Читать книгу William Hogarth: The Cockney's Mirror - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 7

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London was not safe after dark; not only did the sneak thief swarm, not only might the link boy hired to light the way be an accomplice of a footpad, but parties of young men of the better classes roamed about, bringing into contempt the ill-paid watchmen who alone represented law and order by their unavenged assaults upon them and indulging in violent pastimes that included savage attacks upon life and property.

Only those who could afford armed servants could venture abroad after dark, when the streets were infested with young rakes ready to beat a man to death, to roll a woman downhill in a barrel, to use sword, pistol or knife against the harmless and the defenceless passer-by, to smash windows and damage property by way of a frolic.

Coffee-houses were the scenes of more civilized forms of masculine amusement; these were used by various classes and served as clubs as well as eating-houses; here politics were discussed and the meagre newspapers of the day read; these last often contained offers of rewards for escaped negro slaves with collars on their necks or notices of slaves for sale.

Among the pleasanter diversions of the people were cricket and bowls, played on inn greens and village commons, football played in the streets, skating or sliding on ice, foot races and horse races.

Hunting, shooting and fowling were the luxuries of the well-to-do; all classes enjoyed bear-baiting, cock-fighting and such spectacles as 'a mad bull dressed up with fireworks all over him,' bulls with cats tied to their tails, wild bears and 'he-tigers;' they enjoyed the sight of all these being 'baited to death.'

All the education the poorest classes could hope for was from the charity schools, which could deal only with a small proportion of the destitute, the lower-middle classes had to rely on the dame-school or the hedgerow pedagogue; for those who could afford a little more there were grammar schools, private schools, the public schools, Westminster, Winchester, Harrow, St. Paul's, Eton, the City schools; for the wealthy the private tutor, the Continental tour, the University.

After reading, writing, elementary arithmetic, nothing was taught save the classics; to be a good Latinist was to be considered at the height of learning and culture.

Penmanship was highly valued and often carried to the perfection of a fine art.