thrown in upon it. Then they return Home in the same order that they came, and each drinks two or three Glasses more before he goes Home. Among Persons of Quality 'tis customary to embalm the Body, and to expose it for a Fortnight or more on a Bed of State. After which they carry it in a Sort of a Waggon' made for that Purpose, and cover'd with black Cloth, to the Place appointed by the Deceased. This Cart is attended by a long train of Mourning Coaches belonging to the Friends of the Dead Person.'

2

A notice of a Roman Catholic funeral must conclude this subject. It is taken from the will of Mr. Benjamin Dod, Citizen and Linnen Draper, who fell from his Horse, and dy'd soon after.' 'I desire Four and Twenty Persons to be at my Burial... to every of which Four and Twenty Persons. I give a pair of white Gloves, a Ring of Ten Shillings Value, a Bottle of Wine at my Funeral, and Half a Crown to be spent at their Return that Night, to drink my Soul's Health, then on her Journey for Purification in order to Eternal Rest. I appoint the Room, where my Corps shall lie, to be hung with Black, and four and twenty Wax Candles to be burning; on my Coffin to be affixed a Cross, and this Inscription, Jesus, Hominum Salvator. I also appoint my Corps to be carried in a Herse drawn with Six white Horses, with white Feathers, and followed by Six Coaches, with six Horses to each Coach, to carry the four and twenty Persons. . . . Item I give to Forty of my particular Acquaintance, not at my Funeral, to every one of them a Gold Ring of Ten Shillings Value. . . . As for Mourning I leave that to my Executors hereafter nam'd; and I do not desire them to give any to whom I shall leave a legacy.' Here follows a long list of legacies. I will have no Presbyterian, Moderate Low Churchmen, or Occasional Conformists, to be at or have anything to do with my Funeral. I die in the Faith of the True Catholic Church. I desire to have a Tomb stone over me, with a Latin Inscription, and a Lamp, or Six Wax Candles, to burn Seven Days and Nights thereon.'

Widows wore black veils, and a somewhat peculiar cap, and had long trains-allusions to which are very frequent in the literature of the time. That they were supposed to The Flying Post and Medley, July 27, 1714.

1 A hearse.

seclude themselves for six weeks, and debar themselves of all amusement for twelve months, is shown by the two following extracts from Steele's Funeral, or Grief à la Mode.'

'But, Tatty, to keep house 6 weeks, that's another barbarous Custom.'

'Oh, how my head runs my first Year out, and jumps to all the joys of widowhood! If, Thirteen Months hence, a Friend should haul one to a Play one has a mind to see!'

A

CHAPTER V.

HOUSES, FURNITURE, ETC.

'Queen Anne' houses-Vanbrugh's house-Real 'Queen Anne' houses— Hangings and wall papers-Letting and rent-Prevention of fire-A fire-Insurance companies-Water supply-Thames Water Works— New River-Coals-Furniture-China-Bedsteads.

ALTHOUGH for the purpose of this work it is necessary to say somewhat of the houses of the period, it is not worth while discussing the so-called revival of the architecture of Queen Anne's time. The modern houses are quaint and pretty, but they are innocent of any close connection with her reign. Artists' and architects' holiday rambles in Holland are provocative of most of them; 'sweet little bits' having been brought home in sketch-books from Dordrecht and kindred happy hunting-grounds for the picturesque. The style was not even adopted for mansions-vide Marlborough House and Blenheim; and the exterior of the ordinary town. houses, even of the better class, was singularly unpretentious. Hatton is struck with admiration of Queen Square (now Queen Anne's Gate), and says it is a beautiful New (tho' small) Square, of very fine Buildings.' If he could thus eulogise its architecture, what must have been the plainness of the exterior of ordinary houses! It was not that there was a lack of good architects, for Wren and Vanbrugh were alive, but the houses and furniture were in conformity with the spirit of the times-very dull, and plain, and solid. We must never forget that during nearly the whole of this queen's reign a cruel war exhausted the people's finances, that trade was circumscribed, and that there were no mushroom par

A New View of London, 1708.

venus, with inflated fortunes made from shoddy or the Stock Exchange, to spend their wealth lavishly on architecture or art in any shape.

A dull mediocrity in thought and feeling prevailed, and if any originality in architecture was attempted, it would certainly have been satirised, as it was in the very little-known poem of 'The History of Vanbrugh's House.'1

When Mother Clud had rose from Play,

And call'd to take the Cards away;

VAN Saw, but seem'd not to regard,
How MISS pickt ev'ry Painted Card;
And Busie both with Hand and Eye,
Soon Rear'd a House two Story high;
VAN's Genius without Thought or Lecture,
This hugely turn'd to Architecture.
He view'd the Edifice, and smil'd,
Vow'd it was pretty for a Child ;
It was so perfect in its Kind,
He kept the Model in his Mind.

But when he found the Boys at Play,
And Saw 'em dabling in their Clay ;
He stood behind a Stall to lurk,
And mark the Progress of their Work ;
With true Delight observ'd 'em All
Raking up Mud to build a Wall;
The Plan he much admir'd, and took
The Model in his Table-Book;
Thought himself now exactly skill'd,
And so resolv'd a House to build.
A real House, with Rooms and Stairs,
Five Times at least as big as Theirs ;
Taller than MISS'S by two Yards;
Not a sham Thing of Clay, or Cards;
And so he did: For in a while,
He built up such a monstrous Pile,
That no two Chairmen cou'd be found,
Able to lift it from the Ground;

Still at White Hall it Stands in View,
Just in the Place where first it grew;
There all the little School Boys run,
Envying to see themselves outdone.

1 See Meditations upon a Broomstick and Somewhat Beside, Swift, ed. 1710. 2 The same lady satirised in The Reverse.

From such deep Rudiments as these,
VAN is become by due Degrees,
For Building Fam'd, and justly Reckon'd
At Court, Vitruvius the Second ;'
No wonder, since wise Authors show,
That Best Foundations must be Low;
And now the Duke has wisely ta'en him
To be his Architect at Blenheim :
But Railery for once apart,

If this Rule holds in ev'ry Art;

Or, if his Grace was no more Skill'd in

The Art of Batt'ring Walls, than Building,
We might expect to find next Year

A Mouse trap Man, Chief Engineer.

But should any reader wish to see good specimens of real Queen Anne's houses, I would recommend a visit to Nos. 10 and II Austinfriars. They are undoubtedly genuine (mark the date 1704 on the waterspout); and the staircase of No. 10, with its beautifully turned and carved balusters, and boldly yet easily carved soffits, is a real treat to see; and were it to be cleansed from its many coats of paint, and appear in its original state, it would be an almost matchless specimen of the domestic building of the time. The ceiling, too, at the top of the staircase is very beautifully painted, and was most probably the work either of Laguerre or Thornhill. It is good enough for either of them. No. II is inferior to No. 10, but were its neighbour away it would be looked upon as a very good type of a house in the reign of Queen Anne. See also an old house, now used as a Board school, formerly the residence of Sir C. Wren, in a courtyard in Water Lane, Eastcheap.

But a good plan is to judge of the houses by contemporary evidence and description. To be Let, a New Brick House, Built after the Newest Fashion, the Rooms wainscotted and Painted, Lofty Stories, Marble Foot paces to the Chimneys, Sash Windows, glaised with fine Crown Glass, large half Pace Stairs, that 2 People may go up on a Breast, in a new pleasant Court planted with Vines, Jesamin, and other Greens, next Door to the Crown near the Sarazen's Head Inn in

■ Vanbrugh was Comptroller General of Works.