_The History of England_, by T. B. Macaulay (1849-1851), Chapter
III. This famous chapter is still one of the best accounts of social
conditions in England at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning
of the eighteenth centuries.
_Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne_, by John Ashton, 1882. This is
the best account of dress, manners, amusements, travel, trade, and all
the details of social life; it is frequently referred to in the notes
of this volume.
_Good Queen Anne_, by W. H. D. Adams, 1886.
_England and the English in the Eighteenth Century_, by W. C. Sydney,
1891.
_Social England_, by H. D. Traill, Volume IV., 1895.
_London in the Eighteenth Century_, by Walter Besant, 1903. A
storehouse of curious and valuable information, with many especially
interesting illustrations from contemporary prints, drawings, and
portraits.
_The Popular History of England_, by Charles Knight (1859), Volume V.,
Chapters XXVI-XXX.
Thackeray's _Henry Esmond_--perhaps the most remarkable historical
novel in the language--represents with wonderful fidelity the very
atmosphere of the Queen Anne time.
But, above all, the student who wishes to gain a sympathetic
acquaintance with the life of this most interesting period, and to
enter into its spirit, should read more of its literature--especially
the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_, Swift's _Journal to Stella_, Pope's
_Satires and Epistles_, Gay's _Trivia_, and the _Letters_ of Steele,
Swift, Pope, and Bolingbroke.