Some private citizens of
various towns followed the example of London and obtained from
Parliament the right to levy a house rate for paving and lighting.
Physicians and lawyers lived in two-story brick mansions with
attics and sash windows that could be lifted up and down with the
help of a pulley. They had rectangular wood panes each with a
sheet of glass cut from a circle of blown glass. The old blown
glass was not regular, but had a wrinkled appearance. The center
of each pane of glass was thicker with a knot in the middle left
from the blow pipe. In front of the house were railings which
supported two lanterns at the doorway.
Towns tended to be known for certain specialties, such as seaside
holiday resorts, spas like Bath, cathedral towns, fashionable
shopping for gentry, and towns with certain industries like glass
and china manufacture, pin-making, pottery, tanning, manufacture
of linen, silk, cotton, and the knitting trade. Certain towns were
famous for certain varieties of wool cloth. Before 1750, a town
with more than 5,000 inhabitants was considered a large town. Shop
keeping was supplanting fairs and markets. Certain industries were
done on a large scale and required workers to be at the same site,
e.g. brewing and distilling; building ships; printing fustians;
making paper, soap (from animal fat) or candles; coal mining, iron
production, mining and smelting of tin and copper, refining of
salt, and digging of clay.
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