Labour and social time left their stamp on other spheres of life as well. They for instance changed leisure in Victorian Britain. Technology and transport advancement encouraged the popularity of excursions, so that the demand for seaside resorts after 1850 both increased the size of coastal towns and developed new ones. Workers in the Yorkshire textile industries, for example, brought about the change of Blackpool into a popular seaside resort with evident commercial potential.
In 1845 Thomas Cook opened the first travel agency in the world. For him, a tour was no longer an individual experience but an organised journey. In 1856 he organised the first "Great Circular Tour of the Continent" and in 1872 the first trip around the world. Because of that the need for guiding information rose. The English publisher Murray released the first guides (Murray' s Hand-Books or Murray' s Red Guides) in 1836.
At the time when Barkley came to Bulgaria, leisure time was considered to contribute to the personal development of the individual. ' All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' -- the old saying was as true in England as in any other part of the world. Unfortunately Bulgaria could not provide various amusements for a traveller' s spare time. Barkley announced a most dreary life for anyone who was not a sportsman, a botanist, or a collector of some sort:
For an Englishman there is no society of any sort in a Bulgarian town, and the frequenters of the billiard-rooms and cafés are such a rowdy set that no good can be derived from frequenting them; sooner or later, the most peaceful of mortals will get mixed up in a row if he goes there, and probably get a few inches of knife between his ribs. (Barkley, Bulgaria, 193.)
The civil engineer stuck to more gentlemanly occupations in his free time. In his accounts, endless pages of shooting expeditions follow reports on riding trips. When leisure was not looked upon as a possibility of collecting one' s strength for further work, it was considered a chance to exercises which enlarged one' s mind. Barkley kept away from public places and sought either the solitude of his tent or the intellectually stimulating company of English friends. His fellow countrymen, the English navvies, had a more primitive way of spending their spare time. They did what they had always done in any country they were -- worked hard and drank even harder:
They chiefly lived up country, away from towns, and they worked so hard that when they got home they were glad to eat their suppers, drink their grog, and be off to bed. (Barkley, 85.)
Barkley's subordinates were not fastidious about the places where they got drunk. Their greatest amusement was to go to the towns at pay time, where they met other Englishmen and if they got excited or quarrelsome, punched a fellow countryman, or took a thrashing themselves.
The English, who in the eyes of the Ottomans lived on work and drink, were thus as much of a riddle as the natives were to the English. ' Ah, these English are curious people, eccentric to the verge of madness, and the less a good Osmanli has to do with them the better.' (Barkley, 195.) -- exclaimed an old Turk whom Barkley knew. Especially the form of hunting was an object of criticism. A Turk' s idea of ' sport' was tightly connected with his religion, which made it a curious scene and an object of amusement for the civil engineer:
[For the Turk real sport] is to perch himself up on the top of a stunted tree in the low brush wood, and allow his small Coppoi (hound) to run a hare about, perhaps for hours until he brings it within range, when, if it will only sit still for a few minutes whilst the Turk takes aim, he knocks it over, and then scrambling down from his perch proceeds to cut its throat and bag it. No game or other animal is eaten by a Turk unless its throat has been cut, and therefore it is supposed to be bad shooting to kill anything outright, and I have often laughed to see some great swaggering fire-eating young Bashi-Bazouk pursuing a wounded partridge with a knife some two feet long in his hand ready to cut its throat! (Barkley, 195-96.)
As in England, Ottoman people of low rank did not have time for entertainment. Their everyday occupations, which in most cases included producing everything for their own needs, did not leave them the freedom of the rich. The latter, in their turn, spent every spare minute drinking coffee and sherbet, smoking long pipes, sighing after the glorious Turkish past and preparing to go to Allah, where they would continue to do the same. Sometimes they would go picnicking with their wives and slaves, adding to the normal procedure the open-air devouring of unthinkable amounts of food. Or at least that was the way Barkley saw them. He could not tolerate the waste of time involved. Their squandering the time collided with his intolerance. What stood at the top of his priorities was a persistent pursuing of aims and an efficient use of time. The cultural differences between him and the Ottomans became a constant obstacle to communication.
Barkley, Henry C,. Between the Danube and the Black Sea or Five Years in Bulgaria. London: Murray, 1877.
Barkley, Henry C., Bulgaria before the War during Seven Years' Experience of European Turkey and Its Inhabitants, London: Murray, 1877.
Last modified 2001