l, 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.
The great manufacturing towns, such as Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham,
and Sheffield are now, were nowhere to be found in the England of
Queen Anne; but their day was coming. London was the great centre of
the silk trade, and after it came Norwich, Coventry, Derby, and
Nottingham. The cotton industry of Manchester and the surrounding
towns in South Lancashire was making a start, while Leeds, Bradford,
and Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, were just beginning to
give their attention to the cloth trade on a larger scale. The trade
with other countries was growing rapidly, Bristol being, next to
London, the chief port. Hull, Liverpool, Southampton, and Newcastle
were still small places. It is to be noted that the earliest notions
of what we now call _free trade_ are to be traced back to the days of
the later Stuart sovereigns. Bolingbroke made certain proposals in
that direction, but his plans were rejected by the Whigs.
Stage-coaches began to run, the earliest being those between London
and York, and between London and Exeter. A vast improvement in the
high-roads soon came in consequence. The first General Post Office for
the whole kingdom dates back to the reign of Queen Anne.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS

1702 (February 20). Queen's Accession, on the death of
William III.

War of the Spanish Succession begun (May). England,
Holland, and the Empire ag