THE QUEEN'S SUBJECTS AT PLAY--ACTIVE OR SEDENTARY
The new Court as head of the old society. Social transformations which
would most strike one revisiting the London West End in 1897. Going to
Court. Multiplication of clubs in St James's and Pall Mall, but
disappearance of gambling clubs. Socially transforming effects of the
Parliamentary Committee in 1844. Then and now. 'Play and Pay' betting
modified by its recommendations. Necessary connection between horse
breeding and horse racing. Cricket--then and now. The new football or
the old prize ring. Indoor amusements. Transformation, by development,
of Victorian chess. The men and events which have made it what it is.
Ladies' drawing room work. Middle class English ladies the great
readers nowadays. Fashionable needlework of all kinds from 1837-97.
The transformed society of the Victorian age may be regarded as a new
combination of old elements. The interests, and the pursuits represented
in it have always existed. The grouping and the mutual relations are the
only novelty. Even during the Prince Consort's time, the Court had begun
to be the federal head of the many coloured corporation which, under the
name of society, has superseded the 'genteel' or 'polite' world of earlier
days. That all liberal professions or worthy pursuits should find their
natural head among the representatives of the Crown was the central idea
of the Queen's husband. So far as the opportunities of a short life
allowed, he translated this notion into practice. It was reserved for his
eldest son to witness, and himself largely to promote, the full
realization of Prince Albert's purpose. The result is that to-day not only
diplomacy or soldiership, statemanship or wealth, sends its envoys to a
transformed Court. There is no sort of human achievement or distinction
that, directly it has won the approval of the people, lacks the
recognition, personal or vicarious, of the people's rulers.
Each of the callings noticed in the present survey, clerical or lay, sends
its deputies to Marlborough House or Sandringham in the same way that
diplomacy and arms are represented at a Royal drawing room or levee. For a
reflection of the chief currents of thought, of the favourite pursuits of
the most absorbing interests and influences of Victorian England, the
historian will have to consult the list of visitors to the Heir Apparent's
house, or read the account of his doings. The Prince Consort was attacked
by the Tories in 1846 because he listened to Peel's speeches on Free Trade
from the Peers' Gallery in the Commons. In 1897 the Prince of Wales
attends daily the State trial of South African celebrities at Westminster,
and is praised for a fresh proof of his interest in Colonial affairs. No
artist or author; no sailor, soldier, cricketer or actor, makes his mark
upon his age without some tribute from a popular Court to prowess that is
already a household word with the multitude.
Thus in its relations to those aspects of national life in which the
people itself is most interested, the Court of to-day has been transformed
into a federal head of the entire motley system. If the competition of
individuals for personal recognition in the highest quarter sometimes
embitters social life, that is not the Royal patron's fault.
Among the changes which would make the fashionable quarter of the town
most difficult of recognition to-day by one who knew it only in the early
years of the reign, is the multiplication of joint stock palaces called
clubs, which are really co-operative homes for poor gentlemen.[114] The
absence of the gaming houses of which Crockford's was only one among many;
and the widely representative quality of the ladies and gentlemen whom our
stranger might notice driving to Court on a presentation day during the
season is as visible as the disappearance of the West End hells.[115]
In the seventh year after the Queen's accession, the House of Commons'
Committee on Gambling began its sittings. It was presided over by Lord
Palmerston. Among the witnesses it examined were men well known in every
section of London or of national life. Trainers, jockeys, magistrates,
policemen, all contributed to the remarkable picture of contemporary life
and manners, contained between the covers of this document.
The state of the law as regards gambling was then, as now, obscure.
Magistrates shrank from giving constables a chance of confirming their
suspicions as to houses of shy-looking exterior; but generally in the
streets off St James's nearly every third house was a place of play.
Between Pall Mall and the east side of Leicester Square, some 36 gambling
houses were proved to exist. At Crockford's itself the tables were
honestly managed. It was the perversion of Crockford's example which did
the harm. Thus, some half dozen years before the Great Exhibition,
Crockford's ceased to exist; its humbler but more mischievous imitators
were also weeded out. An improved epoch began. Before the twentieth
anniversary of the Accession, the building at the top of St James's Street
described by Disraeli in the first chapter of _Sibyl_ had become under the
style of 'The Wellington' the best restaurant of the kind then, or for
many years, known to London. Thereafter, indeed, it reverted to a club,
the 'Argus' first, and then the 'Devonshire;' but a gambling club no more.
The periodical flutter caused by rumoured scandals, is itself evidence of
the improved standard of social morals. One other result of this
Enquiry[116] is probably felt among sporting persons to-day.
Lord Palmerston's Committee pronounced against play and pay betting, that
is, the system under which the bet is valid whether the horse runs or
not. In betting at the post for ready money the bet is off to-day if the
horse does not start. Not only is the Turf more popular than it ever was
before. It binds sections of the polite world more closely together than
they are held by any political or ecclesiastical cement. It is thus a
social interest of the first importance which a prudent statesman makes a
point of conciliating not less than he would the clergy, the lawyers, or
even the licensed victuallers. The constantly increasing encouragement
given to the Turf by men who have no personal end to serve, and whose
refinement must be revolted by the aspect of many of its accessories,
justifies the conclusion that the racecourse is indispensable to the breed
of horses.
From the Plantagenet and Tudor period the best horses in England were
raced; they were made better that they might be raced more successfully.
Hence the wise introduction, for beauty as the crown of strength, of Arab
blood, especially under Charles II. and onwards. The early excellence of
stallions followed. The sires of racers begot also English hunters, so
that the best horses in the hunting field to-day derive their pedigrees on
one side from the founders of the best racing blood. The general utility
animal, seen in carriages and cabs, is bred in the same way but has just
fallen below the hunter level. Thus, without thoroughbred sires, the
excellence of our horses generally must decline. The expense of breeding
the best quadrupeds of the stud book is so heavy that without the
stimulus of racing, the stock could scarcely be maintained.
The long distance plates on the Turf dating back to the time of Anne have
been replaced by the Queen's premium stallions, periodically on view at
Islington, and at the disposal, for a small fee, of horse owners
throughout the country. These fine animals are almost all the winners of
races. The necessary expense of racing suggests the usefulness, as in an
earlier chapter was seen, of the sporting plutocrat to the Turf, and hence
to the national quadruped generally. Unless the sport gave to its
followers some sort of social diploma, the wealthy breeders whom the mart
has furnished to the racecourse, from the earliest of the Rothschilds down
to the latest of the Hirsches or the Maples, would scarcely have given
time and money to their own pleasure as well as to the country's good.
To pass to the horse in another aspect, the conjectural estimate of packs
of hounds at the beginning of the hunting season in 1837 was 28. At a
corresponding date in 1897 the ascertained figures were 61. This does but
faintly indicate the change undergone by the national sport. Not even John
Leech's pictorial satire in _Punch_ could deter the Cit from the hunting
field, or discourage him from educating himself into a more than passable
rider across country. Capel Court has or had a cry of beagles of its own.
At longer distances from London than the Surrey pastures 15 per cent. of
the wearers of pink and buckskin wear on ordinary days the glossy uniform
of the brokers and jobbers of the House. A little earlier in the year,
these sportsmen were tramping after partridges by the early September
twilight that they might be at their business in the City before the West
End sits down to breakfast. This is a specimen of what goes on throughout
the kingdom. On the outskirts of all great cities, co-operative shootings
are as common as co-operative stores.
Other pastimes are too much in daily evidence to need many words or to
allow the apprehension that the male acceptance of the feminine lawn
tennis implies any degeneration in the Victorian race of youth. The
addition of Scotch golf to English games, and the vast improvement as to
pace, style, and time shown by crews at Henley or on the Metropolitan
waters in 1897 over 1837 may dispel any fears of a deterioration of
youthful stamina or of muscular zeal. Whether as regards its own surface
or the meadows which it waters, the Thames in the South, like the Tyne or
Mersey in the North, is still a river that feeds the sea of English
manhood.
As regards cricket, it is impossible to compare ancient or modern players,
batsmen or bowlers; so entirely have the conditions of the game been
transformed. The high scoring of the later Victorian days which would have
amazed earlier players seems due, first, to the vastly improved pitches,
making as they do, almost any bowling fairly easy; secondly, to the great
increase of good players, consequent of course upon the evergrowing
popularity of the game. The first of these facts, the improved pitches,
explains why the difficult shooter that before 1875 was so fatal to
batsmen at Lord's has now become a very rare ball. Although the power of
the bat seems to-day greater than that of the ball, the ground had no
sooner become easy and overhand bowling allowed, than the utmost was done
to equalize the attack and defence. Hence the bowling is much straighter
than of old; long leg and long stop no longer have a place among the
fieldmen, and the absence of long leg hitting and fielding makes the game
less interesting for spectators; still the grounds improve, the scoring
consequently increases. The feature which has transformed the bowling
seems to be that now the best bowlers are fast with a break even on a hard
wicket: whereas formerly they only broke on a sticky wicket. The still
astounding power of the best bowlers is shown by the havoc they make when
they get a sticky wicket to bowl on. In fine weather there is no serious
obstacle to the stupendous scoring; the batting is of a more monotonous
type than it used to be, and the play therefore less interesting to
onlookers.
Here, as elsewhere, individual influence has been a transforming power.
Between 1871 and 1883 when W. G. Grace was at his best, no fast bowler
could do anything with him. Slow bowling, therefore, was adopted to keep
down his run getting. As this batsman has taken his place among the
veterans the old swift style has come into vogue once more. In the opinion
of the greatest experts of modern cricket, as W. G. Grace is the most
formidable bat, so Richardson of Surrey first, after him, Spofforth, the
Australian, in his middle career, have been the most difficult bowlers.
The popularity of football, whose vogue is a recent Victorian growth is
shown by the collection of 50,000 spectators at the Crystal Palace, to
witness a final tie for the Association Cup. Admissions of 20,000 and
30,000 are daily events in all great towns; the money thus paid by the
public has created the professional football player. Hence many questions
on which authorities differ. The subject has divided the different
football unions: the northern Rugby clubs having seceded to found a union
of their own. The feuds among football legislators are thus as varied and
violent as the forms of muscular ferocity which the game itself allows.
That these can be minimized by a strenuous and keen referee is probable;
that when this functionary is slack, professional football resembles the
revival of the prize ring in disguise is admitted.[117] Football may seem
to the mere observer almost to have become a misnomer, when carrying the
ball is part of the game; when hands, shoulders, chest, fists, are nearly
as active as legs and feet.
Among indoor games chess is that which has been transformed the most
during our age. Here something may be attributed to the example of the
Prince Consort, who was not, however, an invincible player, but more to
his youngest son, the lamented Prince Leopold, who did a good deal to
popularize the game. In point of universal popularity chess will never
quite rival whist or billiards. It lacks the element of chance in the
first, and the display of physical skill in the second which must ever
chiefly fascinate men. The chess player, too, when well matched, uses more
brain power than the whist player. Each has to keep the judgment
perpetually alert. But the conventions in chess are left behind when the
opening has been matured into the mid game, while the conventions of whist
relieve the whist player continuously during the progress of the rubber.
Throughout the whole of this age chess has grown in favour among us. In
most of our large towns for every chess club existing in 1847, there are
ten or fifteen in 1897. On the Queen's accession English chess players
still felt the stimulus given to the game in London from 1780-95 by Andre
Francois Danican, commonly known as 'Philidor.' Hence may be dated the
earliest English chess clubs, and the scientific study of the game. Three
years before the Victorian age began, a series of matches was played by
the English Alexander MacDonell and the French Labourdonnais. In 1844, the
English Howard Staunton defeated the French St Amant in a match which
decided the championship of the world. This, followed in 1847 by the
publication of Staunton's _Chessplayer's Handbook_, brought hundreds more
to the board.
Another agency in the same direction was the presence in Europe of a young
American, Paul Morphy. His play was, upon the whole, the finest the world
has ever seen. He crossed the Atlantic in 1857; at the close of 1858 he
had beaten every European noteworthy enough to try conclusions with him.
The effect of these triumphs, won by a youth of twenty-one in the most
difficult of all games, was electrical. No considerable town in the
country was without its chess clubs. Nor is the influence more recently
exercised by J. H. Blackburne less remarkable in its way. His skill in
playing games without the board, exhibited in all parts of the United
Kingdom, has raised up many imitators, but scarcely an equal.
With these great players there have come also fresh scientific discoveries
in the conduct of the game itself; the first of these as to time was the
Scotch Gambit, partially anticipated indeed by Italian writers in the last
century, but owing its new name and later vogue to its adoption by the
Scotch players in the correspondence match between Edinburgh and London,
1824 to 1826 and subsequently improved upon in 1837. About that latter
year, too, W. D. Evans, of the Royal Navy, invented the Gambit which now
bears his name. Stimulated by these British achievements, the Austrian
players hit upon the Vienna or Queen's Knights game which was first made
famous during the tournament of 1873. In this country, most of these
advances have been sensibly helped by the movement that the _Illustrated
London News_ began in 1842, which the whole press has since followed, of
publishing chess problems.
An exhibition of feminine needlework justly forms a feature in the
Commemoration shows of the period. In 1837 the decorative functions of the
needle were oftener shown by English women of the middle classes than by
acknowledged fashion leaders. In 1867 it is the middle class ladies who do
most of the reading and the ultra-fashionable ones who do most of the
fancy work. What transformations has this latter passed through? In 1857,
as it had been in 1837, the mode was to work patterns for cushions and
screens with Berlin wool on canvas. The squareness of the cross stitch was
fatal to artistic effect; the covering thus decorated went out of fashion
soon after Rowland's Macassar hair oil ceased lavishly to be used, and
heads no longer gleamed with unguent. The frame work was succeeded by that
known to the Afghans as 'boning,' and to Britons as crochet, while chairs
and sofas still needed some protection from locks not yet wholly
unanointed. Even the crochet coverlets, tied with little pink ribbons,
began to disappear when people left their hair to nature. But the artistic
instinct was slowly helping forward this sort of work.
More popular than crochet had ever been, leather frames for pictures, cut
out of leaves copied from Nature, or the pinning down of fern leaves on a
soft cloth or silk began to be; for these Indian ink, used with a fine
brush made an effective background. Ruskin's gospel of following Nature
had not been preached in vain. Accomplished women like the late Lady
Marion Alford began to revive, with improvements of her own, the art of
embroidering flowers, plants, birds and butterflies in wool or silk; while
the stately arum lilies were used for screens, and gorgeous poppies for
curtains. Next came a renascence of lace work. Many amateurs produced
beautiful samples of pillow and point; but the work was trying to the
eyes, and competed unfairly with the poor professionals of Honiton or
Nottingham.
The early days of Ritualism popularized the copying of the borders of the
old painted missals and prettily occupied many drawing rooms. Oil painting
on pottery, wood, and glass came in during the early South Kensingtonian
period. All young ladies now were water colour artists, or busied
themselves with colouring panels and dados on their friend's walls. Brass
work was a later and not very long lived development. It was costly; it
was noisy; the long suffering male gradually rose up against it. Iron
work, the torturing into fantastic shapes of ductile strips of metal, was
a little more enduring; but it required too much accuracy and too many
instruments ever to be very popular. The beautiful glass painting in
churches of Lady Canning and Lady Waterford was admired rather than
reproduced.
Irish cabins supplied a modish industry to English drawing rooms in drawn
linen work. The principle of this seems to be hem stitching, or unbinding
work into the spaces left by the drawn threads. Poker work done within the
outline traced by this simple instrument on a wooden board, is practised
successfully by ladies of genius who could touch nothing without adorning
it, but is scarcely to be commended to bunglers or in school rooms.[118]