.. the Victorian era had only terribly wealthy people or noblemen vs impoverished farmers or servants who lived in the basement, but in reality in Europe 3 out of 4 people did some sort of manual labor. In America, still basically an agricultural society but with industry on a steep rise, the number was even greater.
(Photo: a “typical” upper working class 1840’s English family at the dinner table was not entirely the romantic image movies would lead you to believe was Victorian decorum)