(Yale University Graphic) Yale University Graphic

William Hogarth's engraving "The Enraged Musician" (1741) captured the sensory overload of 18th-century London.

Critical Faculties

The essence of Olde England

Exploring the Enlightenment's seamy underside, a historian brings to life the sights, sounds, and especially the smells of 18th-century Britain.

By Christopher Shea

May 27, 2007

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Thanks to English novels and countless BBC period pieces, Americans have a rather idealized view of 18th-century English life, impressions that still shape our views of the Mother Country. You could see it in the striking Anglophilia that greeted the queen’s recent visit to our shores, with the deference paid to protocol and ancient notions of refinement. (Full article: 892 words)