G.M Trevelyan - SHE - Chapter X
[alert-success] DEFOE'S ENGLAND
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[alert-primary] THE GOLDEN AGE OF QUEEN ANNE [/alert-primary]
[alert-primary] THE GOLDEN AGE OF QUEEN ANNE [/alert-primary]
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The period called Defoe’s England comprises the reign of Quen Anne from
1702 to 1714, the reign of George I, from 1714 to 1727, the
period of the Marlborough Wars, (1702 - 1712).
The account of Queen Anne’s
England and its everyday life was surveyed by Daniel Defoe. His report on his
opinion to his employer Robert Harley gives the exact information. Queen Anne
ruled England from 1702 to 1714. Her period is called as the Golden Age because
it was the age of great prosperity. Industry, agriculture, commerce, trade all
prospered. Daniel Defoe’s account pictured England as a prosperous country with
a healthy national life in town and country. England was wealthy even in time
of war.
Agriculture
In the reign of Anne and
George I, the peasants and the craftsman were flourishing. Good harvest and
cheap food were the characteristic feature of this era. Agriculture was
improved and thus wheat was produced in large quantity than the medieval times.
Wheat was the important article of food. Rye, barley, and oats were the other important
foods. During the reign of Queen Anne, a great interchange of agricultural
products was going on between the districts. Barley and bread were used in
Wales and Oats by Scotsmen.
i) Export of Corn
Free
trade was there between England, Wales, and Scotland. Favoured by this freedom,
the corn was exported between these lands, and the bounty was exported
overseas. The Midlands and Northern Anglia are the Cornlands.
ii) Improved Methods of
Agriculture
The spirit of scientific enquiry
and the Royal Society improved the common walk of life. Jethro Tull, introduced
new farming methods. Men of this age wanted to adopt new methods to increase
the value and the prosperity.
The New Aristocracy
The
country gentlemen were of many grades of wealth and culture. At the top stood
the Dukes, followed by the Squires, the Yeomen, the freeholders, and the
tenants. The Dukes were immensely rich and lived like princes. The Squire had
about two hundred or three hundred pounds of income for a year. The Yeomen were
numerous about one-eighth of the population. The difference between the
freeholders and the tenants were more political rather than economical. The
freeholder had the right to vote for the Parliament while the tenant farmers don’t.
Education
i)
Upper- Class Education
The
importance of Education was not appreciated during the reign of Queen Anne. A gentlemen of this time spent around one
percent of his income for education. There were only a few public schools like Eton,
Winchester and Westminster which were patronized by aristocrats. At the local
grammar school, the squire’s children, Yeomen, and shopkeepers’ children took
their education. Some were taught by a parson or in wealthier families by a
private Chaplin. In Schools the punishment was severe. Locke and Steele urged
that flogging was not the best method to impart knowledge and maintain
discipline.
ii) Women’s Education
Women’s Education was
totally neglected. The daughters of the aristocrats were taught to read and
write by their mothers. Only a few ladies could read Italian poets and some
were intelligent enough to read ‘The Spectator’. Nevertheless, wives and
daughters were intelligent advisers. Divorce was almost unknown. Only six divorces
were legalized during the twelve years of Queen Anne.
Social Evils
i)
Gambling and Drinking
Drunkenness
was the acknowledged national vice of Englishmen of all classes, though women
were not accused of it. Even Magistrates appeared on the bench with wine. Temperate
drinking was freely circulated by religious bodies and patriots. The upper class
got drunk on ale and sometimes on wine. Another social vice was gambling. Both sexes
gambled freely, the fine ladies and gentlemen even more than the country
Squires. In London, Bath and Junbridge Wells, the gambling table was the centre
of interest and immense sum of money changed hands over cards and dice. Tobacco
smoking was a common habit. A smoking parlor was set aside in some country
houses where men, women and even children smoked pipes. The taking of snuff
became general in England during the first year of Queen Anne’s reign.
ii) Duelling
Drinking and gambling
habits of society led to frequent duels of which many ended tragically. The survivor
was usually convicted and imprisoned. London and the country capitals were the
commonest scenes of such duels as Thackeray had immortalized in his novel Henry
Egmond.
ii) Fowling
The most usual sports were
taking fish, shooting and snaring birds. England was alive with game. Tracts
were open to any man who could buy a net or gun at setting a snare. Their love for field sports had led the people
to wander wide.
State of the Roads
The
roads were bad and in want of reconstruction or repair. In winter and bad
weather wheeled traffic did not attempt the road and riders start early in the morning.
To carry goods, sea and river traffic held a great advantage over road traffic.
Industry
Coal and woolen
industries were the major sources of income for the country. Coal mines were
owned by private men who had their own workshops and employees, apprentices and
journeymen to work for them. Lord Dartmouth and Wilkins were the most important
owners of coal mines. The mine-owners concentrated on amassing wealth and did
not pay any attention to the welfare of their workers. As proper safety
measures were not taken by the owners, many accidents of explosion occurred
claiming the lives of many numbers. In these workshops, paupers were taken as
employees and were treated badly and inhumanly. The days of the Industrial
Revolution were not far off. But yet neither the workers or the employers were
conscious of the rights and privileges of the workers. The Factory Act was to
come only a century later. The system of manufacture was domestic. Under the
Domestic System, the master craftsman in his house converted the raw materials
into finished products with the help of apprentices. There were many small
mines which functioned with less than four men, sometimes the mines were run
single-handedly.
Coffee Houses
Coffee-drinking was a common habit at least among the
wealthiest classes. From the reign of Charles II, the coffee house was the
centre of social life. In Queen Anne’s time there were as many as 500 coffee
houses in the city of London. The Tories, The Whigs, The Clergymen, Literary
men, Businessmen and all other groups had their separate coffee-houses where
they met and discussed all things under the sun but chiefly politics and
religion. Foreign visitors admired the freedom of speech enjoyed by the
Englishmen of the time.
Religion
The religious
activities of the period consisted of the establishment of many religious
societies and charity schools. The first object of these societies was to
promote a Christian life in individuals and families, to encourage Church
attendance, family prayers and Bible study. During the reign of Anne charity
schools were founded by the hundred all over England to educate the children of
the poor in reading, writing, moral discipline and the principles of the Church
of England. Another characteristic activity of the period was the working of
the society for the Reformation of Manners. Another society was the society for
the propagation of the Gospel.
The City of London
London was only
two miles away from the Parliament and Queen’s Court. It was the centre of
business. Raw materials were sent to London from all counters. The products
were made in London. The city contained more than a tenth of the country’s
population. The lower-class people lived in filthy conditions without
sanitation. The City of London enjoyed complete self-Government in an unusually
democratic form. The Court had lost its glamour because Queen Anne did not live
in Westminster always. She lived partly at Bath and partly at Windsor on
account of her illness. Horse-racing and cock fighting were common country
pastimes. Other useful sports like fishing, shooting and snaring birds also
remained popular. Cricket was played in its ancient form.
Thus the English social
life in Queen Anne’s period throbbed with life and enthusiasm. This creative
and alert spirit laid the basis for the Industrial Revolution of the succeeding
decades. The peace and prosperity of the country strengthened not only its
economy but also its national character.
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