ftantly filled with Ladies-At Bartholomew Fair there is always an hop for the Ladies And if the Ladies in the drawing room are employed at Whift, their laft night's cards are made ufe of in a rubber by the Ladies in the fteward's room; while the other Ladies of the family are taking their halfpence at Put or All-fours in the kitchen. In a word, whenever there is occafion to fpeak of the Female World, honourable mention is always made of them by the refpectful appellation of The LADIES: as the young and the old, the black and the brown, the homely and the handfome, are all complaifantly included under the general title of The FAIR.

Since therefore the Ladies of Great Britain make up fo numerous a body, I fhould be loth to disoblige fo confiderable a fifterhood, and fhall devote this paper entirely to their fervice. I propofe at prefent to marshal them into their refpective ranks; and upon a review I find that they may be juftly diftributed under thefe five divifions; viz. Married Ladies, Maiden or Young Ladies, Ladies of Quality, Fine Ladies, and laftly (without affront to the good company) Ladies of Pleasure.

I fhall begin with the Married Ladies, as this order will be found to be far the most numerous, and includes all the married women in town or country above the degree of a chair-woman or the trunder of a wheel-barrow. The plain old English word Wife has long been difcarded in our converfation, as being only fit for the broad mouths of the vulgar. A well-bred ear is ftartled at the very found of Wife, as at a coarfe and indelicate expreffion; and I appeal to any fashionable couple, whether they would not be as much afhamed to be mentioned together as man and wife, as they would be to appear together at court in a fardingale and trunk-breeches. From Hyde Park Corner to Temple Bar this monster of a Wife has not been heard of fince the antiquated times of Dame and Your Worship; and in the city every good houfe-wife is at least a Lady of the other end of the town. In the country you might as well difpute the pretenfions of every foxhunter to the title of Efquire, as of his helpmate to that of Lady; and in every corporation town, whoever matches with a burgeis, becomes a Lady by right of charter. My coufin Village (from whom

I have all my rural intelligence) informs me, that upon the strictest enquiry there is but one Wife in the town where he now lives, and that is the parfon's wife, who is never mentioned by the country Ladies but as a dowdy, and an oldfafhioned creature. Such is the great privilege of matrimony, that every female is ennobled by changing her firname: for as every unmarried woman is a Mifs, every married one by the fame courtesy is a Lady.

The next order of dignified females is compofed of Maiden or Young Ladies; which terms are fynonymous, and are differently applied to females of the age of fourteen or threefcore. We must not, therefore, be surprised to hear of Maiden Ladies, who are known to have had feveral children, or to meet with Young Ladies, that look like old dowagers. At the houfe of an acquaintance where I lately vifited, I was told that we were to expect Mrs. Jackfon and the two Mifs Wrinkles. But what was my furprife! when I faw on their arrival a blooming female of twenty-five accofted under the firft denomination, and the two nymphs, as I expected, come tottering into the room, the youngest of them to all appearance on the verge of threefcore. I could not help wishing on this occafion, that fome middle term was invented between Mijs and Mrs. to be adopted, at a certain age, by all females not inclined to matrimony. For furely nothing can be more ridiculous, than to hear a greyhaired lady past her grand climacteric, mentioned in terms that convey the idea of youth and beauty, and perhaps of a bib and hanging-fleeves. This indifcriminate appellation unavoidably creates much confufion: I know an eminent tradefman, who loft a very good customer for innocently writing Mrs. the head of her bill: and I was lately at a ball, where trufting to a friend for a partner, I was obliged to do penance with an old withered beldam, who hobbled through feveral country-dances with me, though he was ancient enough to have been my grandmother. Excluding thefe Young Ladies of fifty and fixty, this order of females is very numerous; for there is fcarce a girl in town or country, fuperior to a milkmaid or cinder-wench, but is comprehended in it. The daughters are indifputably Young Ladies, though their

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papas

papas may be tradesmen or mechanics. For the prefent race of thopkeepers, &c. have wifely provided that their gentility fhall be preferved in the female part of the family. Thus, although the fon is called plain Jack, and perhaps bound apprentice to his father, the daughter is taught to hold up her head, make tea in the little parlour behind the shop, and inherits the title of Lady from her mamma. To make thefe claims to dignity more fure, thofe excellent feminaries of genteel education, called Boarding Schools, have been contrived; where, inftead of teazing a fampler, or conning a chapter of the Bible, the Young Ladies are inftru&ted to hold up their heads, make a curtfey, and to behave themfelves in every refpe&t like pretty little Ladies. Hence it happens, that we may often obferve feveral of thefe polite damfels in the fkirts of Whitechapel, and in every petty country town; nay, it is common to meet with Young Ladies born and bred, who have fubmitted to keep a chandler's fhop, or had humility enough even to go to fervice.

I proceed next to take into confideration what is generally understood by Ladies of Quality. Thefe in other words may be more properly called Ladies of Fashion; for, in the modifh acceptation of the phrafe, not fo much regard is had to their birth or ftation, or even to their coronet, as to their way of life. The duchefs, who has not tafte enough to act up to the character of a Perfon of Quality, is no more refpected in the polite world than a city knight's Lady; nor does the derive any greater honour from her title than the hump-backed woman receives from the vulgar. But what is more immediately expected from a Lady of Quality, will be feen under the next article: for, to their praite be it spoken, most of our modern Ladies of Quality affect to be Fine Ladies.

To defcribe the life of a Fine Lady would be only to fet down a perpetual

round of visiting, gaming, dreffing, and intriguing. She has been bred up in the notion of making a figure, and of recommending herfelf as a woman of fpirit: for which end fhe is always foremost in the fafhion, and never fails gracing with her appearance every public affembly, and every party of pleafure. Though fingle, the may coquet with every fine gentleman; or if married, the may admit of gallantries without reproach, and even receive vifits from the men in her bed-chamber. To compleat the character, and to make her a Very Fine Lady, the fhould be celebrated for her wit and beauty, and be parted from her husband: for as matrimony itself is not meant as a restraint upon pleafure, a feparate maintenance is understood as a licence to throw off even the appearance of virtue.

From the Fine Ladies it is a very natural tranfition to the Ladies of Pleafure: and, indeed, from what has already been faid concerning Fine Ladies, one might imagine that, as they make pleafure their fole purfuit, they might properly be intitled Ladies of Pleasure. But this gay appellation is referved for the higher rank of Prostitutes, whofe principal difference from the Fine Ladies confifts in their openly profeffing a trade, which the others cairy on by fmuggling. A Lady of Fashion, who refufes no favours but the laft, or even grants that without being paid for it, is not to be accounted a Lady of Pleasure, but ranks in an order formerly celebrated under the title of DEMI-REPS. It is whimfical enough to fee the different complexions affumed by the fame vice, according to the difference of stations. The married Lady of Quality may intrigue with as many as the pleafes, and fill remain Right Honourable; the draggle-tailed Street-Walker is a Common Woman, and liable to be fent to Bridewell; but the Whore of High Life is a Lady of Pleafure, and rolls in a gilt chariot.

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of the strictest honour and fecrecy! And how many ladies, dreffed in fuch a manner, and feen at fuch a place, have been defired to leave a line for A. B. Before the late Marriage-act, it was very ufual for young gentlemen and ladies (poffeffed of every qualification requifite to make the marriage ftate happy) to offer themfelves as a good bargain to each other; and men took the fame measures of advertiling to get an agreeable companion for life, as they do for an agreeable companion in a poft-chaife. As this traffic in matrimony is now prohibited, it has given occafion to the opening a new branch of trade; and fince husbands and wives are hardly to be got for love or money, feveral good-natured females have fet themselves up to fale to the best bidder. The Daily Advertiser is therefore become the univerfal register for new faces; and every day's advertifements have been lately crouded with of fers of young ladies, who would be glad of the company of any elderly gentleman, to pafs his leisure hours with them,

and PLAY AT CARDS.

appeared with most fuccefs. Thefe pieces of intelligence would undoubtedly give great fatisfaction; and I am myfelf acquainted with a very learned gentleman, who has affured me, that he has been as much delighted at difcovering that the Sofii were Horace's bookfellers, that the Hecyra of Terence was damned, and other little particulars of that nature, as with an account of the deftruction of Carthage, or the death of Cæfar. We fhould alfo be glad to collect from their advertisements what things were moft in request at Athens and Rome. Even our papers, (which perhaps are called Daily from their lafting but a day) are, I fear, of too fugitive a nature to fall under the infpection of pofterity. To remedy, in fome measure, this inconvenience, I fhall now conclude with a few advertisements, which, if they have not all actually been inferted in our papers, are at least of the fame nature with those that daily have a place there.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

of advertisements annexed to it, as the best account of the prefent domeftic state of England that can poffibly be compiled : nor do I know any thing which would give pofterity fo clear an idea of the tafte and morals of the prefent age, as a bundle of our daily papers. They would here fee what books are most

read, what are our chief amufements and diverfions: and when they fhould obferve the daily inquiries after eloped wives and apprentices, and the frequent accounts of trials in Weltminster Hall for perjury, adultery, &c. they might form a tolerable notion even of our private life. Among many other reafons for lamenting that the art of printing was not more early difcovered, I cannot but regret that we have perhaps loft many accounts of this nature, which might otherwife have been handed down

to us.

With what pleafure fhould we have perufed an Athenian Advertiser, or a Roman Gazetteer! A curious critic or antiquarian would place them on the fame shelf with the Claffics; and would be highly pleafed at difcovering, what days Tully went to his Tufculum, or Pliny to his magnificent Villa; who was the capital finger at the Grecian Opera, and in what characters Rofcius

in the Old Bailey,

BRYAN RAPAWAY,

WHO fwears Oaths of all Kinds and

Prices, and will procure pofitive Evidence at a Day's Warning in all Sorts of Caufes. He will contract with an Attorney or Quack Doctor, to swear by the Quarter; and will fupply Affidavits, &c. on the most reasonable Terms.

*He will attend, during the Bufnefs of Elections and Double Returns, in the Lobby of the House of Commons, and will ply next Term at Westminster Hall.

Several Sums, from 10l. to 10,000l. WANTED immediately, by a Perfon in a large and profitable Bufinefs Wanted directly, by a Perfon whofe Character will bear the strictest Enquiry Wanted for a Week only, or as long as the Lender chufes-Upon undeniable Security-The Borrower will give his Bond and Judgment, make over his Stock in Trade, enfure his Life, &c.-A handfome Gratuity will be given Intereft paid punctually Strictest Honour and Secrecy may be depended on.None but Principals will be treated with.

Direct for A. B. L. M. S. T. X. Y. &c. &c. &c.

The Hiftory of Will Ramble.
The History of James Ramble, Efq.

The Travels of Drake Morris.
The History of Jasper Banks.
Memoirs of the Shakespeare's Head.
The Hiftory of Frank Hammond.
The Marriage-Act, a Novel.

And speedily will be published, The Hiftory of Sir Humphry Herald and Sir Edward Haunch.-Memoirs of Lady Vainlove.-The Card. Adventures of Tom Doughty, Jack Careless, Frank Ealy, Dick Damnable, Molly Peirfon, &c. &c. &c.

Being a compleat Collection of NOVELS for the Amufement of the prefent Winter.

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NEC DIVERSA TAMEN

OVID.

TO MR. TOWN.

IT is whimical to obferve the male

York; and that this perpetual bloom was not native, but imported from abroad. Not content with that red and

white duced (at the gave you to the

are pretend) neceffity of fupplying the flush of health with the rouge of vermillion, and giving us Spanith wool for English beauty.

takes that we country gentlemen are led into at our first coming to town. We are induced to think, and indeed truly, that your fine ladies are compofed of different materials from our rural ones; fince, though they fleep all day and rake all night, they (till remain as fresh and ruddy as a parton's daughter or a farmer's wife. At other times we are apt to wonder, that fuch delicate creatures as they appear, fhould yet be fo much proof against cold, that they look as rofy in January as in June, and even in the harpeft weather are very unwilling to approach the fire. I was at a lofs how to account for this unalterable hue of their complexions: but I foon found, that beauty was not more pecular to the air of St. James's than of

The very reafon alledged for this fashionable practice is fuch, as (if they feriously confidered it) the ladies would be afhamed to mention. The late

hours they are obliged to keep, render them fuch perfect frights, that they would be as loth to appear abroad without paint as without cloaths." This, it must be acknowledged, is too true: but would they fuffer their fathers or their hutbands to wheel them down for one month to the old Mansion house, they would foon be fenfible of the change, and foon perceive how much the early walk exceeds the late affembly.

The