This was forty years ago. Neither question nor answer would now be
possible. For the hovels are improved into cottages; the factory hands
no longer live only in the mill; and the opinion, which was then held
by all employers of labour, as a kind of Fortieth Article, that it is
wicked for poor people to expect or hope for anything but regular work
and sufficient food, has undergone considerable modification. Why,
indeed, they thought, should the poor man look to be merry when his
betters were content to be dull? We must remember how very little play
went on even among the comfortable and opulent classes in those days.
Dulness and a serious view of life seemed inseparable; recreations of
all kinds were so many traps and engines set for the destruction of
the soul; and to desire or seek for pleasure, reprehensible in the
rich, was for the poor a mere accusation of Providence and an opening
of the arms to welcome the devil. So that our mill-owner, after all,
may have been a very kind-hearted and humane creature, in spite of his
hovels and his views of life, and anxious to promote the highest
interests of his employes.

A hundred years ago, however, before the country became serious, the
people, especially in London, really had a great many amusements,
sports, and pastimes. For instance, they could go baiting of bulls and
bears, and nothing is more historically certain than the fact that the
more infuriated the animals became, the more delighted were the
spectators; they 'drew' badgers, and rejoiced in the tenacity and the
courage of their dogs; they enjoyed the noble sport of the cock-pit;
they fought dogs and killed rats; they 'squalled' fowls--that is to
say, they tied them to stakes and hurled cudgels at them, but only
once a year, and on Shrove Tuesday, for a treat; they boxed and
fought, and were continually privileged to witness the most stubborn
and spirited prize-fights; every day in the streets there was the
chance for everybody of getting a fight with a light-porter, or a
carter, or a passenger--this prospect must have greatly enhanced the
pleasures of a walk abroad; there were wrestling, cudgelling, and
quarter-staff; there were frequent matches made up and wagers laid
over all kinds of things: there were bonfires, with the hurling of
squibs at passers-by; there were public hangings at regular intervals
and on a generous scale; there were open-air floggings for the joy of
the people; there were the stocks and the