London's Shadows: The Dark Side of the Victorian City by Drew D. Gray Page B
Authors: Drew D. Gray
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Victorian era.
COPING WITH CHANGE: VICTORIAN VIEWS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE AND TOWN
The Victorians, perhaps more than any previous generation, were having to come to terms with the changing environment around them. The 1830s and 1840s had seen acceleration in the industrializing process that had begun in the previous century. While we should be cautious of depicting mid-nineteenth-century Britain as predominantly industrial (for it was far from that), the rate of change was arguably dramatic. A falling death rate ensured steady population growth despite a falling birth rate. In addition internal migrants flocked to the growing towns and cities from all over the United Kingdom, and they came to London in particular! Britain's population doubled between 1801 and 1851, from some 9 million souls to more than 18 million. While for most of the eighteenth century the rate of population growth had been 0.46 per cent, in the period to 1911 it averaged some 10 per cent.' According to a royal commission report of 1841 an `entirely new population [had] been produced' Where once `there was not a single hut of a shepherd, the lofty steam engine chimneys of a colliery now send their columns of smoke into the sky'4 In the period 1801 to 1911 the proportion of the British populace that lived in urban areas rose from 20 per cent to 80 per cent.'
The popular literature of the day reflected this change in the rural landscape; Merry & Wise published a short story called `Pits and Furnaces, or life in the Black Country' where three children comment upon the strange activities of a group of men in a field near their home. `Papa!' exclaimed Fanny, `what do you think they are going to do? I hope they will not spoil that green field: there are so few others near our house' Her father explains that they are looking for coal and this excites the imagination of Fanny's brothers who realize they can `watch them very easily, and shall see it all from the beginning, thus neatly juxtaposing the Victorians' competing attitudes towards progress and conservation.' The story unfolds as the boys explore the developing site, taking home samples for analysis and demonstrating the Victorians' love of science. Fanny, representing a female stereotype associated with continuity by way of contrast to the more dynamic aspect exhibited by her brothers, questions her mother about the origin of coal. She learns, as does the intended reader, that coal comes from the great forests that once covered the land before men (specifically English men) cultivated the soil. Yet all the efforts of ancient and `modern' men are placed within the context of religion in shaping human society. As Mrs Hope tells her daughter Fanny, `most wonderful of all that God should so arrange it that the decay and destruction of the plants of past ages should prove such a source of comfort and wealth to the present race of beings - thus linking us with times long gone by, and encouraging us to trust Him for the future'' Religion and science, those two contrasting and competing bastions of Victorian society, are thus neatly entwined in this story of progressive industrialization.
The contrasts between town and country appear in other popular publications of the day. In Jane Boswell Moore's `The Black Pony, Charlie and Phil go to live with their grandfather where, `instead of the dull streets they had become accustomed to' were `pleasant green fields, with high grass and corn' 8 Much later in the century the Rev R. F. Horton complained that there `are vast tracts of this green and pleasant land where the grass and flowers have ceased to grow, and the trees which survive are stunted and warped" That the Victorians were well aware of their somewhat ambiguous relationship with rural and urban living is demonstrated by this interactive poem published in 1874:
It has often been urged, and with some reason, that pastoral poetry must fail to be properly appreciated by dwellers in towns; while on the other hand ...
COPING WITH CHANGE: VICTORIAN VIEWS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE AND TOWN
The Victorians, perhaps more than any previous generation, were having to come to terms with the changing environment around them. The 1830s and 1840s had seen acceleration in the industrializing process that had begun in the previous century. While we should be cautious of depicting mid-nineteenth-century Britain as predominantly industrial (for it was far from that), the rate of change was arguably dramatic. A falling death rate ensured steady population growth despite a falling birth rate. In addition internal migrants flocked to the growing towns and cities from all over the United Kingdom, and they came to London in particular! Britain's population doubled between 1801 and 1851, from some 9 million souls to more than 18 million. While for most of the eighteenth century the rate of population growth had been 0.46 per cent, in the period to 1911 it averaged some 10 per cent.' According to a royal commission report of 1841 an `entirely new population [had] been produced' Where once `there was not a single hut of a shepherd, the lofty steam engine chimneys of a colliery now send their columns of smoke into the sky'4 In the period 1801 to 1911 the proportion of the British populace that lived in urban areas rose from 20 per cent to 80 per cent.'
The popular literature of the day reflected this change in the rural landscape; Merry & Wise published a short story called `Pits and Furnaces, or life in the Black Country' where three children comment upon the strange activities of a group of men in a field near their home. `Papa!' exclaimed Fanny, `what do you think they are going to do? I hope they will not spoil that green field: there are so few others near our house' Her father explains that they are looking for coal and this excites the imagination of Fanny's brothers who realize they can `watch them very easily, and shall see it all from the beginning, thus neatly juxtaposing the Victorians' competing attitudes towards progress and conservation.' The story unfolds as the boys explore the developing site, taking home samples for analysis and demonstrating the Victorians' love of science. Fanny, representing a female stereotype associated with continuity by way of contrast to the more dynamic aspect exhibited by her brothers, questions her mother about the origin of coal. She learns, as does the intended reader, that coal comes from the great forests that once covered the land before men (specifically English men) cultivated the soil. Yet all the efforts of ancient and `modern' men are placed within the context of religion in shaping human society. As Mrs Hope tells her daughter Fanny, `most wonderful of all that God should so arrange it that the decay and destruction of the plants of past ages should prove such a source of comfort and wealth to the present race of beings - thus linking us with times long gone by, and encouraging us to trust Him for the future'' Religion and science, those two contrasting and competing bastions of Victorian society, are thus neatly entwined in this story of progressive industrialization.
The contrasts between town and country appear in other popular publications of the day. In Jane Boswell Moore's `The Black Pony, Charlie and Phil go to live with their grandfather where, `instead of the dull streets they had become accustomed to' were `pleasant green fields, with high grass and corn' 8 Much later in the century the Rev R. F. Horton complained that there `are vast tracts of this green and pleasant land where the grass and flowers have ceased to grow, and the trees which survive are stunted and warped" That the Victorians were well aware of their somewhat ambiguous relationship with rural and urban living is demonstrated by this interactive poem published in 1874:
It has often been urged, and with some reason, that pastoral poetry must fail to be properly appreciated by dwellers in towns; while on the other hand ...
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