would not admit men of commerce to his company. Ironically, it was precisely the burgeoning mercantile
classes that appropriated Shaftesbury’s validating ideologies. Those belonging or sympathetic to the Whig
party were keen to reconcile traditional notions of good breeding with the expanding commercial
interests. Commercially developed nations such as Holland had already experienced a similar shift
toward a gentrified sociability.
The fashion for “politeness” formed in Britain a means by which all ranks of society (from the “middling
sort” upwards) might distinguish themselves from an unrefined populace, while achieving a degree of
social harmony. The ranks of the “polite” extended from the most elite parts of society to artisans,
shopkeepers, farmers, lawyers, doctors and minor clergy (Solkin, 1993, x). These “middling sorts” were
often defined by their property ownership and, by the 1780s, made up nearly 25% of the population in
Britain (Brewer, 1997, xvi). “Politeness” combined refined manners (dress, postures, gestures, ways of
speaking and even the art of moving gracefully) with a shared sense of benevolence and civic duty
previously attributed in many societies to more patrician, aristocratic sensibilities (Craske, 2000, 14–15).
Its conventions informed visual culture; for example, through the popular genre of the conversation piece.
A treatise on dancing by Kellom Tomlinson (c.1690–1753) conceived of the relevant primary
characteristics:
Let us imagine ourselves, as so many living Pictures drawn by the most excellent Masters, exquisitely
designed to afford the utmost Pleasure to the Beholders: And, indeed, we ought to set our Bodies in
such a Disposition, when we stand in Conversation, that, were our Actions or Postures delineated, they
might bear the strictest Examination of the most critical Judges.
(The Art of Dancing Explained by Reading and Figures, 1735, cited in Solkin, 1993, 31)French conduct books were plagiarized by British equivalents, which sought nevertheless to avert the
charge of foreign “foppishness” (Solkin, 1993, 77). Membership of “polite” British circles increasingly
required sound taste in artistic matters. The Tatler (1709–1711), which became in 1711 The Spectator,
promoted suitable clubs and coffee houses where this might be acquired. These included in London Old
Slaughter’s Coffee House, patronized by Hogarth and other artists, Garraway’s Exchange Alley, a coffee
house where exhibitions of paintings and prints were held, and Samuel Johnson’s Literary Club,
patronized by Reynolds and Burke. Art dealers’ premises, newspapers and journals came to be shared by
large sections of society, even if the rights to hold political office were still dominated by the nobility
(Solkin, 1993, 34–36, 40). Key journals such as The Gentleman’s Magazine (1731–1922) acted as a
mouthpiece for the values of an enlightened, tolerant civility by engaging their readers in an informal style
of printed “conversation” on subjects relating to the arts, morals and contemporary manners. Lessons in
singing, dancing and drawing and in the writing of diaries, biographies and autobiographies assisted the
cultivation of a selfconscious refinement, selfcontrol and correct social conduct (Solkin, 1993, 107–
112). Not everyone was complicit in these developments. Hogarth was among those who highlighted the
dangers of the contemporary cultivation of social graces, which encouraged artifice of all kinds.
Business contacts were made and business interests served by a protective veneer of sociability.
Contemporary debates or moral doubts about new luxuries (tea or chocolatedrinking, interior décor)
shared by a wider prosperous constituency were inflected by discussions of the hard work required to
achieve them. Material wealth was often validated through the settings, costumes and accessories used in
portraiture. As is often the way with social trends, however, once “politeness” became (in the second
quarter of the century) the norm of the elegant and the genteel, some sought to set themselves apart by
flirting with transgressive modes of behavior and culture. A taste for art or theatre representing rough
rural manners, the lower orders or street culture (Solkin, 1993, 97–104) was often defused, however, by
the refined settings (such as Vauxhall Gardens or exclusive galleries) in which they were experienced.