_Eugen._ And to learn the top of your skill in Syrrup, Sweetmeat, _Aqua Mirabilis_, and Snayl water. _Clara._ Or your great Cunning in Cheese cake, several Creams and Almond butter. _Prisc._ Ay, ay, and 't were better for all the Gentlemen in England that Wives had no other breeding, but you had Musick and Dancing. _Eugen._ Yes, an ignorant, illiterate, hopping Puppy, that rides his Dancing Circuit thirty Miles about, lights off his tyred steed, draws his Kit at a poor Country creature, and gives her a Hich in her Pace, that she shall never recover. _Clara._ And for Musick an old hoarse singing man riding ten miles from his Cathedral to Quaver out the Glories of our Birth and State, or it may be a Scotch Song more hideous and barbarous than an Irish Cronan. _Eugen._ And another Musick Master from the next town to Teach one to twinkle out _Lilly burlero_ upon an old pair of Virginals, that sound worse than a Tinker's Kettle that cries for his work on. We happen to have somewhat more definite knowledge of one early eighteenth-century school for girls. Mrs. Hannah Wood, the "Mistress of a College-Boarding School" in Bury, in 1723, was the sister of Mr. D. Bellamy who wrote "Dramatic Entertainments" for the "Annual Public Exercises of the School." These "Entertainments" were published with a dedication to Mrs. Wood, "A Prefatory Essay," and some "Familiar Letters." Mr. Bellamy considers it the particular province of Mrs. Wood "to polish Nature," since she has "a perfect Idea of every Female Accomplishment" and if her young ladies can be "One Virtue the better" through his labors it is ample reward. Mr. Bellamy's plays were rather elaborately staged. There were "pastoral figure dances" and considerable singing. One character enters "drest like a Gentleman." There is a machine for the descent of Apollo. The dramas performed are carefully adapted to young ladies, "the porcelaine-clay of humankind." Mr. Bellamy examines every word and weighs each thought to see that "The sence is Chast and inoffensive to nicest tast." The first of the plays given is _Vanquish'd Love: or, The Jealous Queen_, an adaptation of the _Rosamund_ of Addison. The emphasis on warm passions, amorous prayers, guilty fires, rage, jealousy, vengeance, and death, would but doubtfully contribute to the delicate innocence of the young ladies. All is, however, made right by the abrupt and unnatural repentance of King Henry, and his eulogy of the sweets of "Virtuous Love." The second play, _Innocence Betray'd; or, The Royal Imposter_, was taken from Cowley's _Love's Riddle_. In the Epilogue a young lady says the auditors may Wish we had Rehears'd our Spelling Books: And think our Time had been much better spent In Cross-Stitch, Irish-Stitch, or at the Tent. And Mr. Bellamy is quite conscious that some indulgent and timorous parents may censure his designs of teaching young ladies to speak before an audience: