The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-12-22
English Life in the Eighteenth Centur

English Life in the Eighteenth Century.
l think there were in my time about four or five
of the richest and most fashionable Of our young
ladies who took few lessons on the spinet, and
about as many more who learned a very little
drawing, in very bad taste but the parents of the
rest of would have thought it not only eXtraYa-
gance, but presumption, to give such showy and
expensive accomplishments to rls destined for
good housewives. We all learned to dance, how.
ever both minuets and country dances, and
well remember that before our grand annual ex-
hibition at the masters ball, such of us as nature
had not favored with the high forehead then
esteemed as beauty, were obliged to submit to the
application of a strip of pitch plaster round the
edges OF the hair, by means of which it was torn
up by the roots.
We had other penances TO undergo, unknown
TO the damses Of these happier days. There were
back boards iron collars, stocks for the feet and
a fIightful kind of neck-swing, in which we were
suspended every morning whilst one OF the
teachers was laCing our stays; all which con-
tTiyances were intended and imagined TO improve
the figure and the air Nothing was thought so
awkward and vulgar as anything approaching to
q stoop; "HOld up your head, hold upyour head,
miss !" was the constant cry. l wonder any of
us kept our health we had very little exercise of
any kind, were tght-laced in very stiff stays, not
and sparely fed.
The chief alloy of our social enjoy
ments was the stiff and really barbarOus cere
monial which then accompanied all the common
actions Of life. From the retired life that they
led, and the awe and subjectiOn in which they
were kept by their elders, damselE had then
degree of bashfulness, or awkWardness, If you
please of which il is my private opinion that the
accomplished young ladies of these days cannot
even form an idea. Imagine, then, what il was
In the midst of formal dinner, after calling for
beer, and receiving il from the servant, in a cup
or glass by-the-by, which had previously served
half the company, 10 60 round the company,
crying out with an audible voice, "Mrs. A., your
health DR.. b., your good health" and so on
each person, as you proceeded, laying down their
knife and fork to be ready to acknowledge the
compliment
have often sat almost choking with thirst,
but quite unable TO summon courage for the ope-
ration Of drinking. / remember once seeing an
awkward girl surprised by tue approach of q
| health as she was in the act of picking the leg
| bone Of fowl with her teeth-anOther graceful
| practice of that day-whO suddenly dropped both
her hands and sat quite still with the bone across
| her mouth, like deaths head with CrOss-bOnes
| in the border to a bill of mortality
II was even worse when We came to the wine
after dinner or supper it was then not sufficient
| to drink healths; young lady would often be
required, in spite Of blushes and entreaties, 10
| give as toast either the name of single gentle-
man or q sentiment Perhaps some such fiat
affair as this :-"May the single be married and
the married happy. Lucy Aikel's Memoirs.