Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/304

 step in a movement that was to produce far-reaching changes in the lives of the people. Henceforth the country was to be governed by her Ministers rather than by her King, and the coarse-mannered Walpole was a more influential person than the poor bad-tempered George II.

In the years of peace and prosperity that succeeded, the English life which is ours to-day developed apace. It is hardly necessary to say that it developed more slowly in the country than in London, for many parts of England were completely isolated in the middle of the eighteenth century. Miles of impassable road, deeply rutted or absolutely rotten, or some swollen river overflowing marshy country prevented much intercourse with the outer world, and rendered the appearance of a stranger an event giving rise to much curiosity and conversation. Quaint indeed to modern ears sound the words of John Wesley, travelling from Manchester to Huddersfield, two of our busiest centres today: "The people ran and shouted after the carriage, and I believe they are the wildest folk in England." Or, again, listen to a famous Birmingham bookseller visiting a village in Leicestershire, where the villagers set dogs on the