my direction who so
often run gadding abroad, that I do not know where to
have them. Their dress, their tea, and their visits,
take up all their time, and they go to bed as tired
doing nothing, as I am often after quilting a whole
under-petticoat. The only time they are not idle is
while they read your Spectator, which being dedicated to
the interests of virtue, I desire you to recommend the
long-neglected art of needlework. Those hours which in
this age are thrown away in dress, play, visits, and the
like, were employed in my time in writing out receipts,
or working beds, chairs, and hangings for the family.
For my part I have plied my needle these fifty years,
and by my good will would never have it out of my hand.
It grieves my heart to see a couple of idle flirts
sipping their tea, for a whole afternoon, in a room hung
round with the industry of their great-grandmother.
Pray, Sir, take the laudable mystery of embroidery into
your serious consideration; and as you have a great deal
of the virtue of the last age in you, continue your
endeavours to reform the present.

"I am, &c., ------"

"In obedience to the commands of my venerable
correspondent, I have duly weighed this important
subject, and promise myself from the arguments here laid
down, that all the fine ladies of England will be ready,
as soon as the mourning is over (for Queen Anne) to
appear covered with the work of their own hands.

"What a delightful entertainment must it be to the fair
sex whom their native modesty, and the tenderness of men
towards them exempt from public business, to pass their
hours in imitating fruits and flowers, and transplanting
all the beauties of nature into their own dress, or
raising a new creation in their closets and apartments!
How pleasing is the amusement of walking among the
shades and groves planted by themselves, in surveying
heroes slain by the needle, or little Cupids which they
have brought into the world without pain!

"This is, methinks, the most proper way wherein a lady
can show a fine genius; and I cannot forbear wishing
that several writers of that sex had chosen to apply
themselves rather to tapestry than rhyme. Your pastoral
poetesses may vent their fancy in great landscapes, and
place despairing shepherds under silken willow