The use
of linen and silk was coming in among those in better circumstances.
13. FOOD AND DRINK
Tea was only just beginning to be known, and was a luxury for the
rich. In London the coffee-houses were everywhere, playing a great
part in the life of the capital, at least among those whom we should
now call clubmen. The common drink was still beer, and, among the farm
hands, milk. Port, till the Methuen treaty, was almost unknown in
England. Even the gentry, as a rule, did not drink wine at ordinary
times. The poorer classes rarely tasted flesh meat, except bacon,
which latter cottagers in the country were generally able to command,
every cottage having its pig. The best white wheaten bread was used by
the richer folk only, the poorer eating coarse and dark bread, of
whole-meal, of rye, or even of barley. Pewter was the ware in common
use, except among the labourer class, who had wooden trenchers, or a
coarse unglazed delft.
14. INDUSTRIES
The main occupation of the country was still farming, with fishing,
shipbuilding, and seafaring on the coast. The manufacture of silk,
woollen, and linen goods, now occupying so many millions of folk in
the North and the Midlands, was then carried on mainly in the small
towns and villages, or even in the lonely wayside or moorland cottage.
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