n May-day with the Garland that
the Dairy Wenches borrow (under good security) from the Silversmiths in
Cranbourne Alley. Also they had Whalebone Petticoats, outdoing ours by
several yards in circumference. Vastly Ridiculous were these
Fashions--think you not so, good Sir or Madam, as the case may be? and
yet, may I be shot, but much later in the present century I have seen
such things as hoops, _bourles_, tours, and toupees, not one whit less
Ridiculous.

The Empress, a sweet pretty lady, was perforce obliged to wear this
Habit; but with the other Female Grandees it only served to increase
their natural Ugliness. Memorandum: that at Court (whither we went not,
being "unborn," but heard a great deal of it from hearsay) a Game called
Quinze was the Carding most in vogue. Their drawing-rooms are different
from those in England, no Man Creature entering it but the old
Grand-Master, who comes to announce to the Empress the arrival of His
Imperial Majesty the Caesar. Much gravity and Ceremony at these
Receptions, and all very Formal, but decent. The Empress sits in a great
easy-chair! but the Archduchesses are ranged on chairs with tall,
straight Backs, but without arms; whilst the other Ladies of the Court
(poor things) may stand on one Leg, or lean against sideboards, to rest
themselves as they choose; but Sit Down they Dare not. This is the same
Discipline, I believe, that still prevails, and so I speak of it in the
present tense. The Table is entirely set out, and served by the
Empress's Maids of Honour (who put on the very dishes and sauces),
Twelve young Ladies of the First Quality, having no Salary, but their
chamber at court (like our Maids at the Montpelier by Twitnam), where
they live in a kind of Honourable Captivity, not being suffered to go to
the Assemblies of Public Places in Town, except in compliment to the
wedding of a Sister Maid, whom the Empress always presents with her
picture set in Diamonds. And yet, for all their Strict confinement, I
have heard fine Accounts of the goings-on of these noble Ladies. The
first three of them are called "Ladies of the Key," and wear little
golden keys at their sides. The Dressers are not at all the figures they
pretend to in England, being looked upon no otherwise than as downright
Chambermaids.

So much of the State and Grandeur of Vienna, then the most considerable
city in Germany; though now Berlin, thanks to the Genius of its Puissant
Monarch, has Reared its head v