The study of history provides us with the opportunity to observe changes that we often miss in our own lives. This is especially true of those ‘common sense’ attitudes and habits that we often see as natural but which are as culturally based as most things in our lives.

Attitudes to servants, having servants at all, the treatment of children, toleration of practical jokes, clothing, Sunday rest – all these and more provide us with examples of how how most basic attitudes and behaviours can change over time. And it is precisely because they are often not questioned that the sources need to be carefully examined for evidence of their existence.