[Anon.], ‘Popular Amusements In Large Cities’, Scottish Review (1861)

Among the many interesting and important questions connected with the social wellbeing of the people, that which refers to amusements is deserving of careful and earnest attention. Mind and body both require relaxation, and must suffer injury if kept constantly on the strain demanded for an active discharge of the arduous duties of life. Large employers of labour consult their own interests, and add to the blessings of their fellow-men, by adapting the appointed toil to the average measure of human energy. In rural districts the ordinary occupations of the labouring population are more healthy, and less taxing upon the bodily and mental resources, than the majority of those prosecuted in our large centres of commerce and manufacture, and though the inhabitants of country villages and agricultural or pastoral districts are beyond the reach of many advantages to be found in the city, they have easy access to many of the cheering and healthy forms of enjoyment which nature provides.