buckets. On top of the tank was a hose that could spray water high.
London parishes were authorized to place upon the water pipes
underground stop-blocks of wood with a plug and firecocks to go into
such pipe at various distances so that there would be no loss in time in
digging down to the pipes to get water to fight fires. Parishes were
required to keep at known places, ladders and a large engine and a hand
engine to throw up water to extinguish fires including one leather hose
with socket fitting the plug or firecock, so that buckets would not be
needed. The Sun Insurance Company was incorporated for fire insurance in
1711. Insurance offices were authorized to employ watermen with poles,
hooks, and hatchets to be always ready at a call to extinguish fires.
No more than 12 sacks of meal, 12 quarters of malt, 750 bricks, or 1
chalder of coal per load on wagons or carts with wheels bound with
[narrow] iron tire are allowed within ten miles of London or
Westminster, or else forfeit one horse. This is to prevent decay of the
roads.
For every wagon and cart in London, there must be a person on foot to
guide it to prevent the maiming, wounding, and killing of people,
especially the old and children, when drivers ride on their wagons and
carts. Later, it was required that carts must display the name of the
owner and be registered. Still later, there was a penalty of 10s. for
not having a person on foot to guide any cart. Later still, in 1757, if
a new owner of a cart did not put his name thereon, he had to forfeit
40s., and the cart and horse could be seized and sold to pay the
forfeiture. Persons willfully obstructing passage on streets with empty
carts or barrels or pipes shall forfeit 5-12s. or do hard labor up to
one month. The justices of London assessed rates and made regulations
for carriage of goods. Certain houses and buildings were bought and
pulled down to widen several streets, lanes, and passages.
In 1774, persons driving cattle in London, whose negligence or improper
treatment of such cattle cause them to do mischief shall forfeit 5-20s.
or else go to a House of Correction for up to one month or be publicly
whipped.
The roads around London were neither very attractive nor very safe.
Along them was land covered with water from drains and refuse and dung
heaps. Hogs were kept in large numbers on the outskirts and fed on the
garbage of the town. Smoking brick kilns surrounded a great part of
London. In the brickyards vagrants lived and slept, cooking their food
at the kilns.
Queen Anne's drinking of tea made it a popular drink, but it was still
expensive. This habit improved health because to make tea, the water had
to be boiled before drunk. Breakfast included tea and bread and butter,
and later toast with melted butter. The rich also had coffee and
chocolate. The morning newspaper was often read at breakfast. The chief
dinner dishes were roast beef, roast mutton, boiled beef or pork, with
puddings and vegetables. Roast meat was still the basic diet of town and
country gentlemen. There were also fowls, tripes, rabbits, hares,
pigeons, and venison. Many elaborate sauces were made. The national dish
was the pudding, a compound of steak, kidney, larks, and oyster. Drinks
included ginger beer, lemonade, barley water, coffee, chocolate, tea,
and foreign wine. Port from Portugal was introduced about 1703, and rum
about 1714. Rum, made from sugar, first became popular as a medicine,
well-whisked with butter. Beer was drunk by the poorer and middle
classes. The poor could afford very little meat now, unlike 200 years
ago. Their standard fare was cheese, bread, and tea, the latter of which
was usually from used tea leaves bought from rich houses.
Households were smaller; a peer had a household of about 25-50. The
proportion of women in a household grew to one-third to one-half. Dinner
guests sat and were served in order of rank, with gentlemen on one side
of the table and ladies on the other. Later, a fashion came in to sit
alternately by sex. Dinner was in several courses and lasted a few
hours. Toasts might be made. It was bad manners to put one's elbows on
the table, to sniff the food, to eat too slowly or too quickly, to
scratch, spit, or blow one's nose at the table, or to pick one's teeth
with a toothpick before the dishes were removed. After dinner, the men
drank, smoked, and talked at the table. There was a chamber pot under
the sideboard for their use. Politics was a popular subject. The women
talked together in the drawing room. Later, the men joined the women for
tea and coffee. The evening often finished with card games, reading
newspapers, verse-making, fortune-telling, walks in the garden,
impromptu dancing, perhaps gambling, and supper.
The nobility and gentry became more mobile and now mixed together at
parties. At these afternoon parties, there were a variety of
simultaneous activities, instead of everyone participating in the same
activities together as a group. Guests could choose to engage in
conversation, news, cards, tea-drinking, music, dancing, and even go
into supper at different times. Sometimes a man other than her husband
escorted a lady to a party. Having lovers outside marriage was socially
accepted if discrete.
Single women were discouraged from thinking of their independent status
as desirable. Their single status was to be regarded as unfortunate.
Weddings took place in public in church instead of privately. There were
banns, or announcements, publicized before the wedding so that anyone
who knew of a reason why the marriage should not take place could speak
up. Brides wore a white silk or satin dress with a train. Over one third
of brides who were capable of having children were already pregnant when
they married. In 1753 a marriage statute required licenses to marry, the
consent of parents or guardians for minors to marry, the calling of
banns, and four weeks residence in the parish where the license was
given by bishop or other authority. These requirements addressed the
problems of the kidnapping of heiresses, prostitutes trapping unwary
youths after getting them drunk, and priests performing marriages
clandestinely and not in church, which required banns. Two witnesses to
the marriage were required to sign a certificate of marriage, which was
then to be registered in the parish books. Manufactured goods relieved
ladies from baking of bread, brewing, and spinning. So they often
visited with friends, wrote letters, embroidered, and supervised the
servants.
Funerals ceremonies started with socializing at the house with
refreshments, then going in a procession to the church for burial, and
finally returning to the house for more socializing.
It was possible for a woman-covert to be seized of land in fee simple
or in tail general or special to her separate use, free from control or
intermeddling of her husband.
Houses were warmed in winter by burning coal. Moderate homes had
tent-beds in use, with which cloth was hung on all four sides of the bed
from a light iron framework above the bed. The beds were warmed with a
warming pan heated in a fire before use. There were often bed bugs and
fleas. Everyone wore nightcaps to bed. Pewter tableware was used, but
the poor used tinware instead. Copper, brass, and iron pots and pans
were increasingly common.
Most towns had a regular market once or twice a week. In them, street
cleaning was still a responsibility of individual householders. Water
was still obtained from wells and pumps. There was no municipal
government as such. Public works were done by special commissions set up
for particular purposes, such as lighting, cleaning and paving the
streets, night watchmen, traffic regulation, removing nuisances, and
improving local amenities. Large towns had hospitals for the poor. In
the larger manufacturing towns, there were literary and philosophical
societies for debates and discussions. These put together libraries for
use of their members. Also in these large towns, there were booksellers'
shops, printing houses, weekly newspapers, playhouses, concerts, and
horseracing courses, the latter of which was mostly patronized by
gentlemen. Some private citizens of various towns followed the example
of London and obtained from Parliament the right to levy a house rate
for paving and lighting.
Towns tended to be known for certain specialties, such as seaside
holiday resorts, spas like Bath, cathedral towns, fashionable shopping
for gentry, and towns with certain industries like glass and china
manufacture, pinmaking, pottery, tanning, manufacture of linen, silk,
cotton, and the knitting trade. Certain towns were famous for certain
varieties of wool cloth. Before 1750, a town with more than 5,000
inhabitants was considered a large town. Shopkeeping was supplanting
fairs and markets. Certain industries were done on a large scale and
required workers to be at the same site, e.g. brewing and distilling;
building ships; printing fustians; making paper, soap from animal fat or
candles; coal mining, iron production, mining and smelting of tin and
copper, refining of salt, and digging of clay. Certain other industries
also required some kind of power or team work for their production, e.g.
refining sugar; finishing cloth; making bricks; glassmaking; manufacture
of ropes and sails, and processing of copper and brass into rods and
sheets. Often the manufacturer's house was surrounded by the many
cottages of his workers. There the wife and children usually were busy
carding and spinning. Putting out work and subcontracting were
widespread and created many small-scale capitalists. Workers' hours were
typically 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Though grammar schools were endowed for the education of local poor
boys, they sought fee-paying sons of gentlemen. They taught arithmetic
as well as reading and writing. Translation and reading of Latin was
still important, e.g. Aesop's Fables, Virgil, Cicero's Letters, Caesar's
Commentaries, Horace, Pliny, Juvenal, Ovid, Livy, and Plautus. The "Eton
Grammar" book replaced the "Royal Grammar" as the standard for Latin and
English grammar. The boys lived in boarding houses superintended by
"dames" or older boys. There were usually two boys to a bed. There was
bullying and initiation ceremonies such as tossing small boys up from a
held blanket or having younger boys run naked in the snow. There were
occasional rebellions by the boys and fights with the townspeople.
Flogging with a birch or caning with a rod until blood was drawn from
the bare buttocks was the usual punishment. There were some national
boys' boarding schools such as Eton, Winchester, and Westminster. In
these schools, boys could mix with sons of rich and powerful people,
thus establishing important connections for their adult life. But there
was more bullying of small boys by large boys at these schools and the
smaller boys became menial servants of their seniors. Occasionally there
were student riots. However, most grammar schools were not residential.
Because the grammar schools were limited to boys, many boarding schools
for girls were established. Tradesmen's daughters were often sent to
these to learn to act like ladies. Most upper class girls were taught,
at home or at school, English, writing, arithmetic, drawing, courtly
dancing, needlework, music, and French. Dissenting academies were
established for those who did not pass the religious tests of the
grammar schools. Pencils were now in use.
Sons of gentlemen usually took "The Grand Tour" of the continent before
going to university. These tours lasted for months or years, and always
included Paris and a Protestant French university. The students went in
groups with tutors. The chief purpose was now cultural, instead of
practical. On these tours there was often misbehavior such as drinking
and fighting. In 1720, Travelers Checks were developed for those on the
Grand Tour.
The universities began to teach science. The new professorships at
Cambridge University were: chemistry, astronomy, experimental
philosophy, anatomy, botany, geology, geometry, and Arabic. Ideas in
geology challenged the Bible's description of the creation of the world
and there was a controversy over the origin and nature of fossils. In
1715, a large pointed weapon of black flint was found in contact with
the bones of an elephant in a gravel bed in London. Oral and written
examinations began to replace disputations. Few professors lectured.
Dissenters were excluded from universities as well as from offices and
grammar schools. Oxford and Cambridge Universities were open only to
members of the Church of England, so other universities were established
for dissenters. They taught geography, mathematics, science, physics,
astronomy, mechanics, hydrostatics, and anatomy. At Oxford and Cambridge
and Harvard Universities, students in science were relegated to
different instructors, buildings, and degree ceremonies than students in
literature, who often looked down on them as socially and intellectually
inferior.
The Inns of Court had ceased to provide residence. The period of
education at law school at the Inns of Court was now reduced in 1760
from seven to five years for ordinary students and to three years for
graduates of Oxford or Cambridge Universities. The textbooks were:
"Doctor and Student" by Christopher Saint-German in 1518 and "Institutes
of the Laws of England" by Thomas Wood in 1720. Most landed families
tried to ensure that at least one member of the family in each
generation was educated at the Inns of Court after going to Oxford or
Cambridge. In 1739, attorneys formed a "Society of Gentlemen
Practitioners in the Courts of Law and Equity". In order to earn a
living, most attorneys had to attach themselves to some great patron and
serve his interests. So it was hard for an ordinary person to find an
impartial attorney or to find any attorney willing to contest a powerful
family.
The first encyclopedia came into existence in 1728. In 1740 was the
first public circulating library in London. Samuel Johnson put together
the first dictionary in 1755. It standardized spelling and
pronunciation. Then came dictionaries for the arts, sciences, and
commerce. There were histories with political biases such as the Earl of
Clarendon's "History of the Great Rebellion". Alexander Pope wrote witty
satire on human faults of the period such as "Rape of the Lock". Daniel
Defoe wrote "Robinson Crusoe", "Moll Flanders", and "The Poor Man's
Plea" protesting disparity of judicial treatment of rich and poor, for
instance for drunkenness. Henry Fielding wrote one of the first novels:
"Tom Jones". Joseph Addison wrote essays on social behavior. Jonathan
Swift wrote the satire on the times, "Gulliver's Travels". Samuel
Richardson wrote some of the first novels, such as "Clarissa"; he wrote
on values such as religious faith, moral virtue, and family closeness.
Catherine Macaulay started writing her weighty and impressive "History
of England". Many schoolmistresses wrote textbooks on a variety of
subjects. Poet and essayist Hester Chapone wrote "Letters on the
Improvement of the Mind". Elizabeth Carter wrote poetry and translated
Greek works; her work was published in "The Gentleman's Magazine".
Hannah More wrote the play "The Inflexible Captive". The diaries of
Caroline Girle Powys Daniel told of her extensive travels in the nation,
and the various life styles of polite society she visited. Defoe's
newspaper was the first great political journal. He claimed that the
people have a right to control the proceedings of Parliament. Essayists
like Richard Steele, who introduced the periodical essay in his
newspaper, and Joseph Addison, in his newspaper, wrote in a
conversational style about the social life around them and the thoughts
and behavior of common men and women in a light and good-humored way.
They separated humor from the old-style farce and gave it taste and
gentility. And with this came a moderation, reserve, and urbanity in
matters of religion, politics, and society. Religious issues even became
a matter of indifference. Fairies, witches, astrology, and alchemy were
no longer taken seriously by educated men. Tales of fairies, witches,
ghosts, and miracles were deemed appropriate for children. Childrens'
stories were becoming a distinct literary form. Nursery rhymes included
"Hush-a-bye baby on the tree top" and the five little piggies. "Mother
Goose's Melody" was published in 1765. There were picture books for
children such as Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty.
Craftsmen made small models of their wares, such as dolls' china, dolls'
furniture, silver, and flat lead soldiers. Babies had rattles and
teething rings.
In 1710 copyrights for books was given for 14 years, renewable for
another 14 years. Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad and Odyssey
made him financially independent. He collected advance payments from
subscribers who would be listed in the book. A new book industry emerged
in London with booksellers as master manufacturers who employed writers,
authors, copyers, and subwriters. Booksellers sold books of sermons,
histories, political and literary satires, literary criticism, and
dictionaries. There was a growing popularity of novels. Books were
expensive to buy. Regular magazines on the new and strange were
published. There were three daily, six weekly, and ten thrice yearly
newspapers. Newspapers increased in number from 8 founded in 1700 to a
total of 25 in 1727. By 1753, there were over a million throughout the
country. Workmen usually began their day by reading a newspaper at a
coffee house.
Authors of books which have been registered at the Stationers Hall had
the sole liberty of printing and reprinting such book for 14 years.
Others who printed or sold or published such forfeited the books and
paid one penny for each sheet found in their custody, 1/2 to the Queen
and 1/2 to the suer. The printer had to give a copy of each book printed
to the Company of Stationers, the Royal Library, the libraries of the
Oxford and Cambridge universities, and certain other libraries.
In 1775, the two universities in England, the four universities in
Scotland, and the several colleges of Eton, Westminster, and Winchester
were given in perpetuity a copyright in books given or bequeathed to
them.
The British Museum was incorporated to hold the collections of Robert
Cotton of manuscripts, books, records, coins, and medals and of Hans
Sloane, which contained rare books, coins, precious stones, pictures,
plants, and mathematical instruments and had been left to the public.
Italian opera was introduced in 1706 by Georg Handel on his visit to
England. His music became the standard music of Georgian England. The
Academy of Ancient Music was founded in 1710. It set the standard of
selection and performance. In existence were the violin (including ones
made by Stadivari), viola, cello, double bass, oboe, trumpet, clarinet,
bassoon, trombone, horn, flute, harp, organ, harpsichord, in which the
strings were plucked, and piano, in which the strings are struck by
little hammers. Orchestras had at least thirty members. Many hymns were
written.
Painting by artists developed. Gentlemen had portraits painted of their
horses and dogs as well as of family. Joshua Reynolds painted the wealth
and beauty of England. Painters such as Gainsborough did landscapes and
dramatic history paintings too, but neither of these sold as well as
portraits. Scenery was painted for the theater. Places of business had
signs painted which portrayed animals. Coaches were painted with
mythological creatures and such. Gentlemen collected antique statuary
and painting, such as by Rembrandt and Rubens. In 1711 an academy of
painting was founded, which included women painters. The first public
exhibition of paintings was in 1760. The Society of Artists was formed
in 1761 and incorporated by royal charter in 1765. This differentiated
them from the Painter-Stainers Company of face painters, coach painters,
and house painters. The Royal Academy of London was founded in 1768 to
merge all private academies and societies into one official body and to
recognize the best artistic work. Joshua Reynolds was its first
president. It was at first financed by the king. Under George I,
sculptors became distinct from masons. They did monuments and portrait
busts of the royal family, nobles, and great men. From Italian
influence, Palladian architecture came into vogue. It was typified
externally by a panoramic look achieved by horizontal lines, balanced
alternatives of plain wall and openings, and portico with a heavy
pediment like the front of a Roman temple. Stucco was often used to
plaster housefronts, flute columns, and ornament pediments. Architects
took students. Designers of engraved, etched, and historical prints were
given the sole right to print them for 14 years. Copiers had to forfeit
5s. per print.
Foreigners were now interested in learning about English life,
philosophy, and opinion. They learned English to read English literature
such as Shakespeare. No longer were France and Italy the only centers of
culture and influence on other nations. By 1713, England was the leading
sea power by far.
The Royal Society was still the principal focus of scientific activity.
Issac Newton was its President for several years and drew in more
foreigners. Its members were mathematicians, chemists, botanists,
physicians, engineers, authors, poets, and theologians. Papers given
there generated much discussion at its meetings. Newton opined that
small particles attract each other by some force in a similar way that
large bodies attracted each other. This force in immediate contact was
exceedingly strong and performed chemical interactions, but at greater
distances had no effect. Also there were local associations and
societies. There were learned journals such as "Philosophical
Transactions".
Drovers bought cattle in the countryside, drove them to big towns, and
sold them to fattening graziers or fatted them themselves. Then they
were driven into town and sold to the wholesale butcher, who sold the
carcass to the retail butcher, the hides to the tanner, and the bones to
the glue maker. Flocks of geese were also driven into towns, after their
feet were given a protective covering of tar. There were also middlemen
wholesalers for cheese, butter, cloth, and iron.
There was a rage of distemper among the cattle so serious that to
prevent its spread, the king was authorized by Parliament to make
regulations for prohibiting the removal or sale of cattle and for the
burial of distempered cattle. Later, the king was authorized to prohibit
the killing of cow calves. No one was to sell any ox, bull, cow, calf,
steer, or heifer until he had possession of such for forty days or else
forfeit ten pounds, Later, the king was authorized to regulate the
movement of cattle from one place to another.
The main industry of the country was still agriculture. In the
countryside, about half the arable land was under the open field system,
in which land was cultivated in common. Enclosures of land were still
taking place. The enclosures were now done by statutory commissions to
ensure equitable allotments.
Agricultural improvements came first to enclosed land, which comprised
about half of the agricultural land. In the 1733, Jethro Tull published
a book about his 1701 invention of the seed-drill to first pulverize the
soil for cultivation without manure and then to deposit seed at a
uniform depth in regulated quantities and in rows instead of being
thrown haphazardly. Also explained was the horse-hoe to stir the soil
about the roots of the plants to preserve moisture, promote aeration,
admit warmth, and destroy weeds. There were more horses than oxen in use
now in the fields. The horse-hoe was first used by large independent
farmers on enclosed land. Also invented was a threshing machine with a
set of sticks to replace hand threshing with flails. Under-drainage as
well as irrigation was practiced. Lord Townshend alternated turnips,
grasses, and grain in his fields, and thus provided winter food for his
cattle. The two-field crop rotation with fallow periods was often
displaced by the three-field system rotating grain crops, legumes, and
fallowness. Independent farming gave rise to the improvement of breeds
of livestock by selective breeding.