<h2 class="eplus-Cw91am eplus-wrapper">The good old days?</h2>

1880 was a busy year in Britain.

England and Australia played the first Test cricket match on British soil; the Liberal Party ended Benjamin DisraeliA 19th-Century politician who was Britain's first and only prime minister of Jewish origin.'s second term as Prime Minister; the first frozen lamb was importedWhen goods are brought into one country from abroad to be sold. from New Zealand, and four students at the University of London became the first British women to receive degreesThe University of London was also the first to admit female students in 1869..

The country was enjoying a period of stability and imperialRelating to an empire. expansion under Queen Victoria, who would celebrate her Golden Jubilee in 1887.

It was, researchers claim, the happiest we have ever beenThese were also trying times: the country was locked into the second Anglo-Afghan war, and the First Boer War would break out in December after the Boers of the Transvaal (in South Africa) declared independence..

The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, was carried out by a huge team from Warwick and Glasgow universities and the Alan Turing Institute.

They read millions of books and newspapers - from 1820 to the present day - to judge the mood of the nation during each year. The team used an index of 14,000 words, which were scored on a scale of one to nine according to how "happy" they were.

The results were surprising: historians usually think of the late Victorian period as a time of poverty, social unrest and anxiety as Britain's supreme Empire came under threat from international competitors.

While happiness dropped during both world wars, the study found that 1978 - with its Winter of Discontent - was Britain's lowest point. That year, the country was rocked by mass strikes, a sinking economyThe way that money flows through a country, which affects wages and the cost of living. and one of the coldest winters on record.n

However, the link between economic prosperity and happiness is not clean-cut: in 2019, we are richer than the Victorians but not happier.

The study follows a recent international push to use happinessStudies show that the hormone oxytocin is released when owners look at their pets.- rather than just GDPShort for Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all the goods and services produced inside a country. and economic factors - to measure of a nation's success, but most countries only have data from the past 10 years.

Can we trust the team's methods? Even those who worked on it recognise the study's flaws.

"The people that were writing then would have probably been rich and educated, and life might have been like a basket of cherries for those people," says Professor Thomas Hill of Warwick University. "It's the age of Empire for Britain, it's very proud of itself and that might be reflected in the writing as well."

Was 1880 really Britain's happiest year?

Yes, say some. Literature and newspapers reflect the spirit of the era: a time of stability, progress, hope and national pride. It stands in clear contrast with our hi-tech, 21st century, where we are wracked with anxiety and walled off from each other. We need to find our way back to a simpler form of happiness, which reached its peak in 1880.

That's naive, argues academic Hannah Rose Woods. The newspapers and books were created by middle and upper-class men for an audience that only reflected themselves. For the working majority ?- many of whom could not even read ?- it was a time of "urban overcrowding, child employment, workhouses, infant mortality, cholera or typhoid". That's without considering the suffering of British "subjects" abroad living under the Empire.

Benjamin Disraeli - A 19th-Century politician who was Britain's first and only prime minister of Jewish origin.

Imported - When goods are brought into one country from abroad to be sold.

Degrees - The University of London was also the first to admit female students in 1869.

Imperial - Relating to an empire.

Been - These were also trying times: the country was locked into the second Anglo-Afghan war, and the First Boer War would break out in December after the Boers of the Transvaal (in South Africa) declared independence.

Economy - The way that money flows through a country, which affects wages and the cost of living.

Happiness - Studies show that the hormone oxytocin is released when owners look at their pets.

GDP - Short for Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all the goods and services produced inside a country.