0 00:00:20,287 --> 00:00:23,962 DAVID DIMBLEBY: At the start of the 1 8th century, Britain was becoming 1 00:00:24,007 --> 00:00:27,204 the richest, most powerful nation in the world. 2 00:00:31,287 --> 00:00:34,324 Prosperity led to the creation of the Bank of England, 3 00:00:34,367 --> 00:00:37,439 a storehouse of the nation's wealth. 4 00:00:59,687 --> 00:01:02,440 I feel like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. 5 00:01:02,487 --> 00:01:04,603 Shelf after shelf of delicious chocolate 6 00:01:04,647 --> 00:01:06,842 all wrapped up in gold foil ready for sale. 7 00:01:06,887 --> 00:01:10,243 But of course, this isn't actually chocolate - 8 00:01:10,287 --> 00:01:12,847 you'd break your teeth if you tried eating this. 9 00:01:12,887 --> 00:01:16,038 These are solid gold bars - 10 00:01:16,087 --> 00:01:19,159 9O billion pounds' worth of the stuff. 11 00:01:19,207 --> 00:01:21,926 Absolutely sensational. 12 00:01:21,967 --> 00:01:24,037 But this is what I've come to see. 13 00:01:24,087 --> 00:01:27,124 These are the real treasures of the Bank of England. 14 00:01:27,167 --> 00:01:30,443 They're the very, very earliest banknotes. 15 00:01:32,007 --> 00:01:37,604 And this is dated 1 8th May 1 7OO, and it's a work of art in itself. 16 00:01:37,647 --> 00:01:39,797 It's absolutely beautifully printed, 17 00:01:39,847 --> 00:01:42,998 using very dark ink - because black was difficult to achieve, 18 00:01:43,047 --> 00:01:44,446 and it helped stop forgery - 19 00:01:44,487 --> 00:01:47,479 on carefully handmade paper. 20 00:01:47,527 --> 00:01:52,157 And at the top, a little seal of Britannia. Not of the monarch. 21 00:01:52,207 --> 00:01:56,166 It wasn't until the 1 96Os that the Queen's head appears. 22 00:01:56,207 --> 00:02:00,997 Banknotes like this radically changed the way life was led in Britain. 23 00:02:01,047 --> 00:02:04,562 Commerce grew, we became richer, our culture changed 24 00:02:04,607 --> 00:02:08,441 and, in the end, it was all reflected in our art. 25 00:02:49,527 --> 00:02:52,997 In the 1 8th century, Britain became, for the first time, 26 00:02:53,047 --> 00:02:55,402 a place we might recognise today. 27 00:02:56,767 --> 00:03:00,077 A new class of people was emerging, 28 00:03:00,127 --> 00:03:03,244 somewhere between the lord and the labourer. 29 00:03:06,247 --> 00:03:08,807 It was commerce and prosperity that created them - 30 00:03:08,847 --> 00:03:15,002 people with a bit of money to spare and an appetite for novelty and pleasure. 31 00:03:21,047 --> 00:03:25,199 It was the beginning of what we now call the middle class, 32 00:03:25,247 --> 00:03:29,479 though back then they were simply known as people of the middling sort. 33 00:03:29,527 --> 00:03:33,440 We see their faces in hundreds of paintings done at the time, 34 00:03:33,487 --> 00:03:36,604 and one of the best collections is here at Kenwood House. 35 00:04:04,247 --> 00:04:08,718 The paintings on these walls are no longer just kings and queens and aristocrats. 36 00:04:08,767 --> 00:04:13,079 There are people here whose title is Mr or Mrs - 37 00:04:13,127 --> 00:04:17,086 ordinary people who've risen to become people of influence, 38 00:04:17,127 --> 00:04:19,197 the power brokers of their age. 39 00:04:19,247 --> 00:04:20,885 Actors and politicians. 40 00:04:20,927 --> 00:04:24,237 Inventors, courtesans, even artists. 41 00:04:24,287 --> 00:04:26,437 Take this portrait, for instance. 42 00:04:26,487 --> 00:04:29,399 John Joseph Merlin, a portrait by Gainsborough. 43 00:04:29,447 --> 00:04:32,564 Merlin was a rather eccentric man. 44 00:04:32,607 --> 00:04:36,236 He was an inventor. He invented roller skates. 45 00:04:36,287 --> 00:04:38,005 He invented the clock. 46 00:04:38,047 --> 00:04:40,038 But he was no gentleman, 47 00:04:40,087 --> 00:04:45,207 and yet Gainsborough gives him all the airs of an aristocrat... 48 00:04:45,247 --> 00:04:47,715 his hand in his rather elegant coat, 49 00:04:47,767 --> 00:04:51,362 and in his left hand, another of his little inventions. 50 00:04:51,407 --> 00:04:54,399 This is a device for checking 51 00:04:54,447 --> 00:04:56,915 that a gold sovereign was of the correct weight, 52 00:04:56,967 --> 00:04:58,764 because prosperity, 53 00:04:58,807 --> 00:05:02,720 that was the key to power in this new age. 54 00:05:24,847 --> 00:05:27,486 There's something very refreshing about these paintings. 55 00:05:27,527 --> 00:05:30,166 They're quite unlike what had gone before. 56 00:05:30,207 --> 00:05:35,884 There's a sort of innocent pleasure in dressing up in fine clothes. 57 00:05:40,327 --> 00:05:43,399 Innocent pleasure, if a bit sentimental, 58 00:05:43,447 --> 00:05:46,723 in children playing with their dogs or in the countryside. 59 00:05:46,767 --> 00:05:52,125 And these are the paintings, remember, commissioned by this new class of people, 60 00:05:52,167 --> 00:05:55,239 people who weren't ashamed of their wealth, 61 00:05:55,287 --> 00:05:57,437 but wanted to be seen to enjoy it. 62 00:06:16,287 --> 00:06:19,597 Commerce and trade changed the face of Britain. 63 00:06:21,167 --> 00:06:25,160 A network of canals threaded their way through the countryside, 64 00:06:25,207 --> 00:06:28,756 to speed the movement of goods and raw materials. 65 00:06:28,807 --> 00:06:32,083 And entrepreneurs seized the opportunities this offered. 66 00:06:44,127 --> 00:06:45,526 In the mid-1 8th century, 67 00:06:45,567 --> 00:06:48,764 Stoke-on-Trent was at the heart of the Potteries, 68 00:06:48,807 --> 00:06:53,198 great industry, of which very little remains, just the occasional kiln. 69 00:06:53,247 --> 00:06:54,646 But back then, 70 00:06:54,687 --> 00:06:58,282 it was dirty and dangerous work producing pots. 71 00:06:58,327 --> 00:07:01,160 The potters used to suffer from terrible diseases, 72 00:07:01,207 --> 00:07:03,038 partly the lead in the glaze 73 00:07:03,087 --> 00:07:06,124 which gave them lung disease called ''potter's rot''. 74 00:07:06,167 --> 00:07:11,605 And the pots they made were fairly crude, using the local dark clay. 75 00:07:11,647 --> 00:07:15,606 And then a man, a local man, decided to change all that. 76 00:07:15,647 --> 00:07:19,322 His name was Josiah Wedgwood. 77 00:07:24,367 --> 00:07:28,042 Wedgwood, the 1 2th child of a poor family, 78 00:07:28,087 --> 00:07:30,157 was apprenticed into the Potteries. 79 00:07:30,207 --> 00:07:34,803 But his genius for design and scientific invention 80 00:07:34,847 --> 00:07:37,805 soon marked him out as more than a mere potter. 81 00:07:42,847 --> 00:07:48,638 Wedgwood pushed the boundaries of his art, experimenting with materials, 82 00:07:48,687 --> 00:07:53,442 opening up a new market with his distinctive blue and white designs, 83 00:07:53,487 --> 00:07:55,762 known as jasper ware. 84 00:08:00,687 --> 00:08:04,600 Wedgwood was a restless perfectionist, 85 00:08:04,647 --> 00:08:09,402 wanting to produce impeccable work, like these jasper teapots. 86 00:08:09,447 --> 00:08:13,725 He'd search for clay in Devon, in Cornwall, in America, 87 00:08:13,767 --> 00:08:17,646 anywhere in the world, to try and find the finest possible material, 88 00:08:17,687 --> 00:08:23,205 so that he could produce works that were as neat, as clear as this. 89 00:08:30,527 --> 00:08:34,202 He was obsessed with getting the colours exactly right 90 00:08:34,247 --> 00:08:36,158 and he experimented all the time. 91 00:08:36,207 --> 00:08:38,243 These are some of his experiments... 92 00:08:38,287 --> 00:08:41,597 These are little pieces of clay mixed with different minerals, 93 00:08:41,647 --> 00:08:43,285 each one numbered 94 00:08:43,327 --> 00:08:47,798 and each one with instructions of where they should go in the kiln, 95 00:08:47,847 --> 00:08:49,246 or the so-called ''biscuit oven''. 96 00:08:49,287 --> 00:08:52,199 MBO - middle of the biscuit oven. 97 00:08:52,247 --> 00:08:54,886 TBO - top of the biscuit oven. 98 00:08:54,927 --> 00:08:58,761 TTBO - tiptop of the biscuit oven. 99 00:09:00,327 --> 00:09:02,283 What a labour! 100 00:09:06,007 --> 00:09:11,001 All these experiments led to this - Wedgwood's great masterpiece. 101 00:09:12,687 --> 00:09:15,918 This is the Portland Vase. 102 00:09:15,967 --> 00:09:20,040 And it's a copy of a Roman vase 103 00:09:20,087 --> 00:09:23,238 that was brought to England in the 1 78Os, 104 00:09:23,287 --> 00:09:26,723 exhibited at the British Museum and caused a huge stir. 105 00:09:26,767 --> 00:09:29,406 People were so astonished by its beauty. 106 00:09:29,447 --> 00:09:31,836 They went to look at it, queued up to see it. 107 00:09:31,887 --> 00:09:36,119 And Wedgwood, always one with a sharp eye, 108 00:09:36,167 --> 00:09:39,125 decided he'd make a copy of it. 109 00:09:39,167 --> 00:09:40,566 And this is the copy. 110 00:09:40,607 --> 00:09:42,518 If you were rich enough, 111 00:09:42,567 --> 00:09:47,083 you could have the actual copy of the Roman vase in your house. 112 00:09:47,127 --> 00:09:48,606 But it wasn't easy to do, 113 00:09:48,647 --> 00:09:54,483 because the original Roman one was made of glass that had been blown. 114 00:09:54,527 --> 00:09:58,645 He had to use his own clay to make it, 115 00:09:58,687 --> 00:10:00,996 and so he started experimenting, 116 00:10:01,047 --> 00:10:04,835 and it took him over three years to get it right. 117 00:10:04,887 --> 00:10:08,482 Look, here's one that went wrong, with these bubbles on. 118 00:10:10,927 --> 00:10:16,524 Here's another one where the figures have started falling off, crumbling. 119 00:10:16,567 --> 00:10:21,038 And here's one that's almost perfect that he kept for himself. 120 00:10:21,087 --> 00:10:24,636 This is actually Josiah Wedgwood's own Portland Vase. 121 00:10:26,567 --> 00:10:30,845 In the end, he got it right and started producing these, 122 00:10:30,887 --> 00:10:33,242 and they're still produced even to this day. 123 00:11:09,447 --> 00:11:13,645 If I talk to you, will you lose your concentration? 124 00:11:13,687 --> 00:11:15,484 - No, you're all right. - Will you? 125 00:11:15,527 --> 00:11:17,358 - Oh, you're all right? - Yes. 126 00:11:17,407 --> 00:11:19,318 - How many have you made? - Over a hundred. 127 00:11:19,367 --> 00:11:22,723 How many went wrong in the process of making a hundred? 128 00:11:22,767 --> 00:11:24,359 Oh, quite a few! 129 00:11:24,407 --> 00:11:29,686 - How do you know? Is this right so far? - This one's all right so far. 130 00:11:29,727 --> 00:11:30,921 - Is it? - Yes. 131 00:11:30,967 --> 00:11:32,525 Can it still go wrong at this stage? 132 00:11:32,567 --> 00:11:35,206 - It can still go wrong, yes. - What could happen? 133 00:11:35,247 --> 00:11:38,364 - It could still collapse. - You're looking a bit anxious. 134 00:11:38,407 --> 00:11:39,999 (THEY CHUCKLE) 135 00:11:43,167 --> 00:11:45,317 Wa-ay! 136 00:11:48,287 --> 00:11:51,563 I only once made a pot, and it started all right 137 00:11:51,607 --> 00:11:53,882 and then it went r-u-u-m, r-u-u-m and bussht! 138 00:11:58,727 --> 00:12:00,126 RAYMOND: Right, I think that's it. 139 00:12:00,167 --> 00:12:01,395 - Job done? - Yes. 140 00:12:01,447 --> 00:12:04,359 - Nice to meet you, anyway. - Terrific! 141 00:12:04,407 --> 00:12:06,125 Thank you so much. 142 00:12:36,447 --> 00:12:41,441 The mass-marketing of luxury goods meant it was no longerjust aristocrats 143 00:12:41,487 --> 00:12:43,398 who could buy fine things. 144 00:12:46,087 --> 00:12:50,478 Palatial homes for rich merchants sprang up across Britain 145 00:12:50,527 --> 00:12:53,599 and their houses needed furnishings to match. 146 00:12:57,007 --> 00:12:59,965 One innovator with an eye for the main chance 147 00:13:00,007 --> 00:13:03,044 was the furniture-maker Thomas Chippendale. 148 00:13:04,967 --> 00:13:08,198 Chippendale published catalogues of his work 149 00:13:08,247 --> 00:13:13,367 to enable consumers to choose exactly which ornate designs 150 00:13:13,407 --> 00:13:15,079 would look right in their homes. 151 00:13:16,647 --> 00:13:20,799 His Gentleman And Cabinet-Maker's Director of 1 754 152 00:13:20,847 --> 00:13:23,964 was the IKEA catalogue of its day. 153 00:13:39,927 --> 00:13:43,476 Nostell Priory is a treasure trove of Chippendale. 154 00:13:43,527 --> 00:13:47,520 They have well over a hundred major pieces of furniture. 155 00:13:47,567 --> 00:13:50,400 7 4 chairs alone. 156 00:13:50,447 --> 00:13:53,120 Like this one - rather theatrical, 157 00:13:53,167 --> 00:13:56,079 not a particularly practical sort of chair to sit on. 158 00:13:56,127 --> 00:13:58,118 But it's not just chairs they've got. 159 00:14:02,007 --> 00:14:05,079 This is a fine gentleman's dressing table. 160 00:14:05,127 --> 00:14:09,439 A mirror, a basin here would've had the water in. 161 00:14:09,487 --> 00:14:13,605 Various pots for ointments, glass bottles. 162 00:14:15,647 --> 00:14:19,686 A set of six cut-throat razors, one for each day of the week. 163 00:14:19,727 --> 00:14:22,082 They didn't, apparently, shave on a Sunday. 164 00:14:22,127 --> 00:14:24,436 But the razors are numbered one to six. 165 00:14:26,007 --> 00:14:28,202 A tongue-scraper, 166 00:14:28,247 --> 00:14:29,839 for cleaning your tongue. 167 00:14:29,887 --> 00:14:31,366 Very ingenious! 168 00:14:36,767 --> 00:14:40,442 And in here, a different kind of Chippendale, flamboyant Chippendale. 169 00:14:43,327 --> 00:14:47,525 This is Chippendale building furniture in the Chinese style 170 00:14:47,567 --> 00:14:49,159 which was all the rage at the time. 171 00:14:49,207 --> 00:14:51,926 This beautiful, complex mirror. 172 00:14:51,967 --> 00:14:54,925 And over here, a clothes press, 173 00:14:54,967 --> 00:14:58,960 green lacquer with this gold. 174 00:14:59,007 --> 00:15:01,237 People sitting around the table here. 175 00:15:01,287 --> 00:15:04,438 A child with a dog barking at him down there. 176 00:15:04,487 --> 00:15:06,284 And if you open it, 177 00:15:06,327 --> 00:15:10,843 this pale green turns into this most beautiful, luscious emerald green 178 00:15:10,887 --> 00:15:12,479 where it hasn't been faded, 179 00:15:12,527 --> 00:15:16,042 the whole thing transporting you to the Far East. 180 00:15:20,687 --> 00:15:23,406 This is one of the finest rooms in Nostell, 181 00:15:23,447 --> 00:15:27,156 but it's a bit different from all the others. 182 00:15:27,207 --> 00:15:31,166 It's actually part of the Nostell doll's house. 183 00:15:31,207 --> 00:15:32,765 Look at that. 184 00:15:32,807 --> 00:15:35,879 It was made not for the children of the house 185 00:15:35,927 --> 00:15:38,725 but for the lady of the house 186 00:15:38,767 --> 00:15:42,680 to display the grandeur of her house to her friends, and her wealth, 187 00:15:42,727 --> 00:15:46,322 and it's so finely made that some people say 188 00:15:46,367 --> 00:15:49,484 that the actual bits of furniture were made by Chippendale himself. 189 00:15:53,047 --> 00:15:54,560 The detail is exquisite. 190 00:15:54,607 --> 00:15:57,599 These little silver plates, the fireplaces, 191 00:15:57,647 --> 00:16:00,320 this grand marble fireplace here. 192 00:16:06,047 --> 00:16:10,279 It's so beautifully made, this, so finely done, all this furniture. 193 00:16:10,327 --> 00:16:15,162 It makes me feel like a giant looking in on Nostell itself. 194 00:16:32,527 --> 00:16:35,439 Along with the fine objects that filled their homes, 195 00:16:35,487 --> 00:16:41,801 Britain's new elite was keen to embrace culture and learning as well. 196 00:16:43,847 --> 00:16:47,362 One man, above all, showed them the way. 197 00:16:47,407 --> 00:16:51,605 Dr Samuel Johnson, the son of a struggling bookseller, 198 00:16:51,647 --> 00:16:55,401 rose to become one of the most esteemed personalities of the age. 199 00:16:55,447 --> 00:17:00,441 In the house where he grew up is a copy of his greatest work. 200 00:17:06,247 --> 00:17:11,560 In 1 755, Johnson's great masterpiece was published. 201 00:17:11,607 --> 00:17:14,804 It wasn't poetry, it wasn't a novel, 202 00:17:14,847 --> 00:17:18,726 it wasn't biography, it wasn't a play, though he wrote all of those. 203 00:17:18,767 --> 00:17:25,002 It was this two-volume Dr Johnson's Dictionary Of The English Language. 204 00:17:25,047 --> 00:17:29,962 This was a labour of love for Johnson, though at times, of course, 205 00:17:30,007 --> 00:17:32,362 he despaired that he'd ever finish it. 206 00:17:32,407 --> 00:17:37,435 Every single word written by him, with just a handful of assistants helping. 207 00:17:37,487 --> 00:17:40,638 Over 42,OOO entries. 208 00:17:40,687 --> 00:17:45,715 This became the book that everybody who professed to be intelligent had to have. 209 00:17:45,767 --> 00:17:49,476 And when you browse through it, you can see exactly why. 210 00:17:49,527 --> 00:17:52,485 It's full of the most marvellous definition, 211 00:17:52,527 --> 00:17:58,841 but followed by magical description of how the word has been used in the past. 212 00:17:58,887 --> 00:18:00,684 A bedpresser. 213 00:18:00,727 --> 00:18:05,562 ''A heavy, lazy fellow'', and he quotes from Shakespeare's Henry IV. 214 00:18:05,607 --> 00:18:10,158 ''This sanguine coward, this bedpresser, this horse back-breaker, 215 00:18:10,207 --> 00:18:12,801 ''this huge hill of flesh.'' 216 00:18:12,847 --> 00:18:14,565 He was great on insults. 217 00:18:14,607 --> 00:18:20,682 Our insults, sadly, are rather limited and often start with the F-word. 218 00:18:20,727 --> 00:18:24,163 If you look at Johnson's F-words, 219 00:18:24,207 --> 00:18:28,917 we get fat-witted, flagitious, a flasher. 220 00:18:28,967 --> 00:18:34,280 Not what you think - ''a man of more appearance of wit than reality''. 221 00:18:34,327 --> 00:18:36,238 Footlicker. 222 00:18:36,287 --> 00:18:38,642 A fopdoodle. 223 00:18:38,687 --> 00:18:40,678 A fopdoodle is an insignificant wretch. 224 00:18:40,727 --> 00:18:45,198 Or how about calling somebody a fustilarian? 225 00:18:45,247 --> 00:18:48,398 ''A low fellow, a stinkard, a scoundrel'', 226 00:18:48,447 --> 00:18:52,360 and he says, interestingly, ''a word used by Shakespeare only''. 227 00:18:52,407 --> 00:18:55,763 ''Away, you scullion, you rampallion, you fustilarian, 228 00:18:55,807 --> 00:18:58,799 ''I'll tickle your catastrophe.'' 229 00:19:17,047 --> 00:19:22,565 In 1 7o7, the Act of Union had united England and Scotland 230 00:19:22,607 --> 00:19:25,246 into one single political entity - 231 00:19:25,287 --> 00:19:27,881 Great Britain. 232 00:19:27,927 --> 00:19:31,522 Travel and communication became faster and safer, 233 00:19:31,567 --> 00:19:34,877 transforming the fortunes of both countries. 234 00:19:42,287 --> 00:19:45,165 Most Scots strongly objected to the Act of Union. 235 00:19:45,207 --> 00:19:48,836 But it did bring benefits, not least free trade. 236 00:19:48,887 --> 00:19:51,606 Access to England's markets overseas, in the colonies, 237 00:19:51,647 --> 00:19:55,606 particularly America, meant that Scotland became prosperous. 238 00:19:55,647 --> 00:19:57,319 And by the middle of the century 239 00:19:57,367 --> 00:20:00,245 its economy was growing faster than that of England. 240 00:20:00,287 --> 00:20:06,681 And it wasn't just trade. The prosperity also brought a new ferment of ideas, 241 00:20:06,727 --> 00:20:13,121 so that for a time, Scotland was the intellectual powerhouse of Europe. 242 00:20:17,887 --> 00:20:23,086 Nothing reveals this change more than Edinburgh New Town. 243 00:20:24,127 --> 00:20:28,166 It was begun, at vast expense, in the 1 76os. 244 00:20:28,207 --> 00:20:33,235 With its wide, light-filled avenues built on a rational grid formation, 245 00:20:33,287 --> 00:20:36,006 it complemented Edinburgh's new-found reputation 246 00:20:36,047 --> 00:20:38,356 as the Athens of the North. 247 00:20:41,647 --> 00:20:45,879 It wasn't the architecture that excited admiration, grand though it was. 248 00:20:45,927 --> 00:20:49,476 It was the great minds who lived here. 249 00:20:49,527 --> 00:20:53,645 A visiting Englishman said he could stand in the middle of town 250 00:20:53,687 --> 00:20:59,922 and in a few minutes, grasp 5O people of genius and learning by the hand. 251 00:20:59,967 --> 00:21:03,516 England might have its artists and its designers. 252 00:21:03,567 --> 00:21:07,355 Scotland had philosophers and scientists, 253 00:21:07,407 --> 00:21:11,082 people who changed the way we thought of the world. 254 00:21:13,407 --> 00:21:16,365 Dr William Hunter was one of the many Scots 255 00:21:16,407 --> 00:21:21,435 who epitomised this new spirit of intellectual inquiry. 256 00:21:21,487 --> 00:21:25,446 He was a leading anatomist and male midwife. 257 00:21:28,087 --> 00:21:31,124 Hunter was also a lover of art 258 00:21:31,167 --> 00:21:34,079 and he brought art and science together 259 00:21:34,127 --> 00:21:37,437 to unlock some of the great mysteries of the age. 260 00:21:51,727 --> 00:21:56,642 This is the culmination of an astonishing life's work. 261 00:21:56,687 --> 00:22:03,035 These are plaster casts of women who've died in childbirth, 262 00:22:03,087 --> 00:22:08,719 either in the hospital or perhaps bought from grave-robbers, 263 00:22:08,767 --> 00:22:10,246 which in the 1 8th century 264 00:22:10,287 --> 00:22:13,484 was a popular way of making a bit of money on the side. 265 00:22:13,527 --> 00:22:16,041 Hunter wouldn't care particularly 266 00:22:16,087 --> 00:22:18,965 as long as he could get bodies of dead women 267 00:22:19,007 --> 00:22:21,237 and study what went on inside the womb. 268 00:22:24,687 --> 00:22:27,599 And here you can clearly see what's gone wrong. 269 00:22:27,647 --> 00:22:30,366 The child has got its umbilical cord round its neck, 270 00:22:30,407 --> 00:22:32,443 which would be dangerous were it to be born, 271 00:22:32,487 --> 00:22:34,637 but it's also in the breach position. 272 00:22:34,687 --> 00:22:38,202 It's going to be born bottom first, head upwards. 273 00:22:38,247 --> 00:22:43,446 And then next to it, this beautiful... it's like a sculpture, this child, 274 00:22:43,487 --> 00:22:47,639 lying curled up with its arms furled and its feet tucked in. 275 00:22:49,927 --> 00:22:52,202 But Hunter wanted to go further than that. 276 00:22:52,247 --> 00:22:57,719 He wanted to show every detail with ruthless precision and accuracy, 277 00:22:57,767 --> 00:22:59,803 and to do that, he needed an artist. 278 00:22:59,847 --> 00:23:04,523 And very fine the drawings that artist produced are, 279 00:23:04,567 --> 00:23:10,199 in red chalk, pictures of exactly the same stages of childbirth 280 00:23:10,247 --> 00:23:12,238 that were in the plaster casts. 281 00:23:16,207 --> 00:23:18,323 These very fine lines, 282 00:23:18,367 --> 00:23:21,598 creases on the womb. 283 00:23:21,647 --> 00:23:24,605 This one is spectacular. 284 00:23:24,647 --> 00:23:26,683 Drawn in 1 75O. 285 00:23:26,727 --> 00:23:32,677 And interestingly, it's completely unprudish about the woman's private parts. 286 00:23:32,727 --> 00:23:37,562 Though here, the artist has become a little bit more squeamish 287 00:23:37,607 --> 00:23:39,325 and covered the private parts with a book, 288 00:23:39,367 --> 00:23:42,200 and the womb's still the same. 289 00:23:45,127 --> 00:23:51,566 This was the first time that people had been able to see into the womb 290 00:23:51,607 --> 00:23:55,361 and watch how the child developed and watch why children died 291 00:23:55,407 --> 00:23:57,477 and mothers died in childbirth. 292 00:23:57,527 --> 00:24:01,156 It was an astonishing achievement of William Hunter's. 293 00:24:17,527 --> 00:24:22,078 If Scotland was the new intellectual hub of the nation, 294 00:24:22,127 --> 00:24:24,118 London was the business capital. 295 00:24:27,687 --> 00:24:30,201 Here, money ruled. 296 00:24:30,247 --> 00:24:33,796 Fortunes were made and broken overnight. 297 00:24:39,567 --> 00:24:43,845 The Italian artist Canaletto, best known for his paintings of Venice, 298 00:24:43,887 --> 00:24:46,321 was fascinated by London. 299 00:24:48,647 --> 00:24:53,198 He captured its grandeur in his own inimitable style, 300 00:24:53,247 --> 00:24:55,761 embellishing it a bit in the process. 301 00:24:58,127 --> 00:25:01,278 But there was a seamier side to the city. 302 00:25:01,327 --> 00:25:07,402 One London-born painter determined to reveal it was William Hogarth. 303 00:25:07,447 --> 00:25:10,723 Though Hogarth rose to the top of his profession, 304 00:25:10,767 --> 00:25:13,156 he never forgot the poverty of his youth. 305 00:25:22,847 --> 00:25:28,285 Tucked away in this tiny, but packed museum 306 00:25:28,327 --> 00:25:31,319 is Hogarth's greatest masterpiece. 307 00:25:41,847 --> 00:25:45,476 This is The Rake's Progress by Hogarth, 308 00:25:45,527 --> 00:25:47,563 the story of the decline and fall 309 00:25:47,607 --> 00:25:50,167 of a rich young man who comes to the City. 310 00:25:50,207 --> 00:25:55,520 It's a morality tale about the evils of 1 8th-century life, 311 00:25:55,567 --> 00:25:58,035 of the effects of too much money, 312 00:25:58,087 --> 00:26:01,363 of drunkenness, of whoring, 313 00:26:01,407 --> 00:26:04,126 of gambling. But, being Hogarth, 314 00:26:04,167 --> 00:26:07,682 he doesn't bludgeon the audience with his message. 315 00:26:07,727 --> 00:26:11,720 He does it all with terrific mischief and a sense of humour. 316 00:26:11,767 --> 00:26:13,997 The story starts 317 00:26:14,047 --> 00:26:17,722 with Tom Rakewell inheriting from his father, 318 00:26:17,767 --> 00:26:18,756 and there's Tom 319 00:26:18,807 --> 00:26:22,561 in the middle of the room being measured for a new suit 320 00:26:22,607 --> 00:26:27,283 to go to London - something he can now afford. And around, 321 00:26:27,327 --> 00:26:29,283 all the signs of his father's miserliness. 322 00:26:29,327 --> 00:26:30,840 A chest full of silver. 323 00:26:30,887 --> 00:26:34,482 There's a lawyer doing the accounts to show Tom his new wealth, 324 00:26:34,527 --> 00:26:37,803 and of course the wealth goes to his head. 325 00:26:37,847 --> 00:26:42,159 He abandons the girl who he's promised to marry - Sarah, the maid - 326 00:26:42,207 --> 00:26:46,917 who's standing there in the corner holding the wedding ring, rather forlorn, 327 00:26:46,967 --> 00:26:50,676 while an older woman points to the maid's stomach, to Sarah, 328 00:26:50,727 --> 00:26:53,366 to show that she's actually pregnant. 329 00:26:54,887 --> 00:26:56,400 Does Tom care? No. 330 00:26:56,447 --> 00:27:01,999 Tom goes off to London and, in a moment, is surrounded by all the temptations. 331 00:27:02,047 --> 00:27:04,436 There he is getting dressed in front of all the people 332 00:27:04,487 --> 00:27:07,081 who dance attendance on him. 333 00:27:07,127 --> 00:27:12,679 Silver toque on his head where his wig will go. On the left, the music teacher 334 00:27:12,727 --> 00:27:15,525 wanting to teach him to play Handel. 335 00:27:15,567 --> 00:27:19,446 The dancing master on tiptoe with his violin. 336 00:27:20,967 --> 00:27:22,719 Down here, there's a jockey 337 00:27:22,767 --> 00:27:27,318 with a great silver cup and a whip showing him the winnings he could have. 338 00:27:27,367 --> 00:27:29,005 And a man comes approaching him 339 00:27:29,047 --> 00:27:31,925 with a note of recommendation from another employer. 340 00:27:31,967 --> 00:27:37,837 So, there he is, surrounded by everything that the great city has to offer. 341 00:27:39,087 --> 00:27:44,002 All the tricks of the trade for which, of course, he will fall, and fall he does. 342 00:27:44,047 --> 00:27:48,484 In picture number three, this is the Rose Tavern - 343 00:27:48,527 --> 00:27:54,397 a famous St James' brothel. And there's Tom, drunk. 344 00:27:54,447 --> 00:27:58,042 Clearly he's drunk. He's got a glass of wine and there's wine all around. 345 00:27:58,087 --> 00:27:59,645 Shirt's undone, 346 00:27:59,687 --> 00:28:03,999 his sword hanging limply by his side, 347 00:28:04,047 --> 00:28:07,562 a sort of symbol that with drunkenness his virility has gone. 348 00:28:07,607 --> 00:28:14,797 And the girls all have black spots to cover syphilitic sores. 349 00:28:14,847 --> 00:28:18,317 It's a scene of debauchery 350 00:28:18,367 --> 00:28:21,439 and chaos - the chaos into which Tom's life 351 00:28:21,487 --> 00:28:26,481 has already descended. And the consequences follow soon. 352 00:28:28,807 --> 00:28:31,082 He gets arrested. 353 00:28:31,127 --> 00:28:32,845 He's on his way to St James's Palace 354 00:28:32,887 --> 00:28:36,436 to go to court. He's dressed in all his finery, 355 00:28:36,487 --> 00:28:38,637 but his wig comes askew 356 00:28:38,687 --> 00:28:41,759 as a man comes up to dun him for his debts. 357 00:28:41,807 --> 00:28:46,005 And who should appear to try and rescue him? 358 00:28:46,047 --> 00:28:49,403 Sarah, the girl that he betrayed. 359 00:28:49,447 --> 00:28:54,441 She's offering him a little bag of money to pay his debts. 360 00:28:54,487 --> 00:28:56,603 So what happens then? 361 00:28:56,647 --> 00:29:00,765 In despair, Tom decides to get married. 362 00:29:01,847 --> 00:29:03,644 He takes the obvious course 363 00:29:03,687 --> 00:29:06,838 of looking for a rich widow in need of a husband. 364 00:29:06,887 --> 00:29:10,926 And choosing a really rich woman, he can't afford to be too picky 365 00:29:10,967 --> 00:29:12,286 about what she looks like - 366 00:29:12,327 --> 00:29:16,559 one-eyed and squat and dumpy. 367 00:29:16,607 --> 00:29:20,566 And his eyes are actually looking past her 368 00:29:20,607 --> 00:29:25,283 to the buxom young servant girl who's dressing her for the marriage. 369 00:29:26,887 --> 00:29:30,357 But there's another bit of morality tale here because... 370 00:29:30,407 --> 00:29:34,923 being denied entrance to the church to complain about the marriage 371 00:29:34,967 --> 00:29:37,435 is Sarah once again. 372 00:29:37,487 --> 00:29:42,117 This time, Sarah carrying her little baby in her arms. 373 00:29:44,687 --> 00:29:47,360 Now, what effect does the marriage have? 374 00:29:47,407 --> 00:29:49,159 Does Tom sober up? 375 00:29:49,207 --> 00:29:52,005 He's got the money, he can now lead a respectable life, 376 00:29:52,047 --> 00:29:55,801 and no doubt he could still have the odd maid from time to time. Uh-uh. 377 00:29:55,847 --> 00:29:57,075 He goes off gambling. 378 00:29:58,327 --> 00:30:01,797 And this is the final downfall of Tom. 379 00:30:01,847 --> 00:30:03,485 Here he is at the gaming tables. 380 00:30:03,527 --> 00:30:05,882 He's just lost a large sum of money. 381 00:30:05,927 --> 00:30:09,840 In fact, everybody here seems to have lost money. 382 00:30:11,447 --> 00:30:15,645 And here in the centre, Tom with a kind of manic look in his eyes, 383 00:30:15,687 --> 00:30:18,884 shaking his fist and cursing his misfortune 384 00:30:18,927 --> 00:30:21,043 that all his money is gone. 385 00:30:21,087 --> 00:30:22,600 His wig's fallen off. 386 00:30:22,647 --> 00:30:24,524 On the floor, the chair's fallen over. 387 00:30:26,487 --> 00:30:30,321 And finally, he does get dunned for his debt. 388 00:30:30,367 --> 00:30:32,597 He's thrown into the debtors' prison. 389 00:30:34,367 --> 00:30:41,159 And here he is in the Fleet looking distraught. 390 00:30:41,207 --> 00:30:44,005 On his left sits the wife, 391 00:30:44,047 --> 00:30:47,722 whose money he's spent, scolding him. 392 00:30:47,767 --> 00:30:52,124 One person again comes to rescue him. 393 00:30:52,167 --> 00:30:55,921 And it's Sarah, who comes and sees him 394 00:30:55,967 --> 00:30:58,162 in the debtor prison 395 00:30:58,207 --> 00:31:00,004 and faints away 396 00:31:00,047 --> 00:31:03,357 and has to be given smelling salts to revive her. 397 00:31:03,407 --> 00:31:07,366 And at the bottom, tugging at her mother's dress, 398 00:31:07,407 --> 00:31:10,365 is the child that she and Tom had. 399 00:31:10,407 --> 00:31:12,443 The child obviously looking 400 00:31:12,487 --> 00:31:16,719 anxious, distressed, angry at what's happened to her mother. 401 00:31:16,767 --> 00:31:18,678 And it gets worse. 402 00:31:21,207 --> 00:31:23,926 He ends up in Bedlam - 403 00:31:23,967 --> 00:31:25,719 the lunatic asylum, 404 00:31:25,767 --> 00:31:31,285 the place that ladies of fashion came to visit simply to gawp 405 00:31:31,327 --> 00:31:36,401 at this ghastly dance of the mad. 406 00:31:41,887 --> 00:31:48,281 This huge figure is Tom, chained up for his own safety, 407 00:31:48,327 --> 00:31:50,682 gone mad and, once again, 408 00:31:50,727 --> 00:31:56,643 Sarah in this final scene, weeping over Tom 409 00:31:56,687 --> 00:31:58,962 and over what might have been 410 00:31:59,007 --> 00:32:01,202 and over the destruction of his life. 411 00:32:04,727 --> 00:32:10,643 It's an extraordinary story, and Hogarth tells it in a way 412 00:32:10,687 --> 00:32:13,281 that makes us feel a kind of sympathy for Tom. 413 00:32:13,327 --> 00:32:16,842 But, at the same time, 414 00:32:16,887 --> 00:32:20,960 with a humour but also with a passion. 415 00:32:21,007 --> 00:32:23,680 It's perhaps because Hogarth himself understood, 416 00:32:23,727 --> 00:32:25,604 knew what the 1 8th century was like. 417 00:32:25,647 --> 00:32:27,524 If you were up, you were up. 418 00:32:27,567 --> 00:32:29,285 If you were rich, you were fine. 419 00:32:29,327 --> 00:32:33,525 If you fell into poverty, your life could be hell. 420 00:32:49,527 --> 00:32:53,725 For Hogarth, it wasn't enough just to depict the miseries of the poor. 421 00:32:53,767 --> 00:32:58,716 He wanted to do his bit to alleviate their suffering. 422 00:33:06,647 --> 00:33:11,516 In the 1 8th century, the children of the poorest families were very vulnerable. 423 00:33:11,567 --> 00:33:16,277 Three out of four died before they were six years old. 424 00:33:16,327 --> 00:33:20,764 Thousands more were abandoned by mothers either too young or too poor 425 00:33:20,807 --> 00:33:24,322 or perhaps ashamed of having a child outside marriage. 426 00:33:24,367 --> 00:33:28,440 And each day, young infants, wrapped up, were found in doorways, 427 00:33:28,487 --> 00:33:31,923 outside churches, left abandoned by their mothers. 428 00:33:31,967 --> 00:33:35,926 Children literally thrown away like rubbish. 429 00:33:42,407 --> 00:33:45,160 Hogarth was so horrified 430 00:33:45,207 --> 00:33:49,120 by such sights that he gave his services as patron and governor 431 00:33:49,167 --> 00:33:51,840 to help the wealthy merchant Thomas Coram 432 00:33:51,887 --> 00:33:55,596 create London's first sanctuary for abandoned children. 433 00:34:00,767 --> 00:34:06,444 The Foundling Hospital opened its doors in 1 7 4 1. 434 00:34:14,207 --> 00:34:17,324 From the moment the hospital opened, there was a huge demand 435 00:34:17,367 --> 00:34:20,120 from mothers wanting to leave their children here. 436 00:34:20,167 --> 00:34:23,318 So much so that in the early days, they devised a ballot system 437 00:34:23,367 --> 00:34:26,723 to decide which children to take. It must've been very gruesome. 438 00:34:26,767 --> 00:34:29,361 The mothers came with their children 439 00:34:29,407 --> 00:34:33,605 and dipped their hands in a bag and took out a coloured ball. 440 00:34:33,647 --> 00:34:37,925 White ball - relief - it meant your child would be taken into the hospital, 441 00:34:37,967 --> 00:34:39,480 subject to a medical test. 442 00:34:39,527 --> 00:34:43,884 Red ball - on tenterhooks - it was put on a waiting list. 443 00:34:43,927 --> 00:34:48,318 Black ball - disaster - the child was turned away. 444 00:34:48,367 --> 00:34:52,042 Pure chance. Just a lottery. 445 00:34:54,807 --> 00:34:56,240 Then, when they were left here, 446 00:34:56,287 --> 00:34:59,518 the mothers wanted to leave something of themselves with the child, 447 00:34:59,567 --> 00:35:01,922 and so these tokens... 448 00:35:03,607 --> 00:35:05,962 ...were often given to the hospital, 449 00:35:06,007 --> 00:35:07,884 partly to identify the child, 450 00:35:07,927 --> 00:35:11,397 partly that the child might feel some connection with the mother. 451 00:35:14,727 --> 00:35:17,605 This, for instance. 452 00:35:17,647 --> 00:35:21,037 A little circle of crystal. 453 00:35:22,007 --> 00:35:25,761 Almost looks as if it's been taken off a chandelier, 454 00:35:25,807 --> 00:35:28,321 because it's not anything you could wear. 455 00:35:30,287 --> 00:35:33,484 Or this...rather more humble. 456 00:35:33,527 --> 00:35:35,836 A thimble. 457 00:35:35,887 --> 00:35:39,004 This is thought to be a gambling token. 458 00:35:40,327 --> 00:35:42,363 A little ivory fish. 459 00:35:44,487 --> 00:35:49,720 This is a very beautiful, heart-shaped mother-of-pearl, 460 00:35:49,767 --> 00:35:52,884 with the initials EL. 461 00:35:52,927 --> 00:35:54,883 Really pretty. 462 00:35:54,927 --> 00:35:58,602 And this one, which is a giveaway, isn't it? 463 00:35:58,647 --> 00:36:00,603 This was a token left by a mother 464 00:36:00,647 --> 00:36:02,956 and it just says ''ale''. 465 00:36:03,007 --> 00:36:06,283 It would've hung around a beerjug. 466 00:36:07,327 --> 00:36:10,444 They're absolutely fascinating, 467 00:36:10,487 --> 00:36:13,047 but the really moving thing about them is 468 00:36:13,087 --> 00:36:15,521 they were never given to the children. 469 00:36:15,567 --> 00:36:20,846 The mothers left them, the hospital locked them up, carefully indexed, 470 00:36:20,887 --> 00:36:22,718 but never let the children have them 471 00:36:22,767 --> 00:36:26,203 because they didn't want the children to know where they came from, 472 00:36:26,247 --> 00:36:29,319 except if the mother came back to claim the child, 473 00:36:29,367 --> 00:36:32,040 which did occasionally happen but very, very rarely. 474 00:36:32,087 --> 00:36:37,036 Only one in 1 OO mothers returned here looking for their children. 475 00:36:52,807 --> 00:36:57,278 There was more to this place than just looking after abandoned children. 476 00:36:57,327 --> 00:37:01,240 The Foundling Hospital was a fashionable charity. 477 00:37:01,287 --> 00:37:04,723 People in the upper reaches of London society supported it, 478 00:37:04,767 --> 00:37:07,201 the artistic elite supported it. 479 00:37:07,247 --> 00:37:10,523 Handel came here and, for free, conducted the Messiah 480 00:37:10,567 --> 00:37:13,525 on nine different occasions as a fundraiser. 481 00:37:13,567 --> 00:37:18,277 Hogarth persuaded painters - Gainsborough, Reynolds and others - 482 00:37:18,327 --> 00:37:21,000 to paint their pictures and hang them here for free. 483 00:37:21,047 --> 00:37:22,878 And when people who were involved in the charity 484 00:37:22,927 --> 00:37:26,158 came here to look at the children, to leave a donation, 485 00:37:26,207 --> 00:37:29,597 they also came here to look at the pictures on the walls. 486 00:37:29,647 --> 00:37:34,323 This was the first public art gallery in Britain. 487 00:37:50,647 --> 00:37:53,559 The exhibitions at the Foundling Hospital 488 00:37:53,607 --> 00:37:56,758 gave artists the idea of displaying their work 489 00:37:56,807 --> 00:38:00,163 to a new, wider public with an appetite for culture. 490 00:38:03,207 --> 00:38:08,486 In 1 768, the leading artists of the day, with royal approval, 491 00:38:08,527 --> 00:38:12,759 set up an academy for the promotion of British art. 492 00:38:34,767 --> 00:38:38,157 We take academies and art galleries for granted now - 493 00:38:38,207 --> 00:38:40,562 after all, they're two a penny in London. 494 00:38:40,607 --> 00:38:44,395 But when the Royal Academy was founded in 1 768, 495 00:38:44,447 --> 00:38:48,406 it transformed the fortunes of British artists. 496 00:38:48,447 --> 00:38:53,396 It gave them the recognition they craved and deserved. 497 00:38:53,447 --> 00:38:57,440 And it also allowed them to make a bit of money in the process. 498 00:39:07,687 --> 00:39:12,238 The lifeblood of the Academy was the annual Summer Show. 499 00:39:12,287 --> 00:39:15,597 The policy was stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap. 500 00:39:17,487 --> 00:39:20,559 It was a hugely popular event, 501 00:39:20,607 --> 00:39:26,842 attracting up to 8o,ooo visitors a year. A place to see and be seen. 502 00:39:29,327 --> 00:39:33,559 But the Royal Academy wasn't just about shifting stock. 503 00:39:33,607 --> 00:39:36,075 It also took on students. 504 00:39:40,447 --> 00:39:44,918 Pupils here were subjected to the strict teachings of Joshua Reynolds, 505 00:39:44,967 --> 00:39:47,561 the first President of the Academy. 506 00:39:52,287 --> 00:39:56,121 Reynolds provided them with the rigorous classical training that they lacked. 507 00:39:56,167 --> 00:39:59,842 He taught a whole new generation of British artists how to draw. 508 00:39:59,887 --> 00:40:04,039 He believed that anyone could become a good artist 509 00:40:04,087 --> 00:40:06,157 if only they would follow the rules - 510 00:40:06,207 --> 00:40:08,163 the rules of course were his rules - 511 00:40:08,207 --> 00:40:11,119 as set out in his series of lectures, or discourses, 512 00:40:11,167 --> 00:40:13,522 which he gave to his fellow academicians 513 00:40:13,567 --> 00:40:15,797 and to students. 514 00:40:15,847 --> 00:40:18,042 What he encouraged them to do 515 00:40:18,087 --> 00:40:19,645 was to aim high, 516 00:40:19,687 --> 00:40:23,043 to pursue art with the same style and energy 517 00:40:23,087 --> 00:40:26,238 as the great masters of the Renaissance. 518 00:40:26,287 --> 00:40:29,006 And that way success lay. 519 00:40:32,247 --> 00:40:36,286 The Royal Academy made the decision, bold for the time, 520 00:40:36,327 --> 00:40:39,160 to accept women artists, 521 00:40:39,207 --> 00:40:41,721 although at the start very few applied. 522 00:40:43,687 --> 00:40:48,397 This painting shows the founding members of the Royal Academy 523 00:40:48,447 --> 00:40:50,358 at a life class. 524 00:40:50,407 --> 00:40:52,602 You'll notice they're all men. 525 00:40:52,647 --> 00:40:57,118 It was thought improper for women to draw naked models. 526 00:40:57,167 --> 00:41:01,558 The two female members have been relegated to a side wall - 527 00:41:01,607 --> 00:41:04,565 Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffmann. 528 00:41:06,807 --> 00:41:10,686 Angelica Kauffmann doesn't seem to have suffered all that much 529 00:41:10,727 --> 00:41:13,764 from not being allowed to draw in the life class, 530 00:41:13,807 --> 00:41:17,766 as these four magnificent roundels in the ceiling show. 531 00:41:17,807 --> 00:41:21,243 They are the allegorical depiction of the elements of art. 532 00:41:21,287 --> 00:41:23,847 Now, this one is Design, 533 00:41:23,887 --> 00:41:26,481 and it shows a woman artist 534 00:41:26,527 --> 00:41:29,564 drawing a naked torso, but not of a living person, 535 00:41:29,607 --> 00:41:31,882 but a plaster cast. 536 00:41:31,927 --> 00:41:34,805 And it stresses the elements of proportion - 537 00:41:34,847 --> 00:41:39,443 the shape of the human body and how to get that down on paper. 538 00:41:39,487 --> 00:41:41,478 And then, over here, 539 00:41:41,527 --> 00:41:45,122 Composition...again a woman artist, 540 00:41:45,167 --> 00:41:48,443 this time contemplating a chess set... 541 00:41:50,287 --> 00:41:52,801 ...and with a pair of compasses in her hand, 542 00:41:52,847 --> 00:41:55,407 stressing the element 543 00:41:55,447 --> 00:41:59,725 of mathematics and organisation of art. 544 00:42:02,367 --> 00:42:04,323 This one is Colour, 545 00:42:04,367 --> 00:42:07,279 and it shows the artist 546 00:42:07,327 --> 00:42:11,684 stealing pigment from the rainbow and using it on her palette. 547 00:42:14,967 --> 00:42:17,686 And then over here, the final one, Invention. 548 00:42:20,647 --> 00:42:24,526 This is a sort of ethereal figure of the artist 549 00:42:24,567 --> 00:42:28,606 with wings on her head, her hand resting on the globe, contemplating. 550 00:42:40,007 --> 00:42:44,797 The battle to survive in the open market led ambitious artists 551 00:42:44,847 --> 00:42:50,399 to exploit new, eye-catching ways of drawing attention to themselves. 552 00:43:15,207 --> 00:43:16,925 (THUNDERCLAP) 553 00:43:19,047 --> 00:43:24,167 In 1 781, the artist and melodramatic theatrical designer 554 00:43:24,207 --> 00:43:27,165 Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg hit on a brilliant idea. 555 00:43:27,207 --> 00:43:29,323 He called it the Eidophusikon, 556 00:43:29,367 --> 00:43:31,961 and it was to give people the kind of excitement 557 00:43:32,007 --> 00:43:34,475 that years later they'd get from the cinema. 558 00:43:34,527 --> 00:43:36,961 It was to put on a melodramatic show 559 00:43:37,007 --> 00:43:39,760 that they'd sit and watch in amazement, 560 00:43:39,807 --> 00:43:41,684 and this is how it works. 561 00:43:41,727 --> 00:43:43,718 (WAVES CRASHING) 562 00:43:51,047 --> 00:43:52,366 (WAVES CRASHING) 563 00:43:59,287 --> 00:44:05,476 De Loutherbourg's great skill was to recreate the dramatic side of nature - 564 00:44:05,527 --> 00:44:08,166 the most wonderful seascapes 565 00:44:08,207 --> 00:44:11,517 and moonshine and sunsets, 566 00:44:11,567 --> 00:44:15,003 storms at sea and volcanic eruptions. 567 00:44:15,047 --> 00:44:18,722 And to do it, he used a series of screens 568 00:44:18,767 --> 00:44:21,042 that came up and down 569 00:44:21,087 --> 00:44:24,318 accompanied by music and dramatic lighting. 570 00:44:24,367 --> 00:44:27,723 (WAVES CRASHING AND THUNDERCLAPS) 571 00:44:30,967 --> 00:44:33,435 (THUNDERCLAPS) 572 00:44:33,487 --> 00:44:38,277 The idea behind it was to appeal to people who lived in the cities 573 00:44:38,327 --> 00:44:41,125 but wanted to reconnect with nature in the raw. 574 00:44:41,167 --> 00:44:46,958 So they'd sit here in a kind of mixture of amazement and terror. 575 00:45:10,687 --> 00:45:14,043 One regular visitor to de Loutherbourg's shows 576 00:45:14,087 --> 00:45:17,238 was the great painter Thomas Gainsborough. 577 00:45:18,287 --> 00:45:23,566 He too was inspired to add a touch of showmanship to his art. 578 00:45:26,047 --> 00:45:31,724 This curious contraption is known as Gainsborough's Show Box. 579 00:45:31,767 --> 00:45:37,080 Gainsborough was always fascinated by the effect of light on landscape 580 00:45:37,127 --> 00:45:40,881 and on the sky and the sea, and this was a device so he could experiment 581 00:45:40,927 --> 00:45:42,804 with different kinds of light. 582 00:45:42,847 --> 00:45:45,077 And he used it for himself to work with, 583 00:45:45,127 --> 00:45:48,358 but also just for entertainment, to show his friends. 584 00:45:48,407 --> 00:45:50,159 The principle's very simple. 585 00:45:50,207 --> 00:45:54,519 There's a glass plate in the front here which he had painted. 586 00:45:56,647 --> 00:46:01,004 There - one of eight that the box can take. 587 00:46:03,047 --> 00:46:05,561 Just like a stage set. 588 00:46:05,607 --> 00:46:07,120 Behind it... 589 00:46:09,247 --> 00:46:12,398 ...there are five candles - 590 00:46:12,447 --> 00:46:17,965 these are the candleholders - which shone through a cotton screen 591 00:46:18,007 --> 00:46:22,205 to diffuse the light before it hit the glass plate. 592 00:46:22,247 --> 00:46:24,078 Shut the box to seal the light off 593 00:46:24,127 --> 00:46:26,925 and come round here, look through... 594 00:46:28,887 --> 00:46:32,562 ...and you see this painting lit from behind, 595 00:46:32,607 --> 00:46:33,960 the most extraordinary effect - 596 00:46:34,007 --> 00:46:39,365 a golden sun on trees and a cottage in a little valley. 597 00:46:39,407 --> 00:46:42,877 And you could experiment, even at this stage, by pulling 598 00:46:42,927 --> 00:46:46,203 the magnifying glass out, coming back a bit... 599 00:46:46,247 --> 00:46:49,762 you get a slightly different aspect of the landscape. 600 00:46:51,487 --> 00:46:53,398 It's magical, this one. 601 00:47:01,287 --> 00:47:05,644 Artists were also quick to exploit improvements in technology 602 00:47:05,687 --> 00:47:07,598 and distribution. 603 00:47:07,647 --> 00:47:10,207 When did you start learning this business, Ray? 604 00:47:10,247 --> 00:47:12,124 I was 1 5. 605 00:47:12,167 --> 00:47:14,522 - 1 5? - About 3O years ago. 606 00:47:14,567 --> 00:47:16,046 Really? 607 00:47:18,567 --> 00:47:20,205 Does that pass the test? 608 00:47:20,247 --> 00:47:21,919 Not bad. We could work with that. 609 00:47:27,567 --> 00:47:29,159 For the first time, 610 00:47:29,207 --> 00:47:32,995 high-quality reproductions could be produced in bulk 611 00:47:33,047 --> 00:47:36,005 and sold at affordable prices to a mass audience. 612 00:47:39,287 --> 00:47:43,121 A successful print could make an artist a small fortune. 613 00:47:55,687 --> 00:47:56,915 Let's have a look. 614 00:47:56,967 --> 00:47:59,401 Well, for your first one that's pretty good. 615 00:48:00,447 --> 00:48:02,324 DAVID: Excellent. 616 00:48:04,447 --> 00:48:06,642 Well, that, that's all quite good, isn't it? 617 00:48:06,687 --> 00:48:08,678 - Mm-hm. - That's come out well. 618 00:48:08,727 --> 00:48:10,683 Yes. Nice and bright. 619 00:48:10,727 --> 00:48:15,801 Beautiful detail on these bottles here. Look at this. And that. 620 00:48:16,847 --> 00:48:21,477 RAY: I love all this ornate working around the outside as well. 621 00:48:21,527 --> 00:48:24,405 What's special about it from your point of view as a printer? 622 00:48:24,447 --> 00:48:29,441 As a printer, I mean, the quality of work, I mean, it's just... 623 00:48:29,487 --> 00:48:32,365 The depth and the lights, they're just fantastic. 624 00:48:32,407 --> 00:48:36,639 It's just a wonderful, wonderful art in itself. 625 00:48:47,367 --> 00:48:52,646 The ever-expanding print market led to the creation of a new type of art - 626 00:48:52,687 --> 00:48:55,565 one that appealed to the British sense of humour... 627 00:48:57,047 --> 00:48:59,436 ...the political caricature. 628 00:49:03,687 --> 00:49:06,804 Britain was famed across the world for its press freedoms. 629 00:49:06,847 --> 00:49:10,681 We were the envy of countries that lived under more authoritarian regimes 630 00:49:10,727 --> 00:49:13,321 because, in London, political chicanery 631 00:49:13,367 --> 00:49:16,484 and social snobbery were mercilessly ridiculed. 632 00:49:16,527 --> 00:49:19,360 Every day, a new cartoon would be published 633 00:49:19,407 --> 00:49:23,605 to satisfy the appetite to pillory those in power. 634 00:49:23,647 --> 00:49:27,242 And people who couldn't afford to buy the cartoons 635 00:49:27,287 --> 00:49:32,486 would come to shops like this and simply stand outside and have a good laugh 636 00:49:32,527 --> 00:49:34,961 and mock those in power. 637 00:49:40,687 --> 00:49:45,807 The greatest caricaturist of all was James Gillray. 638 00:49:47,367 --> 00:49:51,201 For Gillray, nothing was sacred. 639 00:49:51,247 --> 00:49:55,320 He satirised the Royal Family, 640 00:49:55,367 --> 00:49:58,165 the Prime Minister. 641 00:49:58,207 --> 00:50:02,837 He exposed the greed of bankers... 642 00:50:02,887 --> 00:50:05,355 he mocked fashion... 643 00:50:07,887 --> 00:50:12,085 ...and even laughed at everyday diseases, like gout! 644 00:50:13,967 --> 00:50:18,995 He was particularly susceptible to toilet humour. 645 00:50:21,607 --> 00:50:25,202 But as the 1 79os dawned, one affair, 646 00:50:25,247 --> 00:50:29,843 a dramatic upheaval, attracted his particular attention. 647 00:50:36,927 --> 00:50:39,680 The biggest event at the end of the 1 8th century, 648 00:50:39,727 --> 00:50:41,957 which affected Gillray and everybody, 649 00:50:42,007 --> 00:50:44,601 was the cataclysm of the French Revolution, 650 00:50:44,647 --> 00:50:48,196 this attempt to overturn a whole society and renew it. 651 00:50:48,247 --> 00:50:49,521 And people were riveted by it, 652 00:50:49,567 --> 00:50:52,081 some in favour, some - from the beginning - very much against. 653 00:50:52,127 --> 00:50:54,721 Gillray started rather in favour, 654 00:50:54,767 --> 00:50:57,406 like a lot of people were, of what was happening in France, 655 00:50:57,447 --> 00:50:59,085 but quite quickly turned against it. 656 00:50:59,127 --> 00:51:03,917 But this cartoon shows a kind of mixed emotion. 657 00:51:03,967 --> 00:51:08,677 Here is Pitt, the Prime Minister, hanging from a lamppost 658 00:51:08,727 --> 00:51:13,847 and the Queen, with her breasts showing naked, hanging beside him, 659 00:51:13,887 --> 00:51:17,197 it has to be said, in a slightly suggestive position. 660 00:51:17,247 --> 00:51:20,637 What a wonderful cartoon of the Queen that is. 661 00:51:20,687 --> 00:51:24,316 And then, here is the King, George III, 662 00:51:24,367 --> 00:51:26,562 who's about to be decapitated. 663 00:51:26,607 --> 00:51:30,964 And he's being held with his bottom up in the air here 664 00:51:31,007 --> 00:51:34,966 and...Gillray had such a low opinion of the King that he has him saying, 665 00:51:35,007 --> 00:51:38,124 ''What, what, what? What's the matter now?'' 666 00:51:38,167 --> 00:51:40,761 Completely unaware of what's going on. 667 00:51:42,327 --> 00:51:45,160 It's a sort of comic take on the Revolution 668 00:51:45,207 --> 00:51:49,519 and how it would look seen from the British political scene. 669 00:51:49,567 --> 00:51:52,923 But as the news from France got more and more grim - 670 00:51:52,967 --> 00:51:55,765 stories of the violence, the bloodshed, 671 00:51:55,807 --> 00:51:59,004 the daily murder of aristocrats, 672 00:51:59,047 --> 00:52:02,278 everybody killing everybody in the end, the Reign of Terror - 673 00:52:02,327 --> 00:52:04,397 Gillray changed his tune. 674 00:52:04,447 --> 00:52:08,406 He looked on it then as something of real horror. 675 00:52:08,447 --> 00:52:10,677 It has the revolutionaries 676 00:52:10,727 --> 00:52:13,958 sitting round after their day's work at the guillotine, 677 00:52:14,007 --> 00:52:17,716 eating the bodies of the people they've decapitated. 678 00:52:17,767 --> 00:52:21,442 This man here with the revolutionary cap 679 00:52:21,487 --> 00:52:27,517 eating the eye from the head of a body that's been executed that day. 680 00:52:27,567 --> 00:52:31,196 And the women beside eating the heart, 681 00:52:31,247 --> 00:52:32,646 the kidneys. 682 00:52:32,687 --> 00:52:36,441 Somebody's sitting bare-bottomed 683 00:52:36,487 --> 00:52:40,844 on top of a naked woman eating the arm. 684 00:52:40,887 --> 00:52:45,881 And over here, an old crone is basting the body of a young child 685 00:52:45,927 --> 00:52:48,646 by the fire, pouring oil over it, 686 00:52:48,687 --> 00:52:53,044 turning it to get it just neatly roasted, ready for the table. 687 00:52:53,087 --> 00:52:55,840 And then the children of course are being given the leftovers, 688 00:52:55,887 --> 00:52:57,923 and what are they eating? 689 00:52:57,967 --> 00:53:02,961 They're eating the intestines of the decapitated aristocrats. 690 00:53:04,007 --> 00:53:08,080 An absolutely horrific portrait. 691 00:53:09,647 --> 00:53:15,005 And it was a sign of a real terror, exaggerated of course, 692 00:53:15,047 --> 00:53:19,120 that Gillray felt would reign if the French Revolution came to Britain, 693 00:53:19,167 --> 00:53:22,079 as many people began to fear that it would. 694 00:53:33,847 --> 00:53:38,398 The Revolution and the ensuing wars between Britain and France 695 00:53:38,447 --> 00:53:41,166 lasted 22 years. 696 00:53:41,207 --> 00:53:43,801 For Britain, the cost was crippling, 697 00:53:43,847 --> 00:53:48,762 bringing an end to the exuberance of the Age of Money. 698 00:53:48,807 --> 00:53:51,241 But the war also provided the backdrop 699 00:53:51,287 --> 00:53:53,676 for the emergence of a new type of hero, 700 00:53:53,727 --> 00:53:57,925 a figure whose fame encapsulated the changes 701 00:53:57,967 --> 00:54:02,245 in British society that had defined the century. 702 00:54:09,367 --> 00:54:15,237 On 8th January 1 8O6, a Royal funeral barge bearing a coffin 703 00:54:15,287 --> 00:54:18,563 left the Queen's Steps at Greenwich. 704 00:54:18,607 --> 00:54:22,043 The gilded barge was draped in black velvet. 705 00:54:22,087 --> 00:54:26,444 The canopy over the coffin bore black ostrich feathers. 706 00:54:26,487 --> 00:54:30,765 A flotilla of boats followed it as it rowed upstream 707 00:54:30,807 --> 00:54:33,924 and every minute they fired a salute. 708 00:54:33,967 --> 00:54:37,562 This sombre procession was watched from the banks 709 00:54:37,607 --> 00:54:40,565 by crowds of weeping mourners. 710 00:54:40,607 --> 00:54:44,361 But this Royal barge wasn't carrying a king. 711 00:54:44,407 --> 00:54:49,356 It was carrying a commoner, a man who'd risen through the ranks 712 00:54:49,407 --> 00:54:53,002 to become the greatest naval commander in our history - 713 00:54:53,047 --> 00:54:54,878 Admiral Lord Nelson. 714 00:55:00,047 --> 00:55:03,926 Nelson was the son of a humble Norfolk parson. 715 00:55:06,047 --> 00:55:09,801 Through a sparkling naval career fighting the French, 716 00:55:09,847 --> 00:55:12,725 he became the toast of the nation. 717 00:55:13,767 --> 00:55:16,361 His death at the Battle of Trafalgar 718 00:55:16,407 --> 00:55:20,366 inspired numerous paintings and mass reproductions 719 00:55:20,407 --> 00:55:24,639 which brought Nelson's image into every patriot's home. 720 00:55:56,647 --> 00:56:02,165 This is where, at the end of the first state funeral ever given to a commoner, 721 00:56:02,207 --> 00:56:07,565 Nelson was buried, here in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, 722 00:56:07,607 --> 00:56:10,565 right under the huge central dome. 723 00:56:10,607 --> 00:56:12,563 Hallowed ground 724 00:56:12,607 --> 00:56:16,600 given to Horatio Viscount Nelson. 725 00:56:16,647 --> 00:56:22,358 On the marble floor all around, symbols of the sea, the anchor there, 726 00:56:22,407 --> 00:56:24,159 and the words of the famous message 727 00:56:24,207 --> 00:56:27,324 he sent on the eve of the Battle of Trafalgar to the fleet... 728 00:56:27,367 --> 00:56:31,280 ''England expects every man to do his duty.'' 729 00:56:33,127 --> 00:56:34,958 And what a tomb this is. 730 00:56:35,007 --> 00:56:40,206 This beautifully carved black marble was made by an Italian sculptor, 731 00:56:40,247 --> 00:56:44,923 not for Nelson, but it was going to be used by Henry VIII. 732 00:56:44,967 --> 00:56:49,882 He didn't, and it was left for 3OO years at Windsor. 733 00:56:49,927 --> 00:56:54,717 It was rediscovered and, at the time of Nelson's death, it was decided 734 00:56:54,767 --> 00:57:00,319 that this was a suitable tomb for the great Admiral Nelson himself. 735 00:57:00,367 --> 00:57:01,595 And look at the top of it. 736 00:57:01,647 --> 00:57:05,720 There, where there might have been Henry's crown, 737 00:57:05,767 --> 00:57:09,396 is a viscount's coronet, Nelson's coronet. 738 00:57:09,447 --> 00:57:14,316 This man, the son of a humble Norfolk parson, who'd risen so high. 739 00:57:14,367 --> 00:57:18,838 This man who really typifies that very middling class 740 00:57:18,887 --> 00:57:21,924 that came into their own in the 1 8th century, 741 00:57:21,967 --> 00:57:26,961 a commoner buried here in St Paul's like a king.