ABSTRACT
Dulness and a serious view of life seemed inseparable; recreations of allkinds were so many traps and engines set for the destruction of the soul; andto desire or seek for pleasure, reprehensible in the rich, was for the poor amere accusation of Providence and an opening of the arms to welcome the devil. A hundred years ago, however, before the country became serious, the people, especially in London, really had a great many amusements, sports, and pastimes. A respectable tavern is a very harmless place; the circle which meets there is the society of the workman: it is his life: without it he might as well have been a factory hand of the good old-time— such as hands were forty years ago; and then he would have made but two journeys a day— one from bed to mill, and the other from mill to bed. The theatre, the music-hall, the public-house, the Sunday excursion, the parks—these seem almost to exhaust the list of amusements.
