Indeed, If They
Had Nothing More In View, But To Destroy The Game, This Was A
Very Effectual Method; For The Hares Are In Such Plenty In This
Neighbourhood, That I Have Seen A Dozen Together, In The Same
Field.
I think this way of hunting, in a coach or chariot, might
be properly adopted at London, in favour of those aldermen of the
city, who are too unwieldy to follow the hounds a horseback.
The French, however, with all their absurdities, preserve a
certain ascendancy over us, which is very disgraceful to our
nation; and this appears in nothing more than in the article of
dress. We are contented to be thought their apes in fashion; but,
in fact, we are slaves to their taylors, mantua-makers, barbers,
and other tradesmen. One would be apt to imagine that our own
tradesmen had joined them in a combination against us. When the
natives of France come to London, they appear in all public
places, with cloaths made according to the fashion of their own
country, and this fashion is generally admired by the English.
Why, therefore, don't we follow it implicitly? No, we pique
ourselves upon a most ridiculous deviation from the very modes we
admire, and please ourselves with thinking this deviation is a
mark of our spirit and liberty. But, we have not spirit enough to
persist in this deviation, when we visit their country:
otherwise, perhaps, they would come to admire and follow our
example: for, certainly, in point of true taste, the fashions of
both countries are equally absurd. At present, the skirts of the
English descend from the fifth rib to the calf of the leg, and
give the coat the form of a Jewish gaberdine; and our hats seem
to be modelled after that which Pistol wears upon the stage. In
France, the haunch buttons and pocketholes are within half a foot
of the coat's extremity: their hats look as if they had been
pared round the brims, and the crown is covered with a kind of
cordage, which, in my opinion, produces a very beggarly effect.
In every other circumstance of dress, male and female, the
contrast between the two nations, appears equally glaring. What
is the consequence? when an Englishman comes to Paris, he cannot
appear until he has undergone a total metamorphosis. At his first
arrival he finds it necessary to send for the taylor, perruquier,
hatter, shoemaker, and every other tradesman concerned in the
equipment of the human body. He must even change his buckles, and
the form of his ruffles; and, though at the risque of his life,
suit his cloaths to the mode of the season. For example, though
the weather should be never so cold, he must wear his habit
d'ete, or demi-saison. without presuming to put on a warm dress
before the day which fashion has fixed for that purpose; and
neither old age nor infirmity will excuse a man for wearing his
hat upon his head, either at home or abroad. Females are (if
possible) still more subject to the caprices of fashion; and as
the articles of their dress are more manifold, it is enough to
make a man's heart ake to see his wife surrounded by a multitude
of cotturieres, milliners, and tire-women. All her sacks and
negligees must be altered and new trimmed. She must have new
caps, new laces, new shoes, and her hair new cut. She must have
her taffaties for the summer, her flowered silks for the spring
and autumn, her sattins and damasks for winter. The good man, who
used to wear the beau drop d'Angleterre, quite plain all the year
round, with a long bob, or tye perriwig, must here provide
himself with a camblet suit trimmed with silver for spring and
autumn, with silk cloaths for summer, and cloth laced with gold,
or velvet for winter; and he must wear his bag-wig a la pigeon.
This variety of dress is absolutely indispensible for all those
who pretend to any rank above the meer bourgeois. On his return
to his own country, all this frippery is useless. He cannot
appear in London until he has undergone another thorough
metamorphosis; so that he will have some reason to think, that
the tradesmen of Paris and London have combined to lay him under
contribution: and they, no doubt, are the directors who regulate
the fashions in both capitals; the English, however, in a
subordinate capacity: for the puppets of their making will not
pass at Paris, nor indeed in any other part of Europe; whereas a
French petit maitre is reckoned a complete figure every where,
London not excepted. Since it is so much the humour of the
English at present to run abroad, I wish they had anti-gallican
spirit enough to produce themselves in their own genuine English
dress, and treat the French modes with the same philosophical
contempt, which was shewn by an honest gentleman, distinguished
by the name of Wig-Middleton. That unshaken patriot still appears
in the same kind of scratch perriwig, skimming-dish hat, and slit
sleeve, which were worn five-and-twenty years ago, and has
invariably persisted in this garb, in defiance of all the
revolutions of the mode. I remember a student in the temple, who,
after a long and learned investigation of the to kalon, or
beautiful, had resolution enough to let his beard grow, and wore
it in all public places, until his heir at law applied for a
commission of lunacy against him; then he submitted to the razor,
rather than run any risque of being found non compos.
Before I conclude, I must tell you, that the most reputable shop-keepers
and tradesmen of Paris think it no disgrace to practise
the most shameful imposition. I myself know an instance of one of
the most creditable marchands in this capital, who demanded six
francs an ell for some lutestring, laying his hand upon his
breast at the same time, and declaring en conscience, that it had
cost him within three sols of the money.
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