ave they a salve for every sore, cheat you to your face, and insult
you into the bargain; nor can you help yourself without exposing
yourself, or putting yourself into a passion.

Another great abuse crept in among us, is the giving of veils to
servants; this was intended originally as an encouragement to such as
were willing and handy, but by custom and corruption it is now grown to
be a thorn in our sides, and, like other good things, abused, does more
harm than good; for now they make it a perquisite, a material part of
their wages, nor must their master give a supper, but the maid expects
the guests should pay for it, nay, sometimes through the nose. Thus have
they spirited people up to this unnecessary and burthensome piece of
generosity unknown to our forefathers, who only gave gifts to servants at
Christmas-tide, which custom is yet kept into the bargain; insomuch that
a maid shall have eight pounds per annum in a gentleman's or merchant's
family. And if her master is a man of free spirit, who receives much
company, she very often doubles her wages by her veils; thus having meat,
drink, washing, and lodging for her labour, she throws her whole income
upon her back, and by this means looks more like the mistress of the
family than the servant-wench.

And now we have mentioned washing, I would ask some good housewifely
gentlewoman, if servant-maids wearing printed linens, cottons, and other
things of that nature, which require frequent washing, do not, by
enhancing the article of soap, add more to housekeeping than the
generality of people would imagine? And yet these wretches cry out
against great washes, when their own unnecessary dabs are very often the
occasion.

But the greatest abuse of all is, that these creatures are become their
own lawgivers; nay, I think they are ours too, though nobody would
imagine that such a set of slatterns should bamboozle a whole nation; but
it is neither better nor worse, they hire themselves to you by their own
rule.

That is, a month's wages, or a month's warning; if they don't like you
they will go away the next day, help yourself how you can; if you don't
like them, you must give them a month's wages to get rid of them.

This custom of warning, as practised by our maid-servants, is now become
a great inconvenience to masters and mistresses. You must carry your
dish very upright, or miss, forsooth, gives you warning, and you are
either left destitute, or to seek for a