There are the old men in the pews beneath the pulpit. There are
the young men in the gallery, or near the door, with ruffs, showy belts,
gold and silver buttons, "points" at the knees, and great boots. There
are the young women, with "silk or tiffany hoods or scarfs,"
"embroidered or needle-worked caps," "immoderate great sleeves," "cut
works,"--a mystery,--"slash apparel,"--another mystery,--"immoderate
great vayles, long wings," etc.,--mystery on mystery, but all recorded
in the statutes, which forbid these splendors to persons of mean estate.
There are the wives of the magistrates in prominent seats, and the
grammar-school master's wife next them; and in each pew, close to the
mother's elbow, is the little wooden cage for the youngest child, still
too young to sit alone. All boys are held too young to sit alone also;
for, though the emigrants left in Holland the aged deaconess who there
presided, birch in hand, to control the rising generation in Sunday
meetings, yet the urchins are now herded on the pulpit- and
gallery-stairs, with four constables to guard them from the allurements
of sin.
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