Transcriber's note: Minor spelling inconsistencies, mainly hyphenated words, have been harmonized. Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. Obvious typos have been corrected. A "List of Illustrations and Diagrams" has been added so as to include the illustrations and diagrams not in the "List of Plates." Please see the end of this book for further notes. [Illustration: HEALTH AND BEAUTY IN MODERN TOWN PLANNING A street in the Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, N.W.] SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND THROUGH THE CENTURIES BY H. R. WILTON HALL Library Curator, Hertfordshire County Museum; Sub-Librarian, St. Alban's Cathedral; Author of "Hertfordshire: a Reading-book of the County" &c. BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED 50 OLD BAILEY LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY 1920 PREFACE In the course of the last ten or twelve years there has been a very marked development of interest in local history, and with it a desire not merely to "know more about the past" but a desire to appreciate intelligently the real value of those things, still to be seen, which speak of the gradual building up of the social life of the Nation, which rightly handled will play an important part in the work of reconstruction pressing upon us now, with its enormous difficulties and anxieties. Much has been done in schools of all grades to utilize the material at hand--the things which can be seen in the locality--as an educational medium, opening out great possibilities for the development of curiosity, interest, personality, and power of initiative on the part of the children which, though it may not seem to yield any immediate results which can be appraised by examination methods on the lines of any "Syllabus", are "neither barren nor unfruitful". Just now there are a number of schemes in the air for the institution of "Regional Survey" in schools, and a tendency amongst enthusiasts to get it put into school time-tables as a Syllabus Subject. However admirable the intention may be, and is, it is not as a Subject, but rather as a method in education, that its real value lies. "Regional Study" embraces so many subjects and they cannot be enterprised all at once, either by children or by anybody else. This little book is intended to be suggestive, to stimulate interest and an intelligent curiosity, but it may serve as a foundation for conversational or more formal lessons and investigations under the teacher's direction, as his personal predilection, opportunities, taste, and judgment shall determine. In the work of "Regional Study", where carried on with discrimination and with a commonsense apprehension of "relative values" it may be truly said:-- "Nothing useless is, or low; Each thing in its place is best; And what seems but idle show, Strengthens and supports the rest". H. R. W. H. HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY MUSEUM, ST. ALBAN'S, _September, 1919_. CONTENTS