The Protestant lady sent her
an angry message, and withal some reflecting words upon the cross
itself, which ended the present debate, but occasioned a solemn visit
from the Catholic lady to the Protestant, where they fell into grievous
disputes; and one word followed another till the Protestant lady offered
some indignities to the jewel, took it from her neck and set her foot
upon it--which so provoked the other lady that they fell to blows, till
the waiting-women, having in vain attempted to part them, the footmen
were fain to be called in. After they were parted, they ended the battle
with their other missive weapon, the tongue--and there was all the
eloquence of Billingsgate on both sides more than enough. At last, by
the advice of friends it was, as is before noted, brought before the
Society."
The judgment was that for a Protestant to wear a cross was a
"ridiculous, scandalous piece of vanity"--that it should only be worn in
a religious sense, and with due respect, and is not more fitting to be
used as an ornament than "a gibbet, which, worn about the neck, would
make but a scurvy figure."
Most of the stories show the democratic tendencies of the writer, for
instance--
"A poor man's cow had got into a rich man's corn, and he put her into
the pound; the poor man offered satisfaction, but the rich man insisted
on unreasonable terms, and both went to the Justice of the Peace.
Pages:
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46