Politeness was the watchword of Georgian society. Commerce greatly improved the standard of living for an expanding middle class in 18th-century England. The newly wealthy spent a lot on learning gentility, the Georgian status symbol.
Politeness conjures up the civilized, if secular, outlook of Georgian society--its faith in manners, its attachment to elegance and stateliness, its oligarchical politics, and its aristocratic fashions. Politeness is stamped on English country houses and on ...