Because before mass transit, and mass communication media, which William Caxton was a part of because he was one of the first English language printers.
Today the independent U.S. government agency makes rules for all forms of mass communication and its considering a new plan that could reduce the amount of robocalls people get.
And it just goes to show you that before the advent of mass communication, we could have had variations from, as Caxton put it, shire to shire to shire.
Nevertheless, these two books are anchored in deep thinking that Orwell had done all his adult life about how literature should be written in an age of movies and mass communication.