SOCIAL PORTRAIT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 932, 21 June 1957, Page 13

SOCIAL PORTRAIT

ENGLISH PEOPLE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, by Dorothy Marshall; Longmans, Green and Co., English price 30/-. GREAT advance in mechanical invention during the second half of the 18th century brought about farreaching changes in the social structure of England. Dorothy Marshall examines the scope and results of these changes in what she describes as a "background book." A selection of items from the mass of information provided may serve to give some idea of the vast range of subjects embraced by her inquiry. Boarding fees at Harrow in 1775 amounted to no more than £7, In spite of the elaborate class distinctions ruling in those days, the younger sons of gentlemen were often apprenticed to some trade. Apothecaries, whose original function had been merely the selling of drugs, were beginning to give medi- | cal advice as well. Sanitation, especially in large towns, was practically non-ex-istent, and the emptying of householders’ privies presented an apparently | insoluble problem. The idleness of the poor was greatly deplored by the rich, who felt that "the provision of workhouses . . . would at once provide an opportunity for the industrious and deprive the lazy of an excuse." The ordinary working man’s diet, the clothes he wore, his struggle to earn a living, made more difficult by progressive enclosures of common land, are discussed here with facts and figures to support each statement. In this study no section of the community is allowed to steal the show. (continued on next page)

BOOKS (continued from previous page)

There is no tendency to dwell upon the affairs of a glamorous aristocracy; all classes receive due measure of attention. With her ponderously artificial style Dorothy Marshall does not make things easy for the reacer, but for those who prefer instruction to entertainment she has produced an admirably balanced account of an entire society.

R. M.

Burdon