and Henry's explanation are references to the Gordon riots that had occurred in London in 1780, as well as other riots through the '80s & '90s caused by curtailment in civil liberties and by food shortages. Some of the causes of the riots were connected to the inclosure of common lands to which Henry refers in his degeneration from aesthetics into politics & thence to silence.

Eleanor's superior knowledge of history makes her more susceptible to misinterpretation of Catherine's description of "something horrid coming out of London".

This is from the Norton edition of NA.