37 



ters, Portfmouth is not only filthy and 

 crowded, but crowded with a clafs of low 

 and abandoned beings, who feem to have de- 

 clared open war againfl every habit of com- 

 mon decency and decorum. You know the 

 ftrong defire I have to contemplate human 

 nature, under all her varied forms, but t'^ofe 

 ftie, here, affuraes, I am forry to tell you, are, 

 uncommonly, hideous and dilgufting. , The 

 riotous, drunken, and immoral fcenes of this 

 place, perhaps, exceed all others. Com^monly 

 grof$ obfcenity and intoxication preferve 

 enougli of diffidence to feek the concealment 

 of night, and, affuming a kind of decency, 

 ftrive to hide themfelves from the puhHc eye : 

 but, here, hordes of profligate females are 

 feen reeling in drunkennels, or plying upon 

 the ftreets in open day, with a broad im- 

 modeily which puts the great orb of noon to 

 the bliijfh. Thefe daughters of Cyprla are 

 not only of manners peculiar, but likewife of 

 fuch peculiar figure and apparel^ that it were, 

 perhaps, difficult, in any other part of Eng- 

 land, to find a correct refemblance of — 

 ''/w^/ Po// of Portfmouth." 



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