But English manufacturers were still
suspicious of free trade.
Making beer and distilling gin from barley were widespread. The
pastimes of gambling and drinking were popular with all classes.
In the trades, this was promoted by the uncertainties of life and
work and a general sense of instability. Many London tradesmen
started their day with a breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese, the
traditional breakfast of countrymen. Gambling and dissipation
reduced some London men with good businesses to destitution, the
work house, or street begging. Drunken gentlemen played pranks
such as imitating a woman in distress or throwing a person in a
horse trough. Some innkeepers had "straw houses" where customers
who were so drunk they were unable to walk home could sleep in
fresh straw. A person could get drunk for a few pence. Gambling
with cards was a popular pastime after dinner. Cricket matches
were played by all classes instead of just by humbler people;
there were county cricket matches. Gentlemen often took their
coachmen with them to public events such as cricket matches.
Tennis was a sport of the wealthy classes. Billiards, chess, and
games with cards or dice were played, especially in alehouses.
There was horse racing on any open ground to which people brought
their horses to race. Jockeys tried to unseat each other. Hunting
of rabbits and then foxes replaced deer hunting.
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