Life and Labour in Rural England, 1760-1850

by Pamela Horn

Major developments in rural life occurred between 1760 and 1850 and many of the greatest writers in English literature lived during this period. Factors such as the pressure of the war years, problems of adjustment during the post-war agricultural depression and the influence of rising industrialisation upon rural trades and crafts are all illustrated in this book, by contemporary literary and factual sources. Pamela Horn contrasts the views of writers like Mary Russell Mitford, Oliver Goldsmith, William Barnes, John Clare and Elisabeth Gaskell with examples from newspapers and other printed material, such as Lloyd's Evening Post, Cobbett's Political Register, and parliamentary papers. The full complexities of a new social and industrial order are reflected in the selected extracts of manuscript material, combined with published literary and factual accounts.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Pamela Horn is an historian specialising in Victorian social history. The author of acclaimed books on rural life, servant lives and childhood, she lectured on economic and social history at Oxford Polytechnic, now Oxford Brookes University, for over twenty years.