to Bed last night as ugly as a Hagg, tho’ she now appears like an Angel; and if you did but see this Puppet taken to pieces, her whole is but Paint and Plaster ... these are Birds to amuse one, that change their Feathers two or three times a Day.... In a word, the generality of Women are Peacocks when they walk: Water-wagtails when they are within doors, and Turtles when they meet Face to Faces.’” Even in broad daylight the fashionable throngs were liable to be subjected to annoyance. In the _Post Boy_ of 7th June 1695 it says: “Some days since several Persons of Quality having been affronted at the Ring in Hide Park, by some other Persons that rode in Hackney Coaches with Masks, and Complaint thereof being made to the Lords Justices, an order is made that no Hackney Coaches be permitted to go into the said Park, and that none presume to appear there in masks.”