during the American war Fox, once the most
extravagant of "macaronis," and his friends showed their political
sympathies by carelessness in dress, and their example was largely
followed. Men's dress, however, did not decline until about 1793 when
the whigs imitated the severity affected by the French republicans. Wigs
were discarded early in the reign, except by professional men, and
hair-powder began to fall out of fashion by the end of the century.
Then, too, ladies' dress became more simple, chiefly because
improvements in the textile manufactures provided them with materials at
once simple and pleasing.

Besides the ordinary amusements of society, fashionable people
frequented public assemblies, of which those at Ranelagh were longest in
vogue. The company at Vauxhall was more mixed. People of the
shop-keeping and lower classes enjoyed themselves in the numerous
pleasure resorts about London, such as Mary-le-bone gardens, Islington,
and Sadler's Wells. Theatres were well attended and the increase of
public decency is illustrated by the disappearance from the stage of the
coarseness of earlier times. It was the golden age of the drama; for it
saw the acting of Macklin and Garrick, of Mrs. Siddons, "the tragic
muse," and her brother John Kemble, of Mrs. Abington, Miss Farren, "the
comic muse," afterwards Countess of Derby, and Mrs. Jordan. As
dramatists Home, Foote, Colman, and Cumberland deserve to be mentioned;
and Goldsmith and Sheridan wrote comedies which, while belonging to
acting drama, adorn English literature. Among less respectable
amusements bull-baiting was confined to the lowest class. An attempt to
render it illegal was defeated in parliament in 1800, chiefly through
the opposition of Windham. Cock-fighting, though widely condemned, was
practised even by gentlemen, chiefly as a means of betting. Exhibitions
of combats with swords became extinct, and made way for the scarcely
less dangerous prize-fights of bruisers which from about 1788 became
extremely popular.

Foreign travel, which earlier was almost confined to the "grand tour"
made by rich young men as part of their education, increased greatly
before the revolutionary war, and travelling in England became more
general as the means of communication were improved. In 1760 English
roads were little better than they were a century before, mere
trackways, which in parts were sloughs in winter and scored with deep
ruts in summer. Travelling over them w