HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 231

of household linen, which was then cheaper than cotton; and it was the ambition of every Dutch maiden to take to her husband's house a fall and complete stock of such domestic articles.1

As to the means of travelling, the lumber-wagon, and in winter the sleigh, running upon split saplings, and drawn, at a uniform dogtrot pace, by pot-bellied nags, seem to have been the only conveyance possessed by the Dutchmen who did not wish to ride horseback or to walk. During the early part of the seventeenth century, the two-wheeled one-horse chaise came gradually into use, and was the fashionable vehicle up to the time of the Revolution. In riding horseback, the lady did not, as now, ride alone; but was mounted upon a pillow or padded cushion, fixed behind the saddle of the gentleman or servant, upon whose support she was therefore dependent; and this was the common mode of country travel for ladies at that day, when roads were generally little else than bridlepaths. Side-saddles only came into partial use in the eighteenth century.

The manners of the people were simple, unaffected, and economical. Industry was cultivated by all; every son was brought. up to the exercise of some mechanical employment, and every daughter to the knowledge of household duties. In those days, farmers made their own lime, tanned their own leather, often made their own shoes, did their own carpentering, wheelwrighting, and blacksmithing; while the females spun wool and flax, frequently taking their spinning-wheels with them when they went abroad to spend an afternoon with a neighbor’s wife.

In regard to the agriculture of the country during its earlier years, we can learn but little. It was probably as good as that of the “Fatherland” at that day, all due allowance being made for the novel and peculiar circumstances which surround the settler in a

1 Furman’s Notes (p. 100) preserves the inventory of the estate which a bride in Brooklyn brought to her husband, in the year 1691. The husband, by various records, appears to have been a man of considerable wealth, notwithstanding which, the following inventory was thought by both of them of sufficient importance to merit being recorded, viz.: “A half-worn bed, pillow, 2 cushions of ticking with feathers, one rug, 4 sheets, 4 cushion-covers, 2 iron pots, 3 pewter dishes, 1 pewter basin, 1 iron roaster, 1 schuyrn spoon, 2 oowes about 5 yeares old, 1 caw or cupboard, 1 table.”