style, the way things look in a particular period,
depends upon interlocking social and artistic factors.
There was a greater diversity of styles in Victorian Britain
than in the eighteenth century. The desire of the new rich to
be seen on equal terms with the landowning aristocracy, or
to be better than them, the desire of the rapidly developing
industrial and business community to find a style that suited them,
and the desire of an increasingly powerful middle class to tell the
world about their new status - all these aspirations made it
impossible for one style to meet everyone's demands.