material elements of eating, drinking, and frolicking. An incessant flow of wit and humour was sustained by such men as Judge Peters and Nicholas Waln, with many more whose names there is not space to mention. The eighteenth century seems to have been a period especially rich in humourists and wits. It was not like the preceding century when the bitter religious discussions that were everywhere rife prompted the adherents of each "ism" to hurl full-mouthed vituperative epithets at their opponents. Polemical vituperation ranked high in their esteem as an engine of salvation, and thundering anathemas with fluent abuse were often mistaken for wit and seemed to usurp its place. Later, however, a broader tolerance induced men to forego the exhilaration of indulging in religious Billingsgate, and wit and humour flourished apace and enlivened the festive board with scintillating flashes.

The daily life of the town was focussed at the old Provincial hall in the marketplace at Second and High Streets. Here was the gaol and here were those much dreaded but effective instruments of correction, the pillory, stocks and whipping post. Here monarchs on their accession were proclaimed, here wars were declared, here from the balcony new Governours addressed the people over whom they were appointed to rule, and here the Royal Arms of England were displayed. Elections here took place and here the Provincial Council sat. Back of the Provincial hall the market-sheds or shambles stretched away westward occupying the whole middle of the highway. On Tuesday and Friday evenings the citizens were apprised of next day's market by the pealing of Christ

Church bells which on these occasions were known as the "butter bells."

The markets and their wares were justly famous and were always especially remarked by visitors to the city. The ladies went to market themselves and at such a time of day as would shock their great granddaughters. One gay gallant from a sister colony, having a curiosity to see the markets, tells us that, early one morning, he jumped from his bed designing long before to have been at the marketplace. He got there by seven and

had no small Satisfaction in seeing the pretty Creatures, the Young Ladies traversing the place from Stall to Stall, where they could make the best Market, some with their maid behind them with a Basket to carry home the Purchases. Others that were designed to buy but trifles, as a little fresh Butter, a Dish of Green Peas or the like, had Good Nature and Humility enough to be their own porters.

As to the servants just mentioned, they were not seldom the cause of trouble. While many were faithful and efficient, there were enough that sadly tried their masters and mistresses. In 1769, one newly arrived Englishman writing home says:

You can have no idea of the plague we have with servants on this side of the water. If you bring over a good one he is spoilt in a month. Those born in the country are insolent and extravagant. The imported Dutch are to the last degree ignorant and awkward. The negroes are stupid and sulky and stink damnably. We have tried them all round, and this is the sum total of my observations: the devil take the hindmost!

Notwithstanding vexatious domestics and sundry annoyances from the baser sort, that had to be remedied by recourse to stocks and pillory, existence in the city was both comfortable and pleasant. Life, even among the strictest of Friends, was not as rigid and hard as some would have us suppose.

What with the fortnightly assembly dances, dinners, fox-hunting, punch drinking, tea-parties, horseracing, occasional theatrical entertainments and sundry other amusements, life in eighteenth century Philadelphia did not wear an aspect of altogether drab-coloured monotony.

402 SOUTH FRONT STREET

ISHOP WHITE spent all his early married life in the house at 402 South Front Street, now used by St. Peter's Parish for mission work. In fact, he lived there until he was elevated to the Episcopate, when he built himself a larger house in Walnut Street above Third, on the site now occupied by number 309. Having an independent income sufficient to maintain an elegant style of living, he had also a country-seat called Brookland, a farm of forty-eight acres, near Philadelphia on Islington Lane, a beautiful plantation and, in summer, the scene of such "hospitality as became a bishop and gentleman."

During the last half of the eighteenth century and the first part of the nineteenth, probably no man in Philadelphia was more revered and trusted than Bishop White, not only by the religious body of which he was the head but by all the citizens in general. He was regarded with a warmth of affection that led everyone, irrespective of religious affiliation, to speak of him as our bishop." By his great good sense, moderation, and tact he tided over many awkward places in the affairs of the infant nation. The house on Front Street just below Pine is so changed now that the good Bishop, could he come back and see it, would scarcely be able to recognise it as his former place of abode. The old shell, however, remains and is in staunch condition.

To write of Bishop White and not speak somewhat

of Christ Church would be impossible. As a child he worshipped there, through prime of manhood and venerable old age he gave his constant ministrations to its congregation. From the earliest times its people, the Church Party as they were called to distinguish them politically and religiously from the Friends, were, for the most part, the gayest and most aristocratic in the Province. As a body they were certainly the best dressed and most striking in appearance, according to one diarist of the middle of the eighteenth century, a stranger who had travelled much in the Colonies and was competent to judge. He says that when he attended Christ Church on Sunday morning he saw a larger number of well-dressed people than he had ever seen together before. Certain it is that there was a marked distinctive difference in the apparel of the different religious bodies at the time. "The Episcopalians showed most grandeur of dress and costume-next the Presbyterians-the gentlemen of whom freely indulged in powdered and frizzled hair." An entry in the minutes of the vestry in 1761 makes us doubt whether the church was always kept properly cleaned so as not to soil the brave attire of both belles and beaux. The sexton having applied for an increase of salary, it was agreed to give him £20 a year on condition that he was "to wash the church twice a year, and sand it at Easter and September; and also sweep the church once every two weeks."

The music, as everywhere else in the Colonial period, was wretchedly poor. "The singer, then called the clerk, was Joseph Fry-a small man with a great voice, who, standing in the organ gallery, was wont to make