Besides these notable pockets, they likewise wore scissors and pincushions suspended from their girdles by red ribbands, or among the more opulent and showy classes, by brass, and even silver chains-indubitable tokens of thrifty housewives and industrious spinsters-I cannot say much in vindication of the shortness of the petticoats; it doubtless was introduced for the purpose of giving the stockings a chance to be seen, which were generally of blue worsted with magnificent red clocks-or perhaps to display a well-turned ankle, and a neat though serviceable foot, set off by a high-heeled leathern shoe, with a large and splendid silver buckle. Thus we find that the gentle sex in all ages, have shown the same disposition to infringe a little upon the laws of decorum, in order to betray a lurking beauty, or gratify an innocent love of finery.

From the sketch here given, it will be seen, that our good grandmothers differed considerably in their ideas of a fine figure, from their scantily dressed descendants of the present day. A fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes, even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. Nor were they the less admired by the gentlemen in consequence thereof. On the contrary, the greatness of a lover's passion seemed to increase in proportion to the magnitude of its object and a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low Dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full-blown cabbage. Certain it is, that in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen; the reason of which I conclude to be, that either the hearts of the gentlemen have grown larger, or the persons of the ladies smaller; this however is a question for physiologists to determine.

But there was a secret charm in these petticoats, which

no doubt entered into the consideration of the prudent gallants. The wardrobe of a lady was in those days her only fortune; and she who had a good stock of petticoats and stockings, was as absolutely an heiress as is a Kamtschatka damsel with a store of bear-skins, or a Lapland belle with a plenty of rein-deer. The ladies, therefore, were very anxious to display these powerful attractions to the greatest advantage; and the best rooms in the house, instead of being adorned with caricatures of dame nature, in water colours and needle-work, were always hung round with abundance of homespun garments, the manufacture and the property of the females-a piece of laudable ostentation that still prevails among the heiresses of our Dutch villages. Such were the beauteous belles of the ancient city of New-Amsterdam, rivalling in primeval simplicity of manners the renowned and courtly dames, so loftily sung by Dan Homer-who tells us that the prin→ cess Nausicaa washed the family linen, and the fair Penelope wove her own petticoats.

The gentlemen, in fact, who figured in the circles of the gay world in these ancient times, corresponded, in most particulars, with the beauteous damsels whose smiles they were ambitious to deserve. True it is, their merits would make but a very inconsiderable impression upon the heart of a modern fair; they neither drove their curricles nor sported their tandems, for as yet those gaudy vehicles were not even dreamt of; neither did they distinguish themselves by their brilliancy at the table, and their consequent rencontres with watchmen; for our forefathers were of too pacific a disposition to need those guardians of the night, every soul throughout the town being in full snore before nine o'clock. Neither did they establish their claims to gentility at the expense of their tailors, for as yet those offenders against the pockets of society, and the tranquillity of all aspiring young gentlemen, were unknown in New-Amsterdam; every good housewife made the clothes

of her husband and family, and even the goede vrouw of Van Twiller himself, thought it no disparagement to cut out her husband's linsey woolsey galligaskins.

Not but what there were some two or three youngsters who manifested the first dawnings of what is called fireand spirit. Who held all labour in contempt; skulked about docks and market-places; loitered in the sunshine; squandered what little money they could procure, at hustlecap and chuck-farthing; swore, boxed, fought cocks, and raced their neighbours' horses-in short, who promised to be the wonder, the talk, and abomination of the town, had not their stylish career been unfortunately cut short, by an affair of honour with a whipping-post.

Far other, however, was the truly fashionable gentleman of those days-his dress, which served for both morning and evening, street and drawing room, was a linsey woolsey coat, made, perhaps, by the fair hands of the mistress of his affections, and gallantly bedecked with abundance of large brass buttons. Half a score of breeches heightened the proportions of his figure-his shoes were decorated by enormous copper buckles-a low crowned broad brimmed hat overshadowed his burley visage, and his hair dangled down his back in a prodigious queue of eel skin.

Thus equipped, he would manfully sally forth with pipe in mouth to besiege some fair damsel's obdurate heartnot such a pipe, good reader, as that which Acis did sweetly tune in praise of his Galatea, but one of true delft manufacture, and furnished with a charge of fragrant Cow-pen tobacco. With this would he resolutely set himself down before the fortress, and rarely failed, in the process of time, to smoke the fair enemy into a surrender, upon honourable terms.

Such was the happy reign of Wouter Van Twiller, celebrated in many a long-forgotten song as the real golden age, the rest being nothing but counterfeit copper-washed coin. In that delightful period, a sweet and holy calm

The burgomaster

reigned over the whole province. smoked his pipe in peace-the substantial solace of his domestic cares, after her daily toils were done, sat soberly at the door, with her arms crossed over her apron of snowy white, without being insulted by ribald street-walkers or vagabond boys-those unlucky urchins who do so infest our streets, displaying under the roses of youth, the thorns and briers of iniquity. Then it was that the lover with ten breeches, and the damsel with petticoats of half a score, indulged in all the innocent endearments of virtuous love, without fear, and without reproach, for what had that virtue to fear, which was defended by a shield of good linsey woolseys, equal at least to the seven bull-hides of the invincible Ajax?

Ah blissful, and never to be forgotten age! when every thing was better than it has ever been since, or ever will be again when Buttermilk channel was quite dry at low water -when the shad in the Hudson were all salmon: and when the moon shone with a pure and resplendent whiteness, instead of that melancholy yellow light, which is the consequence of her sickening at the abominations she every night witnesses in this degenerate city!

Happy would it have been for New-Amsterdam could it always have existed in this state of blissful ignorance and lowly simplicity; but, alas! the days of childhood are too sweet to last! Cities, like men, grow out of them in time, and are doomed alike to grow into the bustle, the cares, and miseries of the world. Let no man congratulate himself, when he beholds the child of his bosom, or the city of his birth, increasing in magnitude and importance-let the history of his own life teach him the dangers of the one, and this history of Manna-hata convince him of the cala mities of the other.

Q

CHAPTER V.

In which the reader is beguiled into a delectable walk, which ends very differently from what it commenced.

In the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and four, on a fine afternoon, in the glowing month of September, I took my customary walk upon the battery, which is at once the pride and bulwark of this ancient and impregnable city of New-York. I remember well the season, for it immediately preceded that remarkably cold winter, in which our sagacious corporation, in a freak of economical philanthropy, pulled to pieces, at an expense of several hundred dollars, the wooden ramparts, which had cost them several thousand; and distributed the rotten fragments, which were worth considerably less than nothing, among the shivering poor of the city. Never, since the fall of the walls of Jericho, or the heaven-built battlements of Troy, had there been known such a demolition-nor did it go unpunished; multitudes were blinded, in vain attempts to smoke themselves warm, with this charitable substitute for fire-wood; and an epidemic complaint of sore eyes was moreover produced, which has since recurred every winter, particularly among those who undertake to burn rotten logs-who warm themselves with the charity of others -or who use patent chimneys.

On the year and month just designated, did I take my accustomed walk of meditation, on that same battery, which, though at present no battery, furnishes the most delightful walk, and commands the noblest prospect in the whole known world. The ground on which I trod was hallowed by recollections of the past, and as I slowly wandered through the long alley of poplars, which, like so many birch brooms standing on end, diffused a melancholy