Many People Say Those Were The Days—Or Were They?

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 34, 3 February 1939, Page 12

Many People Say Those Were The Days—Or Were They?

Penetrating Light Shed On The Great Era Of The Victorians

OLLECTORS of Victoriana cannot aftord to overlook a new contribution, ‘‘Home: A Victorian Vignette,’ by Robert Harling. This shrewd and impartial observer has waded through countless works of the nineteenth century, books of poetry, games, architecture, manners and morals, furnishing-every-thing that sheds a light on the Victorian scene as it really was. Incredible Ameestors The resulting "vignette," delightful word, makes fascinating reading. One gets a clearer vision of those almost incredible ancestors who laid the foundations of our lives today; their untiring moralising, their smugness, their shrewd eye for business, their industry, their vitality, their love of comfort, their social injustice, their pomposity, their hypocrisy, their wealth and their soul-destroying poverty; these qualities emerge before the fascinated reader’s eye in curious juxtaposition. The first section deais with The House; in what architectural manners did these Victorians live? These were the great days of "villas," from the large, ornate country and suburban dwellings disguised as Gothic’ castles, to the straight-up-and-down ‘"semidetached" villas that emerged upon a complacent world. Royal example set a seal of approval on these activities with Albert and Victoria building Balmoral for their own home, and a thousand Englishmen following suit for pleasure or profit. Miniature castles and castellated villas expressed ‘the Victorian’s supreme taste in building.

Under a very different scheme came- The Dwellings of the Poor. "Model" rural cottages were built in pairs, semi-detached being the great Victorian ambition, with unplastered walls, and a pump in the garden to supply water to the two houses. Less "model" cottages used the village pump. Poor city-dwellers usually lived in single rooms costing from two to four shillings a week. In homes where the worker earned less than 20 shillings a week, as was usual, whole families lived in one room and several families occupied small tenement dwellings. Accidents to children on unsafe stairways in crowded tenements were a commonplace, noted in many contemporary records of philanthropic societies-but never in the Courts of Law. The poor were there to be moralised over and sweated to swell the growing middle and upper-class prosperity. it is interesting to note the detailed household accounts of the period, to see that a diet of meat and bread and pastry was usual, and that a man earning £250 a year could, and did, keep a wife and two servants. A delightful chapter on furnishing the Victorian house follows, with directions from a dozen contemporary sources on everything from colour-schemes to curtainings. This part of the book is fully illustrated with engravings of pieces of furniture that would well baffle the modern eye, ‘and lead one to wonder what sort of people could have invented them, let alone used them. Much was expected of Victorian daughters, and bearded, whiskered gentlemen outdid each other. in producing books for the guidance of "young females." Less effort was made for, or expecied of, young males.

_ "*The Young Lady’s Book,’ for example, summed up these ‘demands in a chapter on Moral Deporiment. ’Piety, integrity, for. titude, charity, obedience, consideration, sincerity, prudence, activity, and cheerfulness, with the amiable qualities which arise from them, may, we presume, nearly define those moral proper. ties called for in the daily conduct and habitual deportment of young ladies." Evenings at home receive the author’s careful attention, and a typical collection of games and pastimes has been gathered from a variety of sources to enliven the more abandoned’ evenings when "rational conversation,’ needlework and making penwipers did not quite suffice. Instructive games were, of course, favourite with the parents and authors of books of games for the young, with Anagrams, Charades, Cards, Conundrums, Enigmas, Puzzles, Rebuses, Transpositions and Riddles, ete. as light comic relief, "But dominating all other recreations for evenings at home was the game of Charades which, as every schoolboy knows, ‘is a poetical or other composition founded upon a word, each syllable of which constitutes a noun, and the whole of which word constitutes another noun of a somewhat different meaning from those supplied by its separate syllables." ("The Family Friend," 1850). Wining Amd Dining Wining and Dining makes interesting reading and we find exact instructions as to how to give a tea-party: (a) informal, (b) formal, (c) in the garden, (d) with gentlemen present, and so on. The food did not greatly concern the Victorian hostess, hut the precise ritual of serving made or marred her as an entertainer. The lady whose parlourmaid asked: "Will you take tea or coffee, ma’am?" instead of simply "Tea or coffee, ma’am?" could only hang her head in shame: and as for the hostess who allowed a butler. or footman to pour out tea, instead of the prescribed "upper female-ser-vants," this hapless wight should give up entertaining altogether. The reader who digs into "Wome: A Victorian Vignette" will find amusement and instruction in every other line-enough to. make him rather more appreciative of the age of elastic freedom in

which he lives.-

M.

M.

"Home: A Victorian Vignette." Robert Harling. Constable, London. Our copy from the publisher.