# One 18th-Century Man's Lord's Day



## bookslover (Nov 16, 2006)

Here's a snapshot of one man's recollections of Lord's day observance in his childhood in the 18th century:

"There was, however, another side to this picture of an amusement-loving, gambling people. Sunday was strictly kept by many sections of the community. Even his landlady's small son reproved Moritz for singing on the Sabbath, and de Saussure reported that card-playing was forbidden, though he added that the prohibition was not observed in the highest circles. Among those who could afford to indulge themselves, not all did so. No description of eighteenth-century social life would be complete without some reference to the sober lives led both by members of the older Dissenting bodies and by the new followers of Wesley.

"Sunday was observed with fanatical strictness. Thomas Wright Hill, when recalling the memories of his youth, describes the day as starting with breakfast taken at eight in a darkened room, for the shutters were only opened at the top, followed by extempore prayer. Nine o'clock found the children with their father at the meeting-house, where service lasted until eleven. On the return, his father would read allowed to the family from Henry's "Expositions," a ponderous book in six volumes and, cushions having been dealt out to mitigate the hardness of the floor, which was uncarpeted, more prayers followed. 

"Meat was seldom eaten on Sunday, and then always cold, in order to avoid a breach of the commandments, so that the dinner 'rarely consisted of anything more or less than a boiled pudding, sometimes made savoury with suet, sometimes with dried currents, sometimes of small bread boiled whole, and rendered palatable by a compound sauce.' 

"A second service, at one o'clock, was attended by the mistress and maid also, and then came the one brief relaxation of the day, when his father smoked his pipe and told the children Scripture stories. When they were older, they were allowed to employ this respite in reading the Apocrypha.

"From five to six was occupied by a third service, slightly enlivened by hymns, after which the children retired to their mother's room to repeat the catechism and hymns, an exercise followed by an exhortation from her on moral behaviour. Then, at last, came a much-desired and deserved piece of plum cake, at once a reward for past good conduct and a bribe for its continuance, while his father read another sermon, which was followed by a long extempore prayer.

"'When the prayer of Sunday night was concluded,' wrote Hill in later days, 'my feelings I was used to compare with those of Christian when his burden was miraculously unstrapped and fell from his back. This conclusion would occur about nine o'clock. The family then took a cheerful supper, and thoughts of religion were suspended for a time.'

"The example of such a family, which was typical of many of the well-to-do tradesmen in the smaller towns, adds yet another strand to the variety of eighteenth-century life, a strand, moreover, which, owing to its sombre colour, is apt to be unnoticed among the brighter threads, but yet strengthened the whole fabric of the national life."

From: "Manners, Meals, and Domestic Pastimes", by Dorothy Marshall, in "Johnson's England: An Account of the Life and Manners of His Age" (2 volumes) A. S. Turberville, editor (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933), 1:359-360.


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## kvanlaan (Nov 16, 2006)

What is the significance of reading the Apocrypha on the Lord's Day? Was it entertaining enough to be considered entertainment but still biblical enough to be considered Sabbath material?


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## bookslover (Nov 16, 2006)

kvanlaan said:


> What is the significance of reading the Apocrypha on the Lord's Day? Was it entertaining enough to be considered entertainment but still biblical enough to be considered Sabbath material?



That would be my guess.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Nov 17, 2006)

Thomas Wright Hill (1763 - 1851), father of Rowland Hill (inventor of the penny postage), was born into a Dissenters' family but was strongly influenced by Joseph Priestly (Unitarian) as an adult. I wonder if that fact colored his recollections / perceptions of his youth later on.


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