Social life in England, 1750-1850Foakes-Jackson, F. J. (Frederick John)
History
Social life in England, 1750-1850
Foakes-Jackson, F. J. (Frederick John)
England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century; England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Eustick who was charged with executing
the warrant had the sense to see the indecency of arresting such a
man to serve in the navy as a common seaman. He conducted Mr. Wesley
to Dr. Borlase’s door and told him he had done his duty and that his
prisoner was free to depart. Wesley’s description of the event is
characteristic. Mr. Eustick was visited by him in order to be taken to
Dr. Borlase’s to be pressed into the army.
“I went thither, and asked, ‘Is Mr. Eustick here?’ After some pause
one said ‘Yes’; and he showed me into the parlour. When he came down
he said ‘O Sir will you be so good as to go with me to the doctor’s?’
I answered ‘Sir I came for that purpose.’ ‘Are you ready Sir,’ I
answered, ‘Yes.’ ‘Sir I am not quite ready, in a little time, in a
quarter of an hour I will call upon you.’ In about three-quarters of an
hour he came and finding that there was no remedy, he called for his
horse and put forward to Dr. Borlase’s house; but he was in no haste
so we were an hour and a quarter riding three or four measured miles.
As soon as he came into the yard he asked a servant, ‘Is the Doctor at
home’ upon whose answering ‘No Sir he is gone to Church;’ he presently
said ‘Well Sir I have executed my commission. I have done Sir; I have
no more to say.’”
Not that Wesley was not in serious danger at times, especially in
Cornwall. Once at Falmouth the house was filled with privateersmen.
Only a wainscot partition separated him from the mob. “Indeed to all
appearances our lives were not worth an hour’s purchase.” When the
door was broken down he came forth bareheaded (“For I purposely left
off my hat that they all might see my face”). His calmness saved him;
for though countless hands were lifted up to strike or throw at him
yet they were “one and all stopped in the midway so that I had not
even a speck of dirt on my clothes!” Ferocious as were the British
mobs of this period they were capable of generous sentiments and
chivalrous admiration for courage. The people were often set on Wesley
by the gentry and, to their shame be it said, by some of the clergy.
The excuse, both in Cornwall in 1745 and in Newcastle, was that the
Methodist societies were with the Pretenders. “All the gentlemen in
these parts say,” Wesley was told, “that you have been a long time in
France and Spain, and are now set hither by the Pretender; and that
these societies are to join him.”
It is scarcely necessary to do more than allude to the extreme
brutality of the amusements of people in England in the eighteenth
century. Dog fighting, bear baiting, bull baiting, cock fighting,
were universal and, as we may see from Hogarth’s pictures, cruelty to
animals was universal. On one occasion a baited bull was turned loose
to interrupt a congregation assembled to hear Wesley preach. One of the
ringleaders of the mob at Walsall who ended by taking the part of the
Methodists was a noted prize-fighter in a bear garden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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