It's easy to forget that the "Victorian period" spanned such a large part of the 19th century that, for adults in the later part of the era, the early Victorian era and the beginning of the 19th century seemed like a completely different time - just as you and I might look at the Roaring Twenties (or perhaps, depending on your age, dear reader, the Wild Sixties). Older writers often reminisced about their childhoods and how different those times were from the "present;" younger writers wrote about the days of their parents and grandparents. These articles also demonstrate that nostalgia is nothing new!

The Old Coaching Days, by R. Richardson (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1875)

"Dr. Johnson used to think that of all pleasures there was none greater than a journey on the top of a stagecoach." And as one old-timer points out, "You got upset in a coach and there you were. You get upset in a train and where are you?"

The Old Stage-Coach (Harper's Monthly, 1876)

A look at the stage coach, past and present, in England and America.

When I Was a Girl (Girl's Own Paper, 1880)

A look back at the early part of the 19th century...

When I Was a Girl, by Fairleigh Owen (Girl's Own Paper, 1882)

"People get used to things unfortunately, and to hear a helpless little sweep being sworn at by a brutal master, to know that the terrible cruelty of even lighting straw beneath them was no unusual practice...to force them up a chimney--these things were such common matters then, the mass of the people did not think about them."

When Grandfather Was Young (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1885)

A look back at the early 19th century, reminding Victorians of the 1880's of how far they had come...

Village Life in the Olden Time, by Frederick Gale (English Illustrated Magazine, 1892)

Remiscences about country life in the early 19th century.

The Revolution of Society, by the Countess of Warwick (Lady's Realm, 1901)

A look at changes between 1800 and 1900.

Letters and Reminiscences from the Last Century (Good Words, 1902)

Threescore Years and Ten (The Strand, 1903)

A grandfather entertains his grandson with tales of what life was like in the early 19th century.

• See also British History for articles on historic occurrences in the 19th century.

Looking Back 100 Years...

Beginning in 1895, The Strand began running annual retrospectives that looked at what the world (and Britain in particular) was like 100 years earlier:

Anno Domini/A Hundred Years Ago, by Alfred Whitman (The Strand, 1895-1901)

1795 • 1796 • 1797 • 1798 • 1799 • 1800 • 1801

Century-Ends/Where Centuries Meet, by Clotilda Marson (Girl's Own Paper, 1900)

• See also The First Century of the Republic, a roundup of scientific and technological advances in America's first 100 years.