“And geve hem to spowsynge as soone as thei ben ablee.”
In France the education of girls was much neglected.
“Il est honteux, mais ordinaire de voir des femmes qui ont de l’esprit et de la politesse, ne savoir bien prononcer ce qu’elles lisent; ou elles hesitent, ou elles chantent en lisant: au lieu qu’il faut prononcer d’un ton simple et naturel, mais forme et uni. Elles manquent encore plus grossièrement pour l’ortogrape, ou pour la manière de former ou de lier les lettres en écrivant.”
Fénélon goes on to suggest that girls should learn something of the laws and regulations of their country—
“ce que c’est qu’un contrat, une substitution, un partage des cohéritiers ... ce que c’est biens meubles et immeubles. Si elles se marient toutes leurs principales affaires rouleront la-dessus.”
In every age there is always some one to act the part of laudator temporis acti. Sir Matthew Hale, the celebrated Lord Chief Justice, bemoans the degeneracy of his own period. He says—
“In former times the education and employment of young gentlewomen was religious, sober, and serious, their carriage modest, and creditable was their habit and dress. When they were young they learned to read and to sew; as they grew up they learned to spin, to knit, to make up their own garments; they learned what belonged to housewifery.... And now the world is altered; young gentlewomen learn to be bold, talk loud and more than comes to their share, think it disparagement for them to know what belongs to good housewifery or to practise it.... They know the ready way to consume an estate and to ruin a family quickly, but neither know nor can endure to learn or practise the ways and methods to save it or increase it; and it is no wonder that great portions are expected with them, for their portions are commonly all their value.... If a fit of reading come upon them, it is some romance, or play book, or love story; and if they have at any time a fit of using their needle, it is some such unprofitable or costly work that spends their friends or husbands more than it is worth when it is finished.”
Domestic life was changing, and the habits and customs of former times were being modified. The simple ways of old did not suffice. There were too many distractions, at least in London, for women to sit down contentedly with the resources of their grandmothers. Among the well-to-do country gentlemen it was becoming customary to bring their families to London for the season, which was then the winter, and this greatly altered the tone of domestic life. To women confined to a country village with little change of scene or occupation, it meant as much as the “grand tour” in the next century. A rebound naturally followed the gloomy days of the Commonwealth, when—
“there were no comedies or other diversions (which were forbidden not only as ungodly but for fear of drawing company or number together), and there was no business for any man that loved monarchy or the family of Stuart; so that the nobility and gentry lived most in the country.”