Old times : $b A picture of social life at the end of the eighteenth centuryAshton, John
History
Old times : $b A picture of social life at the end of the eighteenth century
Ashton, John
Great Britain -- Social life and customs
"Sir,--Various are the receipts for cheap puddings, and many
long, and useful, letters have appeared in your very excellent
paper, towards alleviating (as much as is in the power of every
Housekeeper) the scarcity, and dearness, of bread: by
substituting rice, and potatoes, in the room of pies, or flour
puddings: but there still exists an evil which I have not seen
spoken against, and which certainly occasions a very great
consumption of starch: I mean the general fashion which has
prevailed for some years, and does still, from the highest, to
the lowest, of wearing white dresses, which, upon a moderate
computation, for every individual, must consume at least double
the soap, and starch, than when coloured callicoes, silks, and
stuffs, were in fashion: Added to this, that every maid servant
(who, though she is perhaps not worth a second pair of shoes)
will wear her muslin handkerchiefs. I think it is the duty of
every good master, and mistress, to stop, as much as possible,
the present ridiculous, and extravagant, mode of dress in their
domestics. View, on a Sunday, a tradesman's family coming from
church, and you would be puzzled to distinguish the porter from
his master, or the maid from her mistress. Formerly a plaited
cap, and a white handkerchief, served a young woman three, or
four, Sundays. Now a mistress is required to give up, by
agreement, the latter end of the week for her maids to prepare
their caps, tuckers, gowns, &c., for Sunday, and, I am told,
there are houses open on purpose, where those servants who do not
choose their mistresses shall see them, carry their dresses in a
bundle, and put them on, meet again in the evening, for the
purpose of disrobing: and where, I doubt, many a poor, deluded,
creature, has been disrobed of her virtue. They certainly call
aloud for some restraint, both as to their dress, as well as
insolent manner. Tell a servant, now, in the mildest manner, they
have not done their work to please you, you are told to provide
for yourself, and, should you offer to speak again, they are
gone. Surely no set of people are more capable of rendering our
families comfortable, or the reverse, than domestic servants, nor
any set of people who feel the present dearness of provisions so
little. I look upon their exorbitant increase of wages, as
chiefly conducive to their impertinence: for, when they had five,
or six, pounds a year, a month being out of place, was severely
felt; but now their wages are doubled, they have, in a great
measure, lost their dependence: And what is this increase of
wages for? not in order to lay by a little, in case of sickness,
but to squander in dress. No young woman, now, can bear a strong
pair of leather shoes, but they must wear Spanish leather, and so
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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