Men's dress was very much as in our time, the trousers were somewhat tighter, the coat collars higher, the waistcoats were worn more open, and there was somewhat more than a soupçon of stays. Hair was worn long and artificially curled, and no one but a cavalry man, or a blackleg, wore a moustache. The neckcloths or "stocks," as they were called, must have been veritable instruments of torture, being lined with slips of whalebone, and coming tight under the chin; a rivulet or rather river of satin flowed over the shirt, and was fastened by two pins connected by a chain. But, if any one wants the man's costume of William the Fourth's reign he will find it in the very familiar engravings by "Phiz," to Pickwick and Nicholas Nickleby. Elderly gentlemen still wore knee breeches and silk stockings, with gaiters for outdoor wear, and among them the pigtail was still to be found; nay, I recollect two old gentlemen who wore them, as I also remember some middle-aged men wearing the very handsome Hessian boot.
The Spanish cloak came in about 1834, and in the following advertisement we see its size and price, together with the prices of other clothes. Times, November 19, 1834—
"Spanish cloak of superfine blue cloth, a complete circle of 9-1/2 yards, £4 4s.; Opera ditto, £2 2s.; boy's ditto, £1 1s; camlet ditto, 11s.; boy's ditto, 12s. Fashionable Petersham great coat, bound, £2 2s.; Saxon frock coat, faced silk, £2 10s.; an elegant suit of superfine cloth, complete, £4 4s.; the very best that is made, £4 15s.; suit of livery, £3 3s. Contract prices:—Two suits per year, £6 6s.; extra fine quality, the very best, £7 7s.; three suits, £10 17s.; ditto, £12 5s.; four suits, £14 6s.; ditto, £15 18s.; the old to be returned. Stout cloth winter trousers, 13s. 6d."
Respecting education in England at this time, Count Edouard de Melfort, who wrote his Impressions of England in 1836, says—
"Even in the lowest classes in England it is difficult to find a person who does not know how to read or write. There is scarcely any village, however insignificant, which has not its 'National School;' and, without meaning any offence to other countries, I think I may assert that the education of the people in England is superior to that of any other."
In this opinion, I think, the Count is too optimistic, for the lower classes were woefully uneducated, my early experience being that comparatively few could read and write, especially in the rural districts. The upper class, of course, received an education to prepare for the Universities; and, in the middle-class, a classical education was decidedly predominant over one that would fit its recipient for mercantile pursuits. The ordinary boarding-schools charged from thirty to forty-five guineas per annum, but their proprietors had a knack of including extras, which very greatly increased this sum. Here is an advertisement of a middle-class school in 1830—
"Exeter College, Snaresbrook, six miles from London, for the reception of gentlemen designed for mercantile pursuits, the legal and medical professions, the naval and military institutions, and the Universities. The number is limited, they are parlour boarders, and each has a separate bed. The establishment is under the immediate attention of the Principal and resident classical assistants, with the regular attendance of professional gentlemen of eminence in the departments of French, drawing, music, dancing, &c. Terms per annum—A mercantile course, with mathematics, history, geography, use of the globes, astronomy, etc., twenty-five guineas; or with the classics, in Latin, Greek, and including drawing, music, and dancing, thirty guineas; any one of the languages or accomplishments selected with the first course, four guineas. Every department of this establishment is arranged and conducted on the most comprehensive scale of liberality. The pupils are the sons of private and professional gentlemen of the highest respectability in London and various parts of the kingdom," etc.
This was a comparatively cheap school. Let us take another, to which well-to-do people would be likely to send their children. It was situated near Newbury, and was conducted on the plan of a regular grammar school—
"Young Gentlemen are received from 4 to 20 years of age. Terms—from 4 to 10 years of age, 25 guineas; 10 to 15, 35 guineas; 15 to 20, 40 guineas; parlour-boarders, 80 guineas per annum."
But there were lower class schools—such as Dickens has immortalized in Nicholas Nickleby. He says in his preface to the 1839 edition that he meant no one in particular, but we may, perhaps, think differently after reading what I have to write. We all remember the story when Snawley brings his sons-in-law to the Saracen's Head—