"Oh! y'e Hunger that many suffered and saw no hope in an Eye of Reason
to be Supplied, only by Clams & Muscles, and Fish; and _Bread_ was
very Scarce, that sometimes y'e very Crusts of my Fathers Table would
have been very sweete vnto me; And when I could have _Meal & Water &
Salt_, boyled together, it was so good, who could wish better. And it
was not accounted a strange thing in those Days to Drink Water, and to
eat _Samp_ or _Homine_ without Butter or Milk. Indeed it would
have been a very strange thing to see a piece of Roast Beef, Mutton, or
Veal, tho' it was not long before there was Roast _Goat_."

In 1740, the same year that Whitefield visited New England, on his
evangelistic mission, the crops were again cut off by untimely frosts,
and Mr. Blake wrote in his annual entry-book: "There was this year an
early frost that much Damnified y'e Indian Corn in y'e Field, and after
it was Gathered a long Series of wett weather & a very hard frost vpon
it, that damnified a great deal more."

It is not unfair to suppose that the habits of rigid economy learned in
this school of adversity influenced the passage of the celebrated law
against wearing superfluities, quite as much as their austere prejudice
against display. Be that as it may, the attention of the court was
called to the dangerous increase of lace and other ornaments in female
attire, and, after mature deliberation, it seemed wise to them to pass
the following wholesome law:

"Whereas there is much complaint of the wearing of lace and other
superflueties tending to little use, or benefit, but to the nourishing
of pride, and exhausting men's estates, and also of evil example to
others; it is therefore ordered that henceforth no person whatsoever
shall prsume to buy or sell within this jurisdiction any manner of lace
to bee worne ore used within o'r limits.

"And no taylor or any other person, whatsoever shall hereafter set any
lace or points vpon any garments, either linnen, woolen, or any other
wearing cloathes whatsoever, and that no p'son hereafter shall be
imployed in making any manner of lace, but such as they shall sell to
such persons but such as shall and will transport the same out of this
jurisdiction, who in such a case shall have liberty to buy and sell; and
that hereafter no garment shall be made w'th short sleeves, whereby the
nakedness of the arm may be discovered in the bareing thereof, and such
as have garments a