''The Leisure Hour'' was a British general-interest periodical of the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
which ran weekly from 1852 to 1905.
It was the most successful of several popular magazines published by the
Religious Tract Society
The Religious Tract Society was a British evangelical Christian organization founded in 1799 and known for publishing a variety of popular religious and quasi-religious texts in the 19th century. The society engaged in charity as well as commerci ...
, which produced Christian literature for a wide audience.
Each issue mixed multiple genres of fiction and factual stories, historical and topical.
The magazine's title referred to campaigns that had decreased work hours, giving workers extra leisure time.
Until 1876, it carried the subtitle "A Family Journal of Instruction and Recreation";
after that, the subtitle changed to "An illustrated magazine for home reading".
Each issue cost one penny and contained 16 pages.
The layout typically included approximately six long articles, formatted in two columns per page, and five or six illustrations. The articles were a mix, including biographies, poetry, essays, and fiction. Each issue usually started with a piece of
serialised fiction.
The creation of the magazine was partly a response to non-religious popular magazines that the Religious Tract Society saw as delivering a "pernicious" morality to the
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
es.
The ethos of the magazine was guided by
Sabbatarianism
Sabbatarianism advocates the observation of the Sabbath in Christianity, in keeping with the Ten Commandments.
The observance of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is a form of first-day Sabbatarianism, a view which was historically heralded ...
: the campaign to keep Sunday as a day of rest.
It aimed to treat its diverse subjects "in the light of Christian truth".
Despite this, ''The Leisure Hour'' carried far fewer statements of Christian doctrine than the Society's other publications.
[" via Open Research Exeter http://hdl.handle.net/10036/31895] Compared to other popular magazines of the time, ''The Leisure Hour'' had a greater emphasis on fiction.
Two days before the magazine's launch in 1852, a warehouse fire destroyed the first batch of ''The Leisure Hour'', so replacement copies had to be printed.
The magazine was edited by William Haig Miller until 1858,
[Worldcat entry for ''The leisure hour''](_blank)
/ref> James Macaulay from 1858 to 1895,
Notable contributors
* Isabella Bird
Isabella Lucy Bird, married name Bishop (15 October 1831 – 7 October 1904), was a nineteenth-century British explorer, writer, photographer, and naturalist. With Fanny Jane Butler she founded the John Bishop Memorial Hospital in Srinagar ...
* John William Dawson
Sir John William Dawson (1820–1899) was a Canadian geologist and university administrator.
Life and work
John William Dawson was born on 13 October 1820 in Pictou, Nova Scotia, where he attended and graduated from Pictou Academy. Of Scotti ...
* Edwin Dunkin
Edwin Dunkin FRS, FRAS (19 August 1821 – 26 November 1898) was a British astronomer and the president of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Institution of Cornwall.
Birth and family
He was born 19 August 1821, the son of William D ...
* John Keast Lord
John Keast Lord (1818–1872) was an English veterinarian and traveller, known as a naturalist, journalist and author.
Life
He was probably the son of Edward Lord, and was born in Cornwall. He was brought to Tavistock, Devon, with his brother, Wi ...
* Joseph Butterworth Owen
The Reverend Joseph Butterworth Owen (22 July 1809 - 24 May 1872) was an English clergyman, social reformer and author of the nineteenth century. Known primarily for his published work, he is also notable for being the last minister of the famed ...
* Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
* Elizabeth Hely Walshe
Elizabeth Hely Walshe (1835-1869), was an Irish born writer of both children's stories and histories.
Life
Elizabeth Hely Walshe was born in 1835 in Limerick to an evangelical Protestant family. Her father was a clergyman and she had at least o ...
Gallery of illustrations
File:John Keble from the magazine "Leisure Hour".jpg, John Keble
John Keble (25 April 1792 – 29 March 1866) was an English Anglican priest and poet who was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford, was named after him.
Early life
Keble was born on 25 April 1792 in Fairford, Glouces ...
, 1867
File:Mary Somerville Leisure Hour.jpg, Mary Somerville
Mary Somerville (; , formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorary ...
, 1871
File:Dickens-at-the-Blacking-Warehouse.jpg, Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
, 1904
File:A-Vision-of-the-future-q85-1447x1326.jpg, “A Vision of the Future. An aërial motor-car”, 1905
References
Further reading
*
External links
Scans of ''The Leisure Hour'' online at the Hathi Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leisure Hour, The
Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1852
1852 establishments in the United Kingdom