Nor were prudential considerations of the same kind, less attended to in the Palaces of the Western Princes. When Maids of Honour had the misfortune to draw upon themselves the correction of a flagellation, we are not to think that the persons charged with the superintendence of the ceremony, adhered so blindly to those maxims which require that examples of this kind should be public, as to have the operation performed in a place literally public and open to all persons; that they, for instance, chose for the scene of the ceremony, that vast Yard, or Court, that lay before the Palaces of Kings, and was continually filled with Grooms, Pages, Keepers of Hounds, Huntsmen, and Servants of every denomination, some of whom blew the French horn, others the trumpet, and, others played on other musical instruments. No, such a place would have been in a high degree improper: nor would any open apartment or office, within the Palace, have been much more suitable for the occasion. The bare report of a flagellation being served upon so interesting a person as a Maid of Honour, was sufficient to produce all the good effects for which such examples are commonly intended: there was no necessity rigidly to adhere either to the above-mentioned maxim, or to the rule laid down by Horace, who says, that mens’ minds are more strongly affected by such objects as are laid before their eyes, than by those of which they only receive on hearsay information. The report well ascertained, of such an event, was fully sufficient to remind a croud of unlucky Pages, and wanton Chambermaids, of their respective duties, and engage them in a serious examination of their own conduct. All that was necessary, was to put such fact beyond a doubt, to prevent its being afterwards questioned by some, and flatly denied by others: but these important ends being attained, there was no just reason to refuse to shew the greatest tenderness for the delicacy of the Lady who was to receive the above correction; and whenever one or more Maids of Honour, therefore, have been so unfortunate as to make it necessary that a flagellation should be inflicted upon them, we are to conclude that the operation was performed in a private apartment of the Palace, in which only the other Maids of Honour were admitted, with a few Ladies of the Bedchamber. In all the above reasonings, I have only meant to offer my conjectures to the Reader, and have accordingly spoken with becoming diffidence. But with respect to the flagellations that were inflicted on persons of inferior rank, or on those Strangers, such as Fathers Jesuits or others, who had given a just cause of displeasure to the Noble Proprietor of the House, I am able to speak with more certainty, and confidently to inform the Reader, that the place appropriated for such corrections, was the Kitchen.