2C4 strictures on manners. Aug. 14^. 



ders, Britain, \3c. \3c. life, of hiring persons to 

 cry the hours of the niglit. 



The drefs which at that time prevailed was ihort 

 clothes, except on days of ceremony ; when, over 

 their coat, they wore a mantle frequently lined with 

 furs; these -they imported from the north, especial- 

 ly from Rufsia, as we do now. The Roman man- 

 ner of covering the legs and feet was still preserved. 

 It is mentioned that Charlemagne used to cover his 

 legs with fillets twisted in the form of bufkins, after 

 the manner of the Scottifh highlandcrs, the only 

 people who have preserved the military drefs of the 

 ancient Romans. 



In the reign of Edward ill. no man under a hun- 

 dred a year was allowed to wear gold, silver, or 

 silk in his clothes ; servants also were prohibited 

 from eating flefli or filh above once a-day. It was 

 easy to foresee that such ridiculous laws must prove 

 ineffectual, and could never be executed. 



The use of the French language in public deeds 

 was not abolifhed in Britain till towards the end 

 of the fourteenth century. It may appear strange 

 that the nation so long (hould have worn this badge 

 of conquest ; but the king and the nobility seem ne- 

 ver to have become thoroughly Englilh till the wars of 

 Edward iil. with France gave them an antipathy to 

 that nation. Yet, still it was long before the use of 

 the Englifh tongue came iiito general falhion. 



No kind of misery or distrefs was more frequent- 

 ly or more fatally experienced in these barbarous 

 fimei, tl an grievous and severe famints, arising 

 from the low state of hufbandry and the arts. A- 



