In Queen Anne’s reign both ladies and gentlemen powdered their hair.  The ladies also painted their faces and ornamented them with minute black patches, which served not only for “beauty spots,” but showed, by their arrangement, with which political party they sympathized.

529.  Coffeehouses.

Up to the middle of the seventeenth century ale and beer were the common drink of all classes; but about that time coffee was introduced, and coffeehouses became fashionable resorts for gentlemen and for all who wished to learn the news of the day.  Tea had not yet come into use; but, in 1660, Pepys says in his diary:  “Sept. 25.  I did send for a cup of tee, a China drink, of which I never had drank before.”

530.  The Streets of London.

No efficient police existed in London; at night the streets were infested with brutal ruffians, and, as late as Queen Anne’s time, by bands of “fine gentlemen” not less brutal, who amused themselves by overturning sedan chairs, rolling women downhill in barrels, and compelling men to dance jigs, under the stimulus of repeated pricks from a circle of sword points, until the victims fell fainting from exhaustion.  Duels were frequent, on the slightest provocation.  Highwaymen abounded both in the city and without, and, unless one went well armed, it was often dangerous to travel any distance in the country.

531.  Brutal Laws.

Hanging was the common punishment for theft and many other crimes.  The public whipping of both men and women through the streets was frequent.  Debtors were shut up in prison, and left to beg from passers-by or starve; and ordinary offenders were fastened in a wooden frame called the “pillory” and exposed on a high platform, where they were pelted by the mob with mud, rotten eggs, and other unsavory missiles.  In some cases their bones were broken with clubs and brickbats.  The pillory continued in use until the accession of Victoria in 1837.

TENTH PERIOD

“The history of England is emphatically the history of progress.  It is the history of a constant movement of the public mind, of a constant change in the institutions of a great society.”—­Macaulay

India Gained; America Lost—­Parliamentary Reform—­Government by the People

The House of Hanover (1714) to the Present Time

George I, 1714-1727 William IV, 1830-1837
George II, 1727-1760 Victoria, 1837-1901
George III, 1760-1820 Edward VII, 1901-1910
George IV, 1820-1830 George V, 1910-

532.  Accession of George I.

As Queen Anne died without leaving an heir to the throne (S515), George, Elector of Hanover, in accordance with the Act of Settlement (S497), now came into possession of the English crown. (See Genealogical Table opposite.) The new King had no desire whatever to go to England.