Signs in the Air  
ND now the glorious Restoration at length arrived, and ’tis incredible what a Spur it was to Trade, and how the Mercers and Drapers could hardly supply their Customers fast enough with expensive Goods; and how the Tailors and Sempstresses worked all Night, and Hairdressers sold their Ellwigs, and Hatters their Hats, and Horse-dealers their Horses good and bad. For every one was for pouring out of London, across our Bridge, at least as far as Blackheath. Oh! what a busy, what a joyous Sight it was! All the Streets from the 113Bridge to Whitehall were hung with Tapestry, and the Windows filled with Ladies. The Lord Mayor’s Cooks set up a gay Tent in St. George’s Fields, to prepare a Refection for his Majesty. The Livery Companies in their various rich Dresses of Crimson, Violet, Purple, and Scarlet, lined the Streets on one Side, and the Trained Bands on the other: Bursts of gay Music were intermingled with Cheers and Laughter; Everybody seemed in tip-top Spirits that the King was coming. We let our Windows for a good Premium to some of the Grandees; but had a good View ourselves of what was going on, from the Leads—now there would come along a Troop of two or three Hundred or more, in Cloth of Silver Doublets; then four or five Times as many in Velvet Coats, with Attendants in Purple; then another Party in Buff 114Coats with Cloth of Silver Sleeves and green Scarfs, others in pale Blue and Silver, others in Scarlet: by and by, six Hundred of the Livery on Horseback, in black Velvet with Gold Chains, then the Trumpeters, Waits, City Officers, Sheriffs, and Lord Mayor ... in short, there was no End to the Splendour and Glory of that Day; for we had hardly rested ourselves after seeing them all go forth, when 115they began to come back, with the King in the midst. Oh! what Shouts! what Cheers! what Bursts of Music! And he, bowing this Side and that, so smiling and gracious! “It seemed,” he said, “as if it must have been his own Fault he came not sooner back, Everyone appeared so glad to see him!”
 
But the Ladies’ Dresses!—Oh, how grieved I was!—Sure, they were resolved to make up for the Dulness and Decorum they had been restricted to during the Protectorate; for, indeed, they seemed to think Decorum and Dulness went together, and should now be thrown overboard in Company. The Henrietta Maria Dress I had so complacently made up for our Wax Doll, was now twenty Years behind the Fashion! fit only to laugh at!—and what had taken its Place, I thought fit only to blush at.
116For a Moment, when the Party that had hired our first-floor Window had thrown off their Clokes, I felt a dreadful Presentiment that their Characters could not be over-good; or else, thought I, they never could dress in such a Manner. Only, knowing who they were, I thought again, that can never be—dear Heart! what can they be thinking of? we shall have Stones and Mud thrown up at the Window. “Sure, Madam,” said I to the youngest and prettiest, “you will catch Cold at the open Window ... the Wind blows in very fresh from the River—will you just have this Scarf a little over your Shoulders?” “No, thank you,” says she, shaking back quite a Bush of fair Hair, and looking up at me with her Eyes half shut, as if she were sleepy already. “Forsooth,” thought I, “those Curls are equal to a 117Fur Tippet”—And, looking across at our Neighbours’ Windows, I saw we need not fear pelting, for that all the other Ladies were dressed just the same. Then thought I, Oh, this is the Restoration, is it? If you, fair Ladies, provoke ill Thoughts of you, you must not feel aggrieved if People think not of you very well.
I disliked this Symptom of the Restoration from the very first—not that it had, naturally, any Connexion with it.—The King had lived long abroad, had become fond of foreign Fashions; but were the modest Ladies of England, therefore, to give in to them? Then, what the upper Classes affect, the lower Classes soon ape: I knew we should presently have Mistress Blenkinsop and Violet trying which could wear the longest Curls and shortest Petticoats, and look the most 118languishing. The only Difference would be, that the one would become the Fashion, and the other make it ridiculous. Perhaps, thought I, I am growing prudish and old-maidish, I am Eight and Twenty; but so is Violet.
I have often thought, that if the Ladies of England had at this Time been what they ought, a good Deal of Folly and Sin that presently stained this Reign would never have happened. What! could the merry Glance and free Word of a light young Monarch break down Barriers that were not tottering already? What had Mothers and Teachers been about? Where were the Lady Fanshawes and Lucy Hutchinsons? There must have been Something wrong in the Bringing-up—I can never believe all these fair young Ladies were so good one Day and so bad the next.
119But the joyfullest Event, to ourselves, on that glorious Twenty-ninth of May, was the Restoration to his Country and Home of our excellent Friend and Lodger, Master Blower. He seemed to be rejuvenized by the general Spirit of Hilariousness; for I protest it seemed as though ten Years were taken off his Shoulders. And he talked of being soon replaced in his Curacy; but, instead of that, his Friends presently got him a Living in the City, which took him away from us, as there was a Parsonage House. But we went to his Church on Sundays; and, as he was not one of those who forget old Friends or humble ones, he would make my Father and me sup with him about once a Quarter, and come to us of his own Accord about as often, and talk over the Times, which in some Respects, as far as Sabbath-keeping and general 120Morality went, we could not say were bettered.
And now a shocking Sight was to be seen at the Bridge Gate,—the Heads, namely, of those Traitors who brought about the Death of the late King, and who richly deserved their bad End. There they have remained for many a Year, a Terror to all Evil-doers.
 
And now a shocking sight was to be seen at the Bridge Gate
It was in the Spring following the Restoration, in the Month of March, that we and the Braidfoots were taking our Supper together on the Leads, the Weather being very warm for the Season, when our Attention was attracted by the uncommon Appearance of the Clouds, which, as will often be the Case after much Rain, were exceeding gorgeous and grotesque. Master Braidfoot was the first of us who noticed them, and cried, “See, see, Neighbours! Cannot you now 121credit how Lovers of the Marvellous have oft-times set Tales afloat of Armies seen fighting in the Air? Do not those two Battalions of Clouds, impelled by opposite Currents, look like two great Armies with Spears and Banners, about to encounter each other? Now they meet, now they fall together, now one vanishes away! Now, they both are gone!”
“And see, dear Hugh,” cries Kitty, “there’s another that looks like a Cathedral; and another like an exceeding big Mountain, with a Rent in its Side; and out of the Rent comes Something that looks like a Crocodile, with its Jaws wide open; no! now it is liker to a Bull, or rather to a Lion.”
“Very like a Whale!” said a Man, as if to himself, on the Top of the next 122House. It was Master Benskin’s Lodger, who wrote for the Booksellers.
Kitty started, and lowered her Voice; for we were not on speaking Terms with him; however, she squeezed my Arm and said softly, “It really is becoming Something like a Whale now, though!” On which, Master Braidfoot burst into one of his ringing Laughs, and cried, “Why, Kitty, you give it as many Faces as the Moon! What will you fancy it next?”
“I wonder what it means,” says she, very gravely.
“Means?” said her Husband, still laughing; “why, it means we shall have some more wet Weather. So we’ll put off our Pleasure Party. See what a red Flame the setting Sun casts all along the City!”
About a Week after this, our Neighbour, 123Master Benskin, gave my Father a little Pamphlet of four Leaves, writ by his Lodger; the Title of which was truly tremendous. It was this,—
“Strange News from the West! being a true and perfect Account of several Miraculous Sights seen in the Air westward, on Thursday last, by divers Persons of Credit, standing on London Bridge betwe............