Victorian Indoor and Outdoor Pastimes
Leisure Pursuits Popular in Victorian Times, Still Popular Today
Dec 10, 2008
Daily life in Victorian times was strictly regulated, with rules of etiquette that were not to be breached even during leisure time. In the mid-1800s visits to public parks, libraries and halls increased, with free access to all. However, behavior in the park, such as picking flowers, engaging in any unbecoming conduct or public meetings was strictly forbidden. There were many indoor and outdoor activities that became 'the rage'.
Victorian Croquet
Croquet is a outdoor game played on a lawn, where the players hit wooden balls with a mallet through hoops that are embedded into the grass. Croquet was one of the most popular of all recreational games during Victorian times and the game spread in popularity to the Americas.
Croquet is still a popular outside yard game for families and friends down to today - croquet sets are easily available to purchase these days.
Victorian Lawn Tennis
Lawn tennis was a popular sport for middle-class women in Victorian times. At first tennis entailed patting the ball gently back and forth on a well tended lawn outside the home. A score was not kept but the game became far more competitive as time went on with men soon caught up in the competitive spirit of the game, finding it an excellent method of exercise and a useful mental and physical outlet.
Rules and equipment evolved as time went on with rules of lawn tennis formalized in 1874. Today the famous, prestigious Wimbledon tennis matches in England are still played on grass courts.
Hunting and Sport in the Victorian Era
Fishing, game hunting and fox hunting in Victorian times continued largely unchanged from previous centuries. Sports such as rowing became immensely popular, the annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race on the Thames began in 1829 and the tradition continues today.
Cricket, rugby and soccer and competitive track events became the norm in public schools during the first half of the nineteenth century becoming popular outside of school life as well. “The twenty-four volume Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes (1885-1895) reminds us of the sheer variety of athletic activities to be encountered during the later Victorian years: cycling, swimming, cricket, golf, mountaineering, fencing, boxing, wrestling, skating, curling, ice-hockey, boating, yachting, carriage-driving, horse-racing, steeple-chasing, archery, falconry, shooting, football, track and field, billiards, tennis, racket-ball, fishing, and hunting.
Analogously, the Ladies Field reminds us of how many women might be found involved in them, both as spectators and as participants.” Walter L. Arnstein - Victorian sports essay – Victorian Entertainments
Music and Singing
Music was a favorite form of indoor recreation in Victorian times, with many a young lady expected to perform at social gatherings and functions. The piano was an emblem of social status.
A young woman could be judged as to her training and practice by her proficiency in playing the piano before a genteel audience. Among women, the piano was one of the few areas where a woman could express and distinguish herself.
The Victorians delighted in making music themselves, thousands of songs and piano pieces in styles ranging from the highly serious classics to the popular and comic music was composed and published for the amateur market, with pianos becoming more affordable to the middle classes as time went on.
Dancing
Dancing became a tradition in Victorian and pre-Victorian times. Queen Victoria helped influence its popularity by giving evening concerts. The waltz and polka were quite popular dances at balls, there were also jigs and country dances popular during this time. Ballroom dancing today is enjoyed socially and competitively around the world and its performance and entertainment appeal is enjoyed on stage, television and film.
More articles on the Victorian Era:
Victorian Sayings and Words of Wisdom
Domestic Servants in Victorian England
Victorian Decor - Colors and Interiors
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