LIFE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.*
THE private correspondence and diaries of public men of the past have long been objects of research, as the best materials for history which aspires to go below the surface. In publishing the present book, which consists of extracts from the pocket- book of his grandfather, the author has gone somewhat out of the beaten track, and given us the diary and entries thought worthy of note by a private gentleman of the last century. The life of Thomas Wale, the grandfather in question, is a peculiarly good one for the experiment, as it extended over nearly the whole of the century, he being born in 1701 and dying in 1796, and was curiously compounded of the successful foreign mer- chant and the well-to.do country squire. He was the scion of an old family of whom his dutiful descendant gives the usual particulars how they were Crusaders, sheriffs, knights, county Members, and so forth. But apparently the fortunes of the house were on the wane, as the hero of the book was apprenticed at the age of seventeen to a merchant at Lynn, and at the age of twenty-four was sent off to Riga as a factor and commission agent. Riga had only then belonged to Russia for fourteen years, having been taken by Peter the Great from the Swedes in 1710, and its trade in hemp, flax, and timber was chiefly carried on by foreign mer- chants, of whom those of the English factory were the chief, "and lived in a very hospitable and splendid manner." But Riga was a very " close " borough. "No foreigner was per- mitted to deall with any man but with the Burgers or freemen of the Citty, or resell goods bought there, at all." Further, "Noe foreigner or unfreemen were at any time permitted to keep house, nor their own bed, board, or table, but were then obliged to lodge and board in the house of a Riga Burger, or Burger's widow, as the writer hereof surely experienced in 1729-30, when, under pretence he hired a poor, old Burger's widow to bear the name of keeping house for him, without her being in the house, and gave her fifty roubles annually for her name only."
But "this even was prohibited by the Riga magistrates So [the " so " is to be noted], after that Miss Louisa Rndolphina Rakten arrived from Blankenburg, and that Thos. Wale and she had honourably concluded on a marriage, they journeyed on to Mittau, ye Principality of Courland (a dukedom of Poland not subject to Russia), and there privately solemnised their marriage on March 17th, 1749, and so returned to their house- keeping, she as owner and keeper of the house in her own name, and T. Wale, with his partners and clerks, or her lodgers and boarders," until "these rigid laws were subsided. They then thought proper to convince the world of their connubial rights by a new marriage in Riga, in 1760, from which time she took the proper name of Wale. Before this," adds the diarist, regardless, as he is continually, of his self-imposed *ratio obliqua, "our tableing linen was marked 'L. R.' and 'L. R. R."
• My Grandfather's Pocket-book. By the Rev. Henry John Wale, LA. London: Chapman and Hall. Mr. Wale seems to have caught a Tartar in his Louisa Rudolphina, as we are continually having entries reveal- ing domestic quarrels. For instance, on October 12th, 1774, "Daughter Polly having this day behaved rudely and impudently to her mamma (and that in my hearing), received my reproaches and chastisements." On March 22nd, 1775, "a long altercation with Mrs. Wale about her reconciliation with her daughter Polly, in which she remained fully repugnant ;" and, at last, in Jane the same year, "after that Mrs. Wale and daughter Polly have long had enmity and ill-will, the mamma too severe and the daughter somewhat as obstinate and provoking, have on all sides consented to part," so poor Polly is packed off to school. That it was not Polly's fault appears probable from an entry, October, 1775, when some one having borrowed Mr. Wale's "hobby" and lost it, on his return "some words arose between him and Mrs. Wale, upon which Mrs. W. called him names and abused him ; and by their mutual consent he was instantly to leave our house." And on another occasion, "Our servant-maid, Hetty, having been saucy to her mistress, was turned away ;" and when a man-servant is caught "roguishly stealing out a bottle of brandy or rum" from the cellar, he begs forgiveness, and that "I would conceal the same from his mistress." But to return to Riga. Mr. Wale very quickly made a considerable fortune there, chiefly through supplying the British Navy with ship-masts and hemp for ropes,—though on the occasion "of ye great and fatal con- tract in hemp" the firm lost no less than 210,000. However, as a few years afterwards he returned to England, and in 1783- 1784, long after his return, he got 29,500 for his share of profits in a single year, the business was not, on the whole, a bad one. Not much information is given about prices at Riga ; but we learn that at Cassan, in Russia, in 1738, a fat goose and turkey together cost 14 copecks (7d. English) ; a sirloin of beef weighing fifteen pounds, 6d. English ; and three dishes of nice fish, gudgeons, turbots, and goudlings, 5d. together ; while a German man and woman servants cost 11 roubles, or some 45s. a year. "Thus," as the person who gives the information says, "you can't spend a great deal of money in housekeeping." But prices in England, too, were enough to make one's month water. When Mr. Wale came back, he set up as country gentleman in Cambridgeshire, and estimates his total yearly expenses at £580. Chariot and horses, £50; two sons' board and clothes, £60; man and boy's wages and living, 260; three maids, £20; housekeeping, say victuals and beer, 39s. per week ; and so on in proportion. It seems that the wages were much over-estimated, as a footman, also to work in garden, cost only 27 a year, and his living; a ploughman the same, a coachman," without 'mines," eleven guineas. Food must also have been cheap, as he bought two large fowls at 6d. each. Schooling was absurdly low. Mr. Foote, £50; St. Paul's School, board, lodging, and education, 235 14s.; while Mr. Heath's, at Harrow, and Mr. Veser's and assistants, at Reigate, Surrey, "short and compendious finishing of youth," cost only sixteen guineas. Doctoring, too, was relatively cheap, as daughter Polly had a tooth drawn for half-a-guinea. On the other hand, law was expensive, it costing no less than 2126 to get Louisa Rudolphina naturalised.
Altogether, there is a good deal of interesting information to be gathered from the book as to how our forefathers lived in the eighteenth century. But the book has been unnecessarily enlarged by the insertion of numerous and sometimes lengthy scraps of poetry, most of them quite common and well known, such as " Celia's Charms" and Atterbnry "On a Lady's Fan," which the old gentleman had copied out as good things. There is also a would-be funny introduction, and divers witty com- ments scattered about the book, which are not in the best possible taste. But on the whole, the book has been well edited, and if its pages are turned over not too carefully, a very agreeable hour or two may be spent with it.
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