Reading: Young people in Victorian England
What was it like to be young in Victorian England? Here’s how three young people describe their lives:
“Hello. My name is Emily and I am 13 years old. I live with my parents and my brother George, who is 10, in a nice house in a nice, clean part of London -I know that because I have heard that other parts of London are very dirty, and even dangerous. We don’t go to school, we have our own teacher – Miss Brown – who teaches us at home. Of course I can read and write, and I can also speak French but most of all I love to sing and play the piano. Next year George is going away to boarding school. We do our lessons in the morning and in the afternoon we go to Regent’s Park with Miss Brown – that’s a beautiful park in London. Then we come home for tea and our mother has tea with us before she and our father go out to the theatre or the opera. Our father works in an office, and we do not see him very often. He is very strict, and we must always do what he and our mother tell us, but Miss Brown is very nice.”
“Hello. My name is Tom. I’ve got seven brothers and sisters. When I was seven my father sent me to a penny-a-week school. That means he paid a penny a week for me to go to school, not only to learn reading, writing and maths, but because he thought it would be safer for me than playing on the streets. When I was ten, he thought it was time for me to find some work, so I became an errand-boy. That’s somebody who takes letters and things from one person to another person. I leave the house at 6 o’clock in the morning. My mother gives me two pieces of bread and butter, and that’s all I have till I get home in the evening. Sometimes that’s very hard.”
“My name is Jenny. My mother is dead and I live with my aunt. She’s got three children. I can’t read or write, but I can make my own money. That’s more than a lot of other girls can do. I’m a flower4 girl. I work on the streets and sell flowers to the rich people who go to the opera and the theatre. Sometimes I haven’t got enough money to buy shoes – that’s all right in the summer, but in the winter my feet get cold. Then it’s good to go home – my three cousins and I all sleep in the same bed, so we’re nice and warm. But that’s not so good in the summer when it’s hot, so I sometimes sleep in the streets. But that can be dangerous and sometimes I’m scared.”