The day of Charles II's restoration and birthday was designated as a day of thanksgiving when all were to participate in prayers and the singing of psalms at some church or other suitable public place.
Charles initiated the return of Sunday afternoon wrestling, archery, music, and dancing. Theaters reopened with actresses playing women's parts, an audience only in front of the stage instead of around it, a drop curtain, and painted two-dimensional scenery. Actresses were allowed pursuant to royal proclamation so that plays should become "useful and instructive representations of human life" rather than "harmless delights". Charles went to plays regularly. Actresses were assumed to be mistresses of patrons in return for their jobs, but one fourth were actually chaste women married to actors. Comedies were the preferred plays. Courtesans were sympathetically and even admirably treated in plays, which mocked all restraints and glorified immorality with the exception of pornography, which was banned. Bad actors were hissed off the stage. Henry Purcell wrote religious music for churches, ceremonial music for the English court, and theater music for English opera. Opera made music a vehicle for human emotions. The gentry sang to the lute and danced to string instruments. Many owned and played musical instruments. Humble people had folksongs and instruments like the pipe and tabor for dancing. Singing in parts was popular in town and country. In 1672 John Banister started the first regular series of public concerts in his house. There were lovely formal gardens in which to walk, to see fireworks, and to buy the new ice cream. Charles did much garden and park planning and let the public enjoy the royal St. James Park. He loved hunting too and had the royal forests replenished with deer after poaching during the Cromwell era had greatly reduced their numbers.
Charles II introduced sailing and yacht racing for pleasure. He also participated in and promoted horse racing. The breeding of thoroughbred horses began with breeding to Arab mares. Gelding horses were now preferred over stallions. There were trotters, cart horses, and some "fast" race horses. Boxing (with no gloves nor ring) was a national sport. Ice skating with iron blades was popular. Valentine's day was celebrated. Italian puppet shows played in London.
Dress returned to elaborateness. Gentlemen wore Cavalier-style long wigs with curls, despite the church's dislike of wigs. This could hide the short hair of a former Puritan Roundhead. In 1666, Charles introduced a new mode of inexpensive court dress which was made entirely from English textiles. This gave rise to gentlemen's weskits to below the knee with a coat of the same length and full sleeves. Stockings and shoes replaced the long fitted boots. Charles set a court tradition of men wearing a scarf tied around the neck. Ladies often wore their hair in masses of ringlets with little corkscrew curls on each side of their heads, and later piled their hair up elaborately on their heads. They wore satin or silk dresses fitted at the waist with a pointed bodice, and full skirt. The shoulder line was low and the sleeves full and open at the front with fastenings of jeweled clasps. The only fast colors were reds, blues, purple, and yellow, but not green. They kept their hands warm in muffs. Women wore perfume, rouge, and face patches. Some women put on a lot of make-up. Many men dressed effeminately with rouge, face patches, heavily scented clothing, muffs, and many ribbons of many colors. The facial beauty patches were in shapes such as stars, crescent moons, and hearts; they diverted attention from the common smallpox scars. There were Oxford shoes, which laced up the front through eyelets. The members of the House of Commons dressed like the gentry and assumed their manners. There was exaggeration in all complimentary and ceremonial language.
The gentry were beginning to be thought of as a "squirearchy".
They owned about half the land of the country.
The population according to class was as follows: N: Number of
Households. T: Titles, Degrees. Social Ranks, H: Household Size, and Y:
Household Yearly Income in Pounds.
___N_______________T______________________________S___________Y__16 Temporal lords 40 3,200 26 Spiritual lords 20 1,300 800 Baronets 16 880 600 Knights 13 650 3,000 Esquires 10 450 12,000 Gentlemen 8 280 5,000 Persons in greater offices and places 8 240 5,000 Persons in lesser offices and places 6 120 2,000 Eminent merchants and traders by sea 8 400 8,000 Lesser merchants and traders by sea 6 198 10,000 Persons in the law 7 154 2,000 Eminent clergymen 6 72 8,000 Lesser clergymen 5 50 40,000 Freeholders of the better sort 7 91 120,000 Freeholders of the lesser sort 5.5 55 150,000 Farmers 5 42.5 15,000 Persons in liberal arts and sciences 5 60 50,000 Shopkeepers and tradesmen 4.5 45 60,000 Artisans and handicrafts 4 38 5,000 Naval officers 4 80 4,000 Military officers 4 60 50,000 Common seamen 3 20 364,000 Laboring people and out-servants 3.5 15 400,000 Cottagers and paupers 3.25 6.5 35,000 Common soldiers 2 14 25,000 Vagrants, as gypsies, thieves, beggars
As can be seen, agriculture is still the most common occupation.
Great houses now had a central dining chamber for dining, with sets of suites, usually for couples, around it. Each suite had an ante-chamber and/or drawing room, and then a bedchamber, off of which there was a servant's room and a closet [cabinet]. No longer did personal servants bed down in the drawing room or outside their master's door or in a truckle bed at his feet. The servant's room was connected to a back staircase for use by servants. Secret guests also used it. The csbinet room was the innermost sanctum for privacy and gave its name to the later cabinet of the government.
There were fewer servants and they were of a lower social status than before. They were often sons of merchants, clergymen, and army officers. Gentlemen no longer advanced by service to a great man, but instead through grammar school and university education, commerce, the law, or the armed services. This change came about because the state now maintained reasonable law and order. There were more female servants, who were paid less to cook and to clean as well as do laundry and nursing. Servants were kept more in the background, preferably out of sight. The elaborate ceremonial ritual with sewer, carver, and cupbearer was gone. A butler replaced the yeomen of the buttery, ewery, and pantry, and footmen began to wait on the table at which the lord, his lady, and other couples sat. Servants no longer had meals in the hall, which now had a grand staircase up to the dining chamber. The highest servants, the officers: clerk of the kitchen, clerk of the check [comptroller], head cook, butler, and groom of the chambers, and female housekeeper ate in the gentleman-of the-horse's room, although at a separate table. The kitchen staff ate in the kitchen. The footmen, underbutler, porters, coachmen, grooms, stable-boys, gardeners, maids ate in a servants' room. The steward was no longer the chief household officer, but had a room near the kitchen. The bulk of the servants slept in the basement or subordinate wings of the house.