It Was A Careful Age Of Manners And Propriety...

The Victorian Age, named for Queen Victoria Of England, was a most unusual time.  When I think of it I think of elegant women in long gowns made of silk, satin, velvet and bustles.  I think of gentlemen with top and bowler hats, dressed in three piece suits and carrying walking sticks with crystal or brass knobs on the top of them.  I think of tall and huge houses edged with what is called gingerbread.  In those houses were big families of sometimes seven to ten children.

The motor car was the newest thing, if it was seen at all on the streets.  Most upper class people rode around in carriages. If you had any big money at all you could hire servants, because people would work for very little wages.  Most large houses had upstairs and downstairs maids, butlers, drivers for the carriages, a groom for the horses, a whole staff to help the household to run smoothly.

Children were, of course, seen not heard.  Once they reached a certain age they often went to boarding school, if their parent could afford it, especially if they were boys.  Girls were expected to fill a traditional role, being wives and mothers.  [After 1823, a boy could marry as young as fourteen without his parent's consent, a girl as young as twelve, but most people married when they were in their twenties.] Some women became business owners, - few, or teachers, governesses, and were known as "bluestockings", and thought of as rather strange and radical.

It was during this time that some great literature was written, great novels:  "Jane Eyre", by Charlotte Bronte, and "Wuthering Heights", by Emily Bronte; Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote her poems;  Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", and "Alice Through The Looking Glass";  Charles Dickens wrote his stories...