of English dirtiness; he ascribes the plague,
from which England was hardly ever free, and the sweating-sickness,
partly to the incommodious form, and bad exposition of the houses, to
the filthiness of the streets, and to the sluttishness within doors.
"The floors," says he, "are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes; under
which lies, unmolested, an ancient collection of beer, grease,
fragments, bones, spittle, excrement of dogs and cats, and everything
that is nasty."[18] And NOW, certainly we are the cleanest nation in
Europe, and the word COMFORTABLE expresses so peculiar an idea, that it
has been adopted by foreigners to describe a sensation experienced
nowhere but in England.

I shall give a sketch of the domestic life of a nobleman in the reign of
Charles the First, from the "Life of the Duke of Newcastle," written by
his Duchess, whom I have already noticed. It might have been impertinent
at the time of its publication; it will now please those who are curious
about English manners.

"_Of his Habit_.

"He accoutres his person according to the fashion, if it be one that is
not troublesome and uneasy for men of heroic exercises and actions. He
is neat and cleanly; which makes him to be somewhat long in dressing,
though not so long as many effeminate persons are. He shifts ordinarily
once a day, and every time when he uses exercise, or his temper is more
hot than ordinary.

"_Of his Diet_.

"In his diet he is so sparing and temperate, that he never eats nor
drinks beyond his set proportion, so as to satisfy only his natural
appetite; he makes but one meal a day, at which he drinks two good
glasses of small beer, one about the beginning, the other at the end
thereof, and a little glass of sack in the middle of his dinner; which
glass of sack he also uses in the morning for his breakfast, with a
morsel of bread. His supper consists of an egg and a draught of small
beer. And by this temperance he finds himself very healthful, and may
yet live many years, he being now of the age of seventy-three.

"_His Recreation and Exercise_.

"His prime pastime and recreation hath always been the exercise of
mannage and weapons, which heroic arts he used to practise every day;
but I observing that when he had overheated himself he would be apt to
take cold, prevailed so far, that at last he left the frequent use of
the mannage, using nevertheless still the exercise