Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	house_n	king_n	lord_n	6,100	4	3.9503	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52447	Observations and advices oeconomical	North, Dudley North, Baron, 1602-1677.	1669 (1669)	Wing N1286; ESTC R616	31,061	156

rigid who must have singing Psalms and so it was anciently in the Jewish Church I professe not to know any pleasure exceeding Musick saving that of Contemplation in matters Divine Musick indeed may be said to be sensual for it is altogether conveyed by the Senses but certainly it hath a great approach towards Spirituality or else the Prophet Elisha would never have called for a Minstrel when an Inspiration was required I may fear I have been too tedious concerning this Recreation to which I confesse my self a little partial and I cannot but wonder at some persons who are so much more then brutish as they have a total aversion to it whom I must leave in their misery LXXXII Some are so austere and rigid in the way of Religion as they will admit nothing of pleasure farther then refection which includes eating drinking and sleeping only supposed to be necessary Recreation or Pastime they hold altogether unlawful as injurious to better employment These mens Religion is very conformable to Mahometisme wherein all Professors must have a Mechanical profession even the great Turk himself and they consider not the necessity of health which cannot be preserved with a continual intention of mind A Bow that stands alwayes bent looseth its strength in the end and so it is with the mental faculties if they be continually at the stretch Immediately after meals all serious thoughts are prejudicial to health and certainly at such times entertainments of some levity are to be tolerated and not onely then but in the long winter evenings a season unfit for stirring businesse so as for the Master and better sort of Servants there may be then some use made of Gaming in a moderate sort For can it be better to sit by the fire and sleep or for a man to rack himself by his own thoughts then to entertain himself by innocent pastime But in this I leave our Master to his own thoughts LXXXIII A Gentleman of quality whom I consider chiefly in these Oeconomical Notes living in the Countrey can hardly keep himself out of employment under the Lievtenancy or Commission of the Peace and this may contribute something against the inconveniencies of Solitude Though this gives trouble yet it generates an Acquaintance and correspondence between those of the Gentry and may also yield some inward satisfaction to a well disposed person who ever desires to be useful to others and here as I conceive notice may be taken that our Soveraign is happy beyond other Princes for he is very much served gratis in matters of Common Government whereas others are enforced to use Mercinaries to their cost LXXXIV In these Observations and every of them I would not be understood to intend persons of vast fortunes Noblemen or others for it is fit that such should have their freedom since they need not be obliged to any Rules of Frugality and I may say it is for the honour of this Kingdom that the Court and chief City should be frequented and expence in bravery there is not onely honourable but brings advantage to the People since many Trades and Manufactures subsist meerly by excesse of that nature Every man therefore must use his prudence and do that which is most proper for himself as well in relation to the publike as to his own private Condition LXXXV I think we cannot better Conclude these Observations then with some notes concerning the Royal Family or Household which as I conceive hath not its Peer in Christendom exceeding all others as well for Hospitality as for Order As touching the first it hath no parallel for consider it as it was in the time of former Princes and as I hope now is and we may justly say That more Flesh and Fish Bread and Drink is spent yearly there then is consumed in some Italian Cities whose Bishops are capable of sitting in general Councels And for Order it resembleth rather a State then a Family having within it or thereto belonging establishments for Government Ecclesiastical Military Civil and Criminal First there is a kind of Cathedral Church with an Episcopal Dean c. adorned with a Quire and Vestments for the Clergy as also with materials for Musick very extraordinary Then there is a Judicatory called the Green-Cloth which determineth in matters belonging to the Houshold Provisions and Government where the Lord Steward the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Houshold are Judges with several under Officers Thirdly there is two Military Companies one of Horse-men called Pensioners all Gentlemen and the other that of the old Guard consisting of Yeomen and these are under Command of two eminent persons their Captains Lastly it hath a Jurisdiction as well Civil as Criminal appertaining to it called the Verge extending it self twelve miles about the Court where the Lord Steward of the Kings House and Marshal and a peculiar Coroner do respectively exercise a Jurisdiction and none of the publike Judges may interpose in cases proper to that Court uncalled which limit of the Verge beareth some similitude to the Rural Territory of a City or State Besides this the Lord Chamberlaine of his Majesties Houshold hath governance of all the Gentry and Officers above-stairs who are very numerous Lawyers tell us that originally all Justice was administred within the Royal Family and that the Kings Bench was stiled Aula Regia Of these there still remains some shadow in the stiles of Teste meipso and of Coram Rege and at this day the Privy Councel an Assembly supposed to consist of the most eminent persons for Wisdom in the whole Nation hath its residence within the Kings House with a Jurisdiction extending it self over the whole Kingdom in matters of State To this Royal Family relate two others whereof one is that of the Queen Consort who by the Law is a person distinct from the King and may plead or be impleaded apart The other is that of the Prince of Wales when there is one and both these have especial Officers of State belonging to them It is a Prerogative of the Royal Family that the Servants are obliged to a faithful and diligent performance of service domestical which as I conceive is not by the Law permitted in the case of any person who is a meer Subject And all this under a Race of Princes of unknown Antiquity linked in Blood with most of the Royal Families of Christendom and that in all ages hath given to the world Illustrious Persons yielding to none for eminence in Wisdom and vertue and sometime such as by forreign Conquests were famous for their Martial Power and in great part Arbiters of the most important affairs of Europe unto which Royal Race all true-hearted English men desire and pray for a continuance in Regality even until the universal Day of Judgment Morning Prayer for a Family O Lord our most gracious God We of this Family do acknowledge with all thankfullnesse thy many great Mercies unto us but more especially thy freeing us from

increase charge as serving onely for Victuals and Rayment and excel Beasts little in point of Reason or in any thing else save their outward figure and in that they have an immortal Soul happy in being innocent and possest of lesse malice then appears to be in some Beasts LIX That famous Lawyer Sir Edward Cook would often boast of it as a matter of prudence That he had never cast his Penny into the Water nor dipt his finger in the Mortar meaning that he had never been an adventurer at Sea not yet a Builder I confesse that Building magnificently is a great honour to the Kingdom and in that respect deserveth all encouragement but it is fit either for persons of very eminent Estate or for great getters as Cook was but our Oeconomist takes it for a Rule not to disburse any considerable summe but where he may either find great profit in a return or a prevention of a future expence and therefore he useth expedition in necessary repairs of his Housing already built for delay in that matter doth encrease charges beyond expectation LX. It hath been observed as a great unhappinesse to our Nobility and Gentry that generally they are over-housed This must be meant of Capital Houses in the Countrey for Buildings in the City are clearly matter of advantage and profit because they may be rented out as for the other the observation is true in both parts for the Builders of such great Houses were persons either of wast or rising fortunes and they contrived their Mansions to be fit for their present or approaching condition and no man will doubt but Estates are much diminished and likely to be so more and more This puts me in mind of him who when his Kitchin was found fault with as being too little for his House answered that the littlenesse of the Kitchin had made the House so great and contrariwise where there is a very great House and a small Estate we may for the most part say that the great House hath made the Estate so little for it is like to great Personal titles causing the owner to hoise up more Sail then the bottom can bear which draweth on his Ruin All men know and some of us by experience the great charge of fitting a large House and keeping it in sufficient repair together with the uncomfortablenesse and seeming shame of living there attended by a small Family so as it is hard to give advice to persons in such condition especially if they be fettered so as they cannot transplant themselves yet they may be wished rather to affect and dispose themselves to the Italian humour of living in a Pallace with small retinue then to our English inclination of abounding in number of Servants with the inconveniencies appendent to it and the observation may ●lso give a Caveat to rich persons that they use not too much excesse in Building at their chief Habitation for their posterities sake LXI Though it be out of the circumference of our Circle to consider the niceties of Architecture yet we may give some touches upon the difference in point of convenience between Building modern and ancient The old way of building was to seek out places sheltred from Wind unlesse it were for a Castle and to make thick Walls with small Windows covering much ground with housing of moderate height About the beginning of Q. Elizabeths Raign they began to enlarge their Lights and of late the Buildings are made high with great Windows and much uniformity is affected after the Italian manner I conceive this fitter for Cities where ground is scarce and Houses strengthen one another being joyned then for the Countrey since to be expos'd to Tempest is so great an inconvenience especially where the scituation is chosen high for prospects sake as is now usual Besides this the Hall or basis of Hospitality is either wholly left out or so contrived as to be without Chimny of Fire-hearth which in Winter time should draw Company together and give chearfulnesse to a Family Great Staire-cases are also affected which fill a house with noyse and uniformity doth often deprive us of inward Rooms and of Closets with other little retiring places These considerations and some others make me lesse forward then the generality in crying down the pretended rusticity of our Ancestors yet I must confesse that not only Beauty both inward and outward but even the fashionablenesse of Building is to be desired where it may be attained with convenience but certainly convenience ought to give the rule And so I leave the matter to be taken into further consideration by others of better judgment who have more space for it LXII It is a rule in Menagery not to entertain many Workmen by the day nor Women to assist those of the Family within doors but in great Houses it is impossible to avoid day-men since there is so much use of them about repairs felling and making up of Wood and such like matters All therefore that can be done is to decline them as much as may be by removing the occasion And when such are set to work the Steward shall do well morning and evening to take accompt of what is done by which means they must either be active in their businesse or run hazard of loosing employment afterwards When any of the Servants are to work abroad the same diligence is to be used in appointing what is to be done and in taking accompt of it LXIII It is certain that Families of Noblemen are clean other then they were antiently for within memory of some yet alive it was usual for persons of the inferior Gentry to put their Sons into such service for breeding and it succeeded well saving unto them many a penny which would have been spent by sending them to London out of remote Countries and in maintaining them there to this purpose may be related that which happned in the Family of Robert Dudley the great Earl of Leicester and this it is As he was sitting at his Table with many other Noblemen a Letter was delivered to him whereby appeared that an Earl was dead whose Heir served him in his House being somewhat remote in blood from the deceased whereupon he called the Gentleman to him and acquainting his Guests with the Letters substance made him presently to sit at the Table above himself and many other of the Lords LXIV A new Married couple if they be young shall do well not to engage themselves in House-keeping too suddenly but to Sojourn with their Parent or some other Friend for some years that they may have time to observe what order is to be held and to provide themselves of Houshold-stuff and of other utensils in some measure for otherwise they will be like fresh-water Soldiers going to a Military Command before they are fitted with Arms and understand the use of them or what belongs to the exercising of their Soldiers LXV When the Heir becomes a Married man and Master