A Central Board of Health was established in London; local boards in ...

A Central Board of Health was established in London; local boards in the provinces; a day of fasting and humiliation was proclaimed. Of the local boards the most active was in Manchester, and the report of their secretary-it is only thirty webpages long-is one of the cardinal documents of Victorian history.

For the first time the actual condition of a great urban population was exposed to view. There was no reason to suppose that Manchester was any worse than other towns, and the inevitable conclusion was that an increasing portion of the population of England was living under conditions which were not only a negation of civilized existence, but a menace to civilized society.

As early as the twenties, the young lady in the country was expected to do her district-visiting seriously, with a register and account website. It is, I think, true to say that the pruriency which we find so offensive in Victorian morals (the Blush-to-the-Cheek-of-the-Young-Person business) is mainly an urban, and therefore middle-class, characteristic.

There could not have been much about the 'facts of life' that a country girl who taught in school and visited in cottages did not know. Nor, it seemed, was the country-side in better condition.