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Georgian Britain (1714-1830) has often been portrayed as a time of elegance and reason, when there was money to be made and the freedom to enjoy it. There was a tremendous flowering of art, science, literature, music and philosophy, but as historian Roy Porter has written: 'Beneath the powdered wig, emotional and psychological disorder seethed.' And beneath the surface of Britain's cities was an underworld populated by the poor, the desperate, the criminal and those who refused to conform.
When George I came to the throne in 1714, the process of enclosing common land – so that it was owned by particular people rather than being available to the entire community – had been underway for some 200 years. But enclosure gathered pace during the 18th century and changed the face of agriculture. Food production became more efficient, while poor farmers were forced off the land. They moved out of the villages, where their work had been based in and around their homes, and into the cities to work in the new, developing industries.