True Ladies and Proper Gentlemen

Regardless of time period, some things hold true: kindness is timeless.

Invasion of privacy, divorce, relationship issues, encounters between people from different places and cultures, and new technologies developed at dizzying speeds... the hectic pace of life in the late nineteenth century could make the mind reel.

Wait a minute—the nineteenth century?

Many of the issues people faced in the 1880s and '90s surprisingly remain problems in today's modern world. So why not take a peek at some Victorian advice about negotiating life's dizzying twists and turns? Gathered from period magazines and Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms, a book on social conduct originally published in 1891, this volume provides timeless guidance for a myriad of situations, including:

The husband's duty: Give your wife every advantage that it is possible to bestow.

Suggestions about shopping: Purchasers should, as far as possible, patronize the merchants of their own town. (Buy local!)

Suggestions for travel: Having paid for one ticket, you are entitled to only one seat. It shows selfishness to deposit a large amount of baggage in the surrounding seats and occupy three or four.

Unclassified laws of etiquette: Never leave home with unkind words.

This advice is accompanied by watercolours and illustrations throughout. Though these tips originate from nineteenth-century ideas, you'll find that they certainly do still apply.