Series 02: Journal of a tour in Holland, 12 February - 22 March 1773 - No. 0053

[Page 53]

Feb 1773     Amsterdam                                                       

or shells with which they are strewd by treading upon it   their houses I am informed are as slavishly clean as their streets but to get admission into one of them was absolutely impossible the natural abhorrence they have to the necessary filthyness of all strangers make them shut their doors to all without exception

it was sunday & we went into two churches where we saw their dress to perfection clean & tidy to the last degree the women wear kind of velvet hoods which fall down in broad flaps below their breasts & set tight about their ears  their gowns are generaly of some sober colour made very full in pleats & set out by large pocket hoops    their hair is all conceald except in some young ones  two locks in their temples which grow very long hanging down in a spiral curl not thicker than a tobacco pipe as low as the middle of their cheeks   besides this they have clumsey earings generally of gold & golden plates like bits of hoops which are stuck between their Caps & their hair projecting over a part of their foreheads

 Each house has two doors one of which