ABSTRACT
In 1848 Great Britain was nominally at peace, but it was a turbulent year. There was revolution in Berlin and at home the Chartist riots continued. The Irish famine was in full spate. Five thousand miles of railway lines had been built, a third of them already equipped with the electric telegraph. Powerful social changes were at work in the English shires; Britain was undergoing the massive changes that would make it the first country in the world to become more than half urban. Soap was taxed and most people did not wash very much. In rural southern counties such as Hampshire, the standard of living had not improved in a generation. Many families lived on a diet of bread, cheese and beer, and were dependent on the local parish rates to supplement their subsistence wages.
