MARGARET G©DOLPHIPT, feed curiosity yet remains as to the amusements of the younger women, whose fortune and rank elevated them above the common every-day household cares of existence." Pepys tells us of the merry monarch; ladies and courtiers, "all mad in hunting of a poor moth," after supper ; and gives us a sketch of the general demeanour of the flaunting, fluttering, voluble beauties :- " I followed them (after their ride)," he says, " into Whitehall, and into the Queen's presence, where all the ladies were walking, talking, and fid- dling with their hats and feathers, and changing and trying one another's by one another's heads, and laughing. But it was the finest sight to me, con- sidering their great beauty and dress, that ever I did see in all my life." Anecdotes innumerable are related, showing the lamentable tone of the age. The employments of the fascinating Frances Stewart were so childish that she found pleasure in nothing more worthy than blindman's buff, hunt-the-slipper, or building houses of cards the latter diversion she espe- cially favoured, for even in the presence- chamber she passed hours in raising frail edifices, while those who wished to secure her good graces would forsake the basset-table to supply her with materials, and affect eagerly to participate in her amusement. One evening, a frolicsome party having assembled in her apartments at Whitehall, Lord Carlingford, an old Irish peer, undertook to entertain the beau- 12
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