The era of the Georges – George I to George IV, 1714-1837 – begins with a king who can't speak English, sees the survival of Britain in its wars against Napoleon and through the reign of a king who is seriously mad, and ends with a king who is more concerned with wine, women and song than with governance.
If you are looking for some of the worst jobs in history, this is a particularly rich hunting ground, with life for the personnel in Nelson's navy being particularly horrendous. The Industrial Revolution also affects millions of people's lives and produces a whole new set of employment nightmares for the young, the vulnerable and the poor.
A Manchester textile mill wants to buy children as young as six years old to work as scavengers. Representatives from the mill will be visiting workhouses in the area very soon to hunt out likely candidates.
Each child is required, under the direction of the older spinners and piecers, to brush and sweep the cotton that falls under the wheels of the weaving mules, for at least 12 hours a day.
The work is extremely dangerous: many children have already been maimed, some even killed, by the machinery. A meagre amount of food is supplied and a bed that must be shared. The children are frequently beaten to keep them at work during the long day.
This is a truly grim form of exploitation of the very young and vulnerable. Their undoubtedly miserable lives will be cut short by the effects of the terrible working conditions to which they are subjected.
The Academy Model Agency is currently touring fever hospitals and low-class brothels in your area searching for the next big thing. Do you have the look of an angel, an apostle or a god? Could you be the next Venus? Would you mind sitting in your birthday suit for hours on end, tied up with cords to help you maintain a regal position?
Good rates of pay and the chance to be immortalised in oils are just some of the perks on offer. Interested parties with no shame should send their portfolios, including head and full-body sketches, to our office.
A man with a horse and buckets full of bravery is needed to fill a vacancy for a riding officer – a customs officer on horseback – that has recently arisen following the departure of the previous holder of the post.
Pay no heed to the local rumour that the man was set upon by a band of 100 hardened tea smugglers and murdered on the beach in cold blood before the dragoons could reach him. This is nothing but idle village talk. The truth is that the cold nights on the cliffs were playing havoc with his arthritis and he now spends his time gardening in a cottage in Devon. It happens to be so inaccessible that no one can contact him, ever.
If lonely nights patrolling in all weathers on behalf of the king is what you're looking for, please apply. Your country needs you – it is losing £780,000 of tax every year because of smugglers.
Looking for an escape from the hectic pace of 18th-century living? A seven-year contract is being offered by Lord and Lady Posh for a human garden gnome, to ornament their newly landscaped gardens at Hobnob Manor.
There are plenty of role models for you to imitate. The hermit at Hawkstone manor lives in a specially built hermitage complete with an hourglass, a skull, a book and a pair of spectacles on his table. John Harris, 'The English Hermit', was once rich, but prevented from marrying his sweetheart, he has lived in a number of caves in Cheshire and north Wales for over 60 years.
The job offers the chance for peace and tranquillity on a scale previously only dreamed of, or perhaps only found in the isolation wings of asylums and prisons. The daily grind of washing and shaving will be a distant memory as you allow your beard to grow and your body takes on the odour of a sweating pig, all within your very own cave. Now then, men, what could be better?
