Cricket Witness No 1 - Class Peace

9 Pre-Victorian Society; ‘Gentle And Simple’ gentleman and Wilkie is of a class far below him, but Wilkie easily holds his own as a person of both intelligence and dignity, in their conversation. At the same time there is no denial that class differences exist.’ The seminal Grand National of 1839, backed by many (but not all, for horse racing like cricket, is not free from historical controversy) as the first of that name, attracted a crowd probably over-estimated of 50,000. It was composed of the gentry and the nobility who had danced and dined in the nearby stately homes for a week beforehand and who were prepared to pay the extravagant price of 7s (35p but something like £40 or £50 in modern value) to watch and wager on the race.. They were joined by ‘piemen, chimney sweeps, cigar sellers, thimble-riggers and all the small fry of gaming-table keepers’ among a swarm of ordinary mortals; the Liverpool Courier added ‘our inns have been crowded with gentle and simple.’ 2 As a reminder that cricket was not alone in developing cross-class sport, this was the first of these major Aintree steeplechases which was not exclusively open to ‘gentlemen’. Nine gentlemen riders were joined by eight professional jockeys. For the record, Jem Mason on ‘Lottery’ won the race, Captain Becher on ‘Conrad having set off ‘at a spanking pace’, only to take a tumble at the ditch that thereafter bore his name. As a final example, The Ingoldsby Legends which the eloquent R.H.Barham began publishing in 1837 include the stanza from The Hand of Glory; the Nurse’s Story Gentle and simple, squire and groom Each one has sought his favourite room These instances of the ‘gentle’/’simple’ usage are deliberately chosen to show how common it was until deep into the 19 th century. Such divisions depend largely on people accepting the nomenclature. Everyone, like it or not, knew where they stood in the social order, although there were, of course, many delicately framed gradations in both ranks. Moreover, the prevailing moral and religious code, as is perhaps the wont of such creeds throughout history, justified these drawn lines of the social gulf in no uncertain terms. From at least the time of ancient Egypt, institutionalised belief sought to uphold the status quo of the established social system. Bang on cue for the start of the period under main review, it was in 1848 that Cecil Frances Alexander published her charming Anglican hymn, All Things Bright and Beautiful with its imperishable verse of how God made them high and lowly – and ordered their estate, with the unsung corollary that there is no point struggling against divine ordinance. For all that, these were never caste systems. Two famed Thomases – Wolsey and Cromwell, respectively the sons of a butcher and a blacksmith – rose to and fell from great heights, while a third Thomas, Becket of that ilk, was but the son of a textile trader. With gifts, grit and good fortune it was just possible to make occasional forays across the social frontier. They were so occasional as to give rise – as all three of those famed Thomases discovered - to sardonic comment among their contemporaries