table's attendance requireth, that is, if their mistress ride abroad she must have six or seven serving men to attend her, she must have one to carry her cloak, and hood, lest it rain, another her fan, if she use it not herself, another her box with ruffs and other necessaries, another behind whom her maid or gentlewoman must ride, and some must be loose to open gates, and supply other services that may be occasioned. Now to diminish and cut of this charge, as well of horse and men, there is a new invention, and that is, she must have a coach, wherein she, with her gentlewomen, maid, and children, and what necessaries they or any of them are to use, may be carried or conveyed with smaller charge, less cost, and more credit, as it is accounted: for one or two men at the most besides the coachman, are sufficient for a gentlewoman or lady of worthy parentage."
Gervase Markham, in his English Housewife, thus describes her:
"Next unto her sanctity and holiness of life, it is meet that our English housewife be a woman of great modesty and temperance, as well inwardly as outwardly; inwardly as in her behaviour and carriage towards her husband, wherein she shall shun all violence of rage, passion, and humour, coveting less to direct than to
