Some details that the text show that the excerpt was written in the past and not the present is, the story uses a lot of had and was which could be a huge clue that the text was written in the past sense its using past tense vocabulary. for example, in the excerpt it talks about how the children had a kind and merry housemaid. If it was present tense then the sentence would be, they have a kind and merry housemaid because it would mean that the house maid is with them right now and if it was future tense then it would be they will have a kind and merry housemaid because they don't have the maid yet and you would be using future tense words to indicate it hasn't happened yet. I hope this makes sense and helps.
They often had similar views or values about things so they would end up writing similar books
