DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68274#0281
Seventeenth Century (Dutch)
some conceit of the Owner. As to give you a taste in
these :—
' Christus Adjutor Meus ;
Hoc abdicate Perenne Quero ;
Hie Medio tuitus Itur.'
" Every door seems studied with Diamonds. The
nails and hinges hold a constant brightnesse, as if rust
there was not a quality incident to Iron. Their houses
they keep cleaner than their bodies ; their bodies than
their souls. Goe to one, you shall find the Andirons shut
up in network. At a second, the Warming-pan muffled
in Italian Cutworke. At a third the Sconce clad in
Cambrick."
English travellers are not the only ones to bear wit-
ness to the extremes to which cleanliness was carried by
the housewives of the Low Countries. A French writer,
De Parival, says :—
" The wives and daughters scour and rub benches,
chests, cupboards, dressers, tables, plate racks, even the
stairs until they shine like mirrors. Some are so clean
that they would not enter any of the rooms without
taking off their shoes and putting on their slippers.
The women put all their energy and pleasure in keeping
the house and the furniture clean. The floors are washed
nearly every day and scoured with sand, and are so neat
that a stranger is afraid to expectorate on them. If the
city women keep their houses clean, the farmers' wives
are not less particular. They carry this cleanliness even
into the stables. They scour everything, even the iron
chains and mounts until they shine like silver."
185
some conceit of the Owner. As to give you a taste in
these :—
' Christus Adjutor Meus ;
Hoc abdicate Perenne Quero ;
Hie Medio tuitus Itur.'
" Every door seems studied with Diamonds. The
nails and hinges hold a constant brightnesse, as if rust
there was not a quality incident to Iron. Their houses
they keep cleaner than their bodies ; their bodies than
their souls. Goe to one, you shall find the Andirons shut
up in network. At a second, the Warming-pan muffled
in Italian Cutworke. At a third the Sconce clad in
Cambrick."
English travellers are not the only ones to bear wit-
ness to the extremes to which cleanliness was carried by
the housewives of the Low Countries. A French writer,
De Parival, says :—
" The wives and daughters scour and rub benches,
chests, cupboards, dressers, tables, plate racks, even the
stairs until they shine like mirrors. Some are so clean
that they would not enter any of the rooms without
taking off their shoes and putting on their slippers.
The women put all their energy and pleasure in keeping
the house and the furniture clean. The floors are washed
nearly every day and scoured with sand, and are so neat
that a stranger is afraid to expectorate on them. If the
city women keep their houses clean, the farmers' wives
are not less particular. They carry this cleanliness even
into the stables. They scour everything, even the iron
chains and mounts until they shine like silver."
185