es hints of a wholesome existence which, while not showy, was
full of comfort:

"It was a large brick house of two, or rather three stories (for
there were excellent attics), besides a sunk story.... The lower
floor had two spacious rooms, ... on the first there were three
rooms, and in the upper one, four. Through the middle of the
house was a very wide passage, with opposite front and back
doors, which in summer admitted a stream of air peculiarly
grateful to the languid senses. It was furnished with chairs and
pictures like a summer parlor.... There was at the side a large
portico, with a few steps leading up to it, and floored like a
room; it was open at the sides and had seats all round. Above was
... a slight wooden roof, painted like an awning, or a covering
of lattice work, over which a transplanted wild vine spread its
luxuriant leaves...."

"At the back of the large house was a smaller and lower one, so
joined to it as to make the form of a cross. There one or two
lower and smaller rooms below, and the same number above,
afforded a refuge to the family during the rigors of winter, when
the spacious summer rooms would have been intolerably cold, and
the smoke of prodigious wood fires would have sullied the
elegantly clean furniture."[218]

But before 1760, as indicated above, the English element in New York was
making itself felt, and a curious mingling of gaiety and economy began
to be noticeable. William Smith, writing in his _History of the Province
of New York_, in 1757, points this out:

"In the city of New York, through our intercourse with the
Europeans, we follow the London fashions; though, by the time we
adopt them, they become disused in England. Our affluence during
the late war introduced a degree of luxury in tables, dress, and
furniture, with which we were before unacquainted. But still we
are not so gay a people as our neighbors in Boston and several of
the Southern colonies. The Dutch counties, in some measure,
follow the example of New York, but still retain many modes
peculiar to the Hollanders."

"New York is one of the most social places on the continent. The
men collect themselves into weekly evening clubs. The ladies in
winter are frequently entertained either at concerts of music or
assemblies, and make a very good appe