Children Should Certainly Be Inured Early To
Set A Proper Value On Themselves; Whereas With Us, Parents Of The
Lower Class Bring Up Their Children To The Same Slavery Under Which
They Themselves Groan.
Notwithstanding the constant new appetites and calls of fashion,
they here remain faithful to nature - till a certain age.
What a
contrast, when I figure to myself our petted, pale-faced Berlin
boys, at six years old, with a large bag, and all the parade of
grown-up persons, nay even with laced coats; and here, on the
contrary see nothing but fine, ruddy, slim, active boys, with their
bosoms open, and their hair cut on their forehead, whilst behind it
flows naturally in ringlets. It is something uncommon here to meet
a young man, and more especially a boy, with a pale or sallow face,
with deformed features, or disproportioned limbs. With us, alas! it
is not to be concealed, the case is very much otherwise; if it were
not, handsome people would hardly strike us so very much as they do
in this country.
This free, loose, and natural dress is worn till they are eighteen,
or even till they are twenty. It is then, indeed, discontinued by
the higher ranks, but with the common people it always remains the
same. They then begin to have their hair dressed, and curled with
irons, to give the head a large bushy appearance, and half their
backs are covered with powder. I am obliged to remain still longer
under the hands of an English, than I was under a German hair-
dresser; and to sweat under his hot irons with which he curls my
hair all over, in order that I may appear among Englishmen, somewhat
English. I must here observe that the English hair-dressers are
also barbers, an office however, which they perform very badly
indeed; though I cannot but consider shaving as a far more proper
employment for these petit maitres than it is for surgeons, who you
know in our country are obliged to shave us. It is incredible how
much the English at present Frenchify themselves; the only things
yet wanting are bags and swords, with which at least I have seen no
one walking publicly, but I am told they are worn at court.
In the morning it is usual to walk out in a sort of negligee or
morning dress, your hair not dressed, but merely rolled up in
rollers, and in a frock and boots. In Westminster, the morning
lasts till four or five o'clock, at which time they dine, and supper
and going to bed are regulated accordingly. They generally do not
breakfast till ten o'clock. The farther you go from the court into
the city, the more regular and domestic the people become; and there
they generally dine about three o'clock, i.e. as soon as the
business or 'Change is over.
Trimmed suits are not yet worn, and the most usual dress is in
summer, a short white waistcoat, black breeches, white silk
stockings, and a frock, generally of very dark blue cloth, which
looks like black; and the English seem in general to prefer dark
colours. If you wish to be full dressed, you wear black. Officers
rarely wear their uniforms, but dress like other people, and are to
be known to be officers only by a cockade in their hats.
It is a common observation, that the more solicitous any people are
about dress, the more effeminate they are. I attribute it entirely
to this idle adventitious passion for finery, that these people are
become so over and above careful of their persons; they are for
ever, and on every occasion, putting one another on their guard
against catching cold; "you'll certainly catch cold," they always
tell you if you happen to be a little exposed to the draught of the
air, or if you be not clad, as they think, sufficiently warm. The
general topic of conversation in summer, is on the important objects
of whether such and such an acquaintance be in town, or such a one
in the country. Far from blaming it, I think it natural and
commendable, that nearly one half of the inhabitants of this great
city migrate into the country in summer. And into the country, I
too, though not a Londoner, hope soon to wander.
Electricity happens at present to be the puppet-show of the English.
Whoever at all understands electricity is sure of being noticed and
successful. This a certain Mr. Katterfelto experiences, who gives
himself out for a Prussian, speaks bad English, and understands
beside the usual electrical and philosophical experiments, some
legerdemain tricks, with which (at least according to the papers) he
sets the whole world in wonder. For in almost every newspaper that
appears, there are some verses on the great Katterfelto, which some
one or other of his hearers are said to have made extempore. Every
sensible person considers Katterfelto as a puppy, an ignoramus, a
braggadocio, and an impostor; notwithstanding which he has a number
of followers. He has demonstrated to the people, that the influenza
is occasioned by a small kind of insect, which poisons the air; and
a nostrum, which he pretends to have found out to prevent or destroy
it, is eagerly bought of him. A few days ago he put into the
papers: "It is true that Mr. Katterfelto has always wished for cold
and rainy weather, in order to destroy the pernicious insects in the
air; but now, on the contrary, he wishes for nothing more than for
fair weather, as his majesty and the whole royal family have
determined, the first fine day, to be eye-witnesses of the great
wonder, which this learned philosopher will render visible to them."
Yet all this while the royal family have not so much as even thought
of seeing the wonders of Mr. Katterfelto. This kind of rhodomontade
is very finely expressed in English by the word puff, which in its
literal sense, signifies a blowing, or violent gust of wind, and in
the metaphorical sense, a boasting or bragging.
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