292 The Duchess of Newcastle 



as I have heard a lady did to her husband, being in 

 the chief city, and she in the country, who sent to him 

 to buy her a hat and feather, the next week she sent to 

 buy her a hat, but not a feather, the third week, to buy 

 her a feather but not a hat, the fourth week she would 

 have neither hat nor feather. But I have bought a 

 cap, and many feathers, not only that they are in 

 fashion, but for use, for the hanging, or falling feathers 

 shadow my face from the burning sun, and fan a 

 gentle air on my face, that cools the sultry heat, so 

 that were it not a general fashion, it should be my 

 particular fashion in summer time. Indeed, feathers, 

 in my opinion, become women better than men, for 

 women are more of the nature of birds than beasts, 

 not only for their hopping and dancing, which 

 resembles flying, but because they are more useless 

 creatures, for most birds are of no use but to sing, 

 and some to prate, they are neither useful for labour 

 nor war, as most beasts are ; 'tis tine, vulturs, ravens, 

 crows, and such like birds, will be at the end of a 

 battel, but 'tis only to feed on the dead carcasses 

 slain in the battel, like those that feed on the slanders 

 of their sex; also feathers are light, not for shining, 

 but in weight, and so women have light natures; 

 feathers are unsteady and restless, so are women both 

 in body and mind ; indeed feathers and muffs are not 

 so seemly for men as for women, for how can a man 

 guide his horse, or use his sword, when his hands are 

 in a muff ? Yet it was all the fashion the last winter for 

 men to wear muffs, tied to a long string about their 

 necks, the muffs hanging at the lower end of the 

 string, and when they had an occasion to lay by their 

 muffs, they flung them behind their backs, which 

 seems like as poor, beggarly souldiers' knapsacks, or 

 as tinkers budgets, and the string about their neck 



