STATE OP ENGLAND IN 1685 .

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rural business and pleasures. His chief serious employmentwas the care of his property. He examined samples of grain,"handled pigs, and, on market days, made bargains over atankard with drovers and hop merchants. His chief pleasureswere commonly derived from field sports and from an un-refined sensuality. His language and pronunciation weresuch as we should now expect to hear only from the mostignorant clowns. His oaths, coarse jests, and scurrilousterms of abuse, were uttered with the broadest accent of hisprovince. It was easy to discern, from the first words whichhe spoke, whether he came from Somersetshire or York-shire. He troubled himself little about decorating his abode,and, if he attempted decoration, seldom produced anythingbut deformity. The litter of a farm-yard gathered under thewindows of his bed-chamber, and the cabbages and goose-berry bushes grew close to his hall door. His table wasloaded with coarse plenty; and guests were cordially wel-comed to it. But, as the habit of drinking to excess wasgeneral in the class to which he belonged, and as his fortunedid not enable him to intoxicate large assemblies daily withclaret or canary, strong beer was the ordinary beverage.The quantity of beer consumed in those days was indeedenormous. For beer then was to the middle and lower classes,not only all that beer now is, but all that wine, tea, andardent spirits now are. It was only at great houses, or ongreat occasions, that foreign drink was placed on the board.The ladies of the house, whose business it had commonlybeen to cook the repast, retired as soon as the dishes hadbeen devoured, and left the gentlemen to their ale andtobacco. The coarse jollity of the afternoon was often pro-longed till the revellers were laid under the table.

It was very seldom that the country gentleman caughtglimpses of the great world; and what he saw of it tendedrather to confuse than to enlighten his understanding. His

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