SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND 1750-1850 BY F. J. FOAKES-JACKSON New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1916 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1916. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. ACADEMIAE HARVARDIANAE ET PRAESERTIM A. LAURENTIO LOWELL PRAESIDI PROFESSORSIBUSQUE EIS QUI FRATERNO AMORE HOSPITEM ACCEPERUNT CANTABRIGIENSIS CANTABRIGIENSIBUS HOC OPUSCULUM D.D. PREFACE This volume contains a course of Lowell Lectures delivered in Boston in March, 1916; and I take this opportunity of tending my thanks to the Lowell Institute for affording me the privilege of delivering them. I must also thank a most indulgent audience for their sympathetic attention. I desire particularly to thank several friends in England for assistance in the preparation of these lectures. In my investigations into the story of Margaret Catchpole, Mr. John Cobbold of Holywells, Ipswich, Mr. Edward Brooke of Ufford Hall, Suffolk, Mrs. Sylvester of Tonbridge, and the Curator of the Ipswich Museum, allowed me to see original documents of great interest; Mr. Barker of the _East Anglian Daily Times_ and Mr. Goodwin of Ipswich helped by searching the files of old newspapers for information. The Downing Professor of the Laws of England at Cambridge assisted with his advice on the subject of Dickens’ legal knowledge; and Mr. Stoakley of the Cambridge chemical laboratory contributed to the success of the lectures by his admirable reproductions of illustrative maps and pictures. Above all, I must express my gratitude to two ladies in America, who not only contributed to the pleasure of my visit by their unstinted hospitality, but did all in their power to save me from those pitfalls which beset every one who lectures in a strange country. Mrs. Barrett Wendell of Boston found time in the midst of her many useful avocations to hear several lectures before they were delivered, and to advise how they could be made more intelligible and acceptable to an American audience; and Mrs. Kirsopp Lake proved herself indefatigable not only in revising the lectures before they were delivered, but also in reading the proofs of this book. UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK, August, 1916. TABLE OF CONTENTS LECTURE PAGE I. LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ILLUSTRATED BY THE CAREER OF JOHN WESLEY 1 II. GEORGE CRABBE 42 III. MARGARET CATCHPOLE 81 IV. GUNNING’S “REMINISCENCES OF CAMBRIDGE” 126 V. CREEVEY PAPERS--THE REGENCY 168 VI. SOCIAL ABUSES AS EXPOSED BY CHARLES DICKENS 213