once, it flatters the next comer, without the least remembrance that you ever were there.

The next are the vessels of the house, marshalled about the room like watchmen, as neat as if you were in a citizen's wife's cabinet; for, unless it be themselves, they let none of Gods creatures lose any thing of their native beauty. The lining of their houses is more rich than the outside, not in hangings, but pictures, which even the poorest of the boors are there furnished with: Not a cobler but has his toys for ornament. Were the knacks of all their houses set together, there would not be such another Bartholomew-fair in Europe.

Their beds are no other than land-cabins, high enough to need a ladder, or stairs: Up once, you are walled in with wainscot, and that is good discretion to avoid the trouble of making your will every night; for once falling out, else, would break your neck perfectly. But, if you die in it, this comfort you shall leave your friends, that you died in clean linnen.

You may sooner convert a Jew, than to make an ordinary Dutch. man yield to arguments that cross him. An old bawd is easilier turned saint, than a waggoner persuaded not to bait thrice in nine miles; and, when he doth, his horses must not stir, but have their manger brought them into the way, where, in a top sweat, they eat their grass, and drink their water, and presently after hurry away; for they ever drive, as if they were all the sons of Nimshi, and were furiously either pursuing an enemy, or flying from him.

They are seldom deceived, for they trust no-body; so, by conse quence, are better to hold a fort, than win it; yet they can do both. Trust them you must, if you travel; for to ask a bill of particulars is to put in a wasp's nest; you must pay what they ask, as sure as if it were the assessment of a subsidy.

Compliments is an idleness they were never trained up in; and it is their happiness, that court-vanities have not stole away their minds from business.

Sailors among them are as common, as beggars with us: They can drink, rail, swear, &c. but, examining their use, a mess of their knaves are worth a million of ours, for they, in a boisterous rudeness, can work, and live, and toil; whereas ours will rather laize themselves to poverty, and, like cabbages left out in winter, rot away in the loathsomeness of a nauseous sloth.

Most of them are seamen born, and, like frogs, can live both on land and water. Not a country-uriester, but can handle an oar, steer a boat, raise a mast, and beat you out, in the roughest straits you come in. The ship she avouches much better for sleep, than a bed.

In their families they are all equals, and you have no way to know the master and mistress, but by taking them in bed together. It may be those are they; otherwise Malky can prate as much, laugh as loud, be as bold, and sit, as well as her mistress.

Their women would have good faces, if they did not mar them with making. Their ear-wires have so nipped in their cheeks, that you would think some fairy, to do them a mischief, had pinched them

behind with tongs. These they dress, as if they would shew you all their wit lay behind, and they needs would cover it; and, thus ordered, they have much more for head than face.

They love the English gentry well; and, when soldiers come over to be billeted among them, they are emulous in chusing of their guest, who fares much the better for being liked by his hostess.

The habit of the men is much after the Tarpaulian fashion, their breeches yawning at the knees, as if they were about to swallow his legs unmercifully.

The women are far from going naked, for, of a whole woman, you can see but half a face: As for her hand, that shews her a sore la, bourer; which you shall ever find (as it were in recompence) loaden with rings to the cracking of her fingers.

Where the woman lies in, the ringle of the door does penance, and is lapped about with linnen, either to shew you, that loud knocking may wake the child, or else that, for a month, the ring is not to be run at. But, if the child be dead, there is thrust out a nosegay, tied to a stick's end, perhaps for an emblem of the life of man, which may wither as soon as born; or else to let you know, that, though these fade upon their gathering, yet, from the same stock, the next year a new shoot may spring.

In short, they are a race of people diligent rather than laborious, dull and slow of understanding, and so not dealt with by hasty words, but managed easily by soft and fair; and yielding to plain reason, if you give them time to understand it. They know no other good, but the supply of what nature requires, and the common increase of wealth. They feed most upon herbs, roots, and milks; and, by that means, I suppose, neither their strength, nor vigour, seems answerable to the size, or bulk of their bodies.

SECT. V.

Of the Nature of the Country in general, its Situation, &c.

FOUR of these provinces, viz. those of Holland, Zealand, Frieze land, and Groninguen, are seated upon the sea, and make the strength and greatness of this state: The other three, with the conquered towns in Brabant, Flanders, and Cleves, make only the outworks, or frontiers, serving only for safety and defence of these.

The soil of the whole province of Holland is generally flat, like the sea in a calm, and looks as if, after a long contention between land and water, which it should belong to, it had at length been divided between them. For, to consider the great rivers, and the strange number of canals, that are found in this province, and do not only lead to every great town, but almost to every village, and the infinity of sails, that are seen every where, coursing up and down upon them, one would imagine the water to have shared with the land; and the people, that live in boats, to hold some proportion with those that live in houses. And this is one great advantage towards trade, which is natural to the situation, and not to be attained in any coun try, where there is not the same level and softness of soil, which

parsimony of living. Their youth are generally bred up at schools, and at the universities of Leyden or Utrecht, in the common studies of human learning, but chiefly of the civil law, which is that of their country.

Where these families are rich, their youths, after a course of their studies at home, travel for some years as the sons of our gentry use to do; bnt their journies are chiefly into England and France, not much into Italy, seldomer into Spain, nor often into the more north ern countries, unless in company or train of their publick ministers. The chief end of their breeding, is, to make them fit for the service of their country in the magistracy of their towns, their provinces, and their state. And of these kind of men are the civil officers of this government generally composed, being descended of families, who have many times been constantly in the magistracy of their na tive towns for many years, and some for several ages, and not men of mean or mechanick trades, as it is commonly received among fo reigners, and makes the subject of comical jests upon their govern ment. This does not exclude many merchants or traders in gross from being seen in the offices of their cities, and sometimes deputed to their estates; nor several of their states from the turning their stocks in the management of some very beneficial trade by servants, and houses maintained to that purpose.

The next rank among them, is that of their gentlemen or nobles, who, in this province of Holland, are very few, most of the families having been extinguished in the long wars with Spain. But those that remain are in a manner all employed in the military or civil charges or province or state. These are, in their customs and man. ners, much different from the rest of the people; and, having been bred much abroad, rather affect the garb of their neighbour courts, than the popular air of their own country. They strive to imitate the French in their mien, their cloaths, their way of talk, of eating, of gallantry, or debauchery. They are otherwise an honest, wellnatured, friendly, and gentlemanly sort of men, and acquit them. selves generally with honour and merit, where their country employs them.

The officers of their armies live after the customs and fashions of the gentlemen.

There are some customs, or dispositions, that seem to run generally through all degrees of men among them; as, great frugality, and or der, in their expences. Their common riches lie in every man's spending less than he has coming in, be that what it will: Nor does it enter into men's heads among them, that the common part or course of expence should equal the revenue; and, when this happens, they think they have lived that year to no purpose; and the train of it discredits a man among them, as much as any vicious or prodigal ex. travagance does in other countries. This enables every man to bear their extreme taxes, and makes them less sensible than they would be in other places, especially in England: For he that lives upon two parts in five of what he has coming in, if he pays two more to the state, he does but part with what he should have laid up, and had no

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ter, so as the whole country, at that season, seems to lie under water, which, in spring, is driven out again by mills.

SECT. VI.

Of the People of Holland, their Manners, Humours, and Dispo sitions, &c.

THE people of Holland may be divided into these several classes: The peasants or boors, who cultivate the land. The mariners, or skippers, who supply their ships. The merchants, or traders, who fill their towns. The renteeners, or men that live in all their chief cities upon the rents, or interests of estates formerly acquired in their families: and the gentlemen and officers of their armies.

The first we have already treated of in a section by themselves, in regard of the giving a more particular character of their manners and humours.

The second, the mariners, are a plain people, but of a very rough hue; whether from the element they live in, or from their food, which is generally fish and corn, and heartier than that of the boors: They are surly and ill-mannered, which is mistaken for pride; but, I believe, is learnt, as all manners are, by the conversation we use. Now, theirs lying only among one another, or with winds and waves, which are not moved nor wrought upon by any language, or observ. ance, or to be dealt with but by pains, and by patience, these are all the qualities their mariners have learnt; their language is little more than what is of necessary use to their business; their valour is of a size extraordinary, even beyond comparison, except with that of the English tarpaulin.

The merchants and tradesmen, both the greater and mechanick, living in towns that are of great resort, both by strangers and passengers of their own, are more mercurial, wit being sharpened by commerce and conversation of cities, though they are not very in ventive, which is the gift of warmer heads; yet are they great in imi. tation, and so far, many times, as goes beyond the originals: Of mighty industry, and constant application to the ends they propose and pursue. They make use of their skill, and their wit, to take advantage of other men's ignorance and folly they deal with: Are great exactors, where the law is in their own hands. In other points, where they deal with men that understand like themselves, and are under the reach of justice and laws, they are the plainest and best dealers in the world; which seems not to grow so much from a principle of conscience, or morality, as from a custom or habit introduced by the necessity of trade among them, which depends as much upon common honesty, as war does upon discipline; and without which all would break; merchants would turn pedlars, and soldiers thieves.

Those families, which live upon their patrimonial estates in all the great cities, are a people differently bred and mannered from the traders, though like them in the modesty of garb and habit, and the

parsimony of living. Their youth are generally bred up at schools, and at the universities of Leyden or Utrecht, in the common studies of human learning, but chiefly of the civil law, which is that of their country.

Where these families are rich, their youths, after a course of their studies at home, travel for some years as the sons of our gentry use to do; bnt their journies are chiefly into England and France, not much into Italy, seldomer into Spain, nor often into the more north ern countries, unless in company or train of their publick ministers. The chief end of their breeding, is, to make them fit for the service of their country in the magistracy of their towns, their provinces, and their state. And of these kind of men are the civil officers of this government generally composed, being descended of families, who have many times been constantly in the magistracy of their na tive towns for many years, and some for several ages, and not men of mean or mechanick trades, as it is commonly received among fo reigners, and makes the subject of comical jests upon their govern ment. This does not exclude many merchants or traders in gross from being seen in the offices of their cities, and sometimes deputed to their estates; nor several of their states from the turning their stocks in the management of some very beneficial trade by servants, and houses maintained to that purpose.

The next rank among them, is that of their gentlemen or nobles, who, in this province of Holland, are very few, most of the families having been extinguished in the long wars with Spain. But those that remain are in a manner all employed in the military or civil charges or province or state. These are, in their customs and man. ners, much different from the rest of the people; and, having been bred much abroad, rather affect the garb of their neighbour courts, than the popular air of their own country. They strive to imitate the French in their mien, their cloaths, their way of talk, of eating, of gallantry, or debauchery. They are otherwise an honest, wellnatured, friendly, and gentlemanly sort of men, and acquit them. selves generally with honour and merit, where their country employs them.

The officers of their armies live after the customs and fashions of the gentlemen.

There are some customs, or dispositions, that seem to run generally through all degrees of men among them; as, great frugality, and order, in their expences. Their common riches lie in every man's spending less than he has coming in, be that what it will: Nor does it enter into men's heads among them, that the common part or course of expence should equal the revenue; and, when this happens, they think they have lived that year to no purpose; and the train of it discredits a man among them, as much as any vicious or prodigal extravagance does in other countries. This enables every man to bear their extreme taxes, and makes them less sensible than they would be in other places, especially in England: For he that lives upon two parts in five of what he has coming in, if he pays two more to the state, he does but part with what he should have laid up, and had no