Abstract
This chapter will examine the expressions ‘middling’ and ‘middle’ as they were used of Londoners, with the emphasis being on the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. An attempt will be made to define which of the many strata of metropolitan society should be considered as middling, and the chapter will also reflect on what these words meant to contemporaries and to what extent they anticipate the later use of the adjective ‘middle-class’. However, before plunging into such considerations, it is worth noting that neither ‘middling sort’ nor ‘middling’ were very common as descriptions of Londoners during the period covered here.
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© 1994 Peter Earle
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Earle, P. (1994). The Middling Sort in London. In: Barry, J., Brooks, C. (eds) The Middling Sort of People. Themes in Focus. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23656-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23656-5_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-54063-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-23656-5
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