to be a
_received beauty_, as it is to shew the proofs of nobility, to be
admitted _knights of Malta_) that they do not content themselves with
using the natural means, but fly to all sorts of quackeries, to avoid
the scandal of being past childbearing, and often kill themselves by
them. Without any exaggeration, all the women of my acquaintance
have twelve or thirteen children; and the old ones boast of having
had five and twenty, or thirty a-piece, and are respected according
to the number they have produced.--When they are with child, 'tis
their common expression to say, _They hope God will be so merciful as
to send them two this time;_ and when I have asked them sometimes,
How they expected to provide for such a flock as they desire? They
answered, That the plague will certainly kill half of them; which,
indeed, generally happens, without much concern to the parents, who
are satisfied with the vanity of having brought forth so plentifully.
The French ambassadress is forced to comply with this fashion as well
as myself. She has not been here much above a year, and has lain in
once, and is big again. What is most wonderful, is, the exemption
they seem to enjoy from the curse entailed on the sex. They see all
company on the day of their delivery, and, at the fortnight's end,
return visits, set out in their jewels and new clothes. I wish I may
find the influence of the climate in this particular. But I fear I
shall continue an English woman in that affair, as well as I do in my
dread of fire and plague, which are two things very little feared
here. Most families have had their houses burnt down once or twice,
occasioned by their extraordinary way of warming themselves, which is
neither by chimnies (sic) nor stoves, but by a certain machine called
a _tendour_, the height of two feet, in the form of a table, covered
with a fine carpet or embroidery. This is made only of wood, and
they put into it a small quantity of hot ashes, and sit with their
legs under the carpet. At this table they work, read and very often,
sleep; and, if they chance to dream, kick down the _tendour_, and the
hot ashes commonly set the house on fire. There were five hundred
houses burnt in this manner about a fortnight ago, and I have seen
several of the owners since, who seem not at all moved at so common a
misfortune. They put their goods into a _bark_, and see their houses
burn with great philosophy, their persons being very seldom
en