Читать книгу William Hogarth: The Cockney's Mirror - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 10

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Certain inconveniences were suffered by all classes alike; the houses were as dark, as shut in as the streets; anyone who wanted air and space had to go into the country. Not only was daylight recklessly excluded, but artificial illumination was poor. Wax candles, oil-lamps for the rich, mutton candles for the thrifty, rush-lights for the poor, all gave a beautiful light from a pictorial point of view, but these lovely, becoming rays, these entrancing shadows, were inconvenient, tiresome, labour-making and dangerous. In the winter, and after the sun had set, life moved in a twilit atmosphere, deepened in London by the constant pall of smoke from the coal fires and the fogs of the river valley.

The rooms were low, draughty; the furniture stiff, uncomfortable; carpets and tapestries were articles of luxury, as were china and silver; pewter and wood sufficed children, servants, and many modest households.