Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/401

sumed five times as much sugar, they drank more spirits, they ate more meat—a great deal more meat—and they smoked more tobacco. They lived in better houses, with a greater degree of comfort than hitherto dreamt of; there were carpets and armchairs for all, baths and hot water, such as had not existed in England since the days of the Romans. An inordinate love of pleasure grew with the growing wealth, and theatres, music halls, and palaces of variety entertainments increased and prospered. Athletics, too, became an absorbing passion with young Englishmen of every class. Cricket, football, golf, boating, yachting, swimming, cycling, these have all played and still play a large part in developing the physique of the nation's youth. Whole holidays, undreamt of in past years, enabled toilers to travel: the working man could see his friends at the other end of England, the sea-side could be visited in a few hours and for a few shillings; social intercourse was becoming easier day by day, social barriers were breaking down. Dress, food, amusements, education, were all, in varying degrees, common to all classes; there was nothing to prevent every Englishman being a gentleman, every Englishwoman a lady, but perhaps it were