A Tranquil Transformation: Middle-Class Racing ‘Revolutionaries' in Nineteenth-Century England

The Victorian period is often seen, in J. A. Mangan's deft phrase, as 'the Age of the First Recreational Revolution'. ¹ It was a period when the middle-class scramble for new forms of sport, such as tennis or golf, and the use of sport to delineate the barriers of a class society became strongly marked. ² Many newly transformed team sports, initially organized by and for the middle classes, became highly commercialized, highly competitive, working-class spectator sports, played by relatively well paid, working-class professionals; potent symbols of local pride.