" They are,
therefore, known as Red Coats. The almsmen of Ely and Rochester have
cloaks. The inmates of the Hospital of St. Cross wear as a badge a
silver cross potent. At Bottesford they have blue coats and blue
"beef-eater" hats, and a silver badge on the left arm bearing the arms
of the Rutland family--a peacock in its pride, surmounted by a coronet
and surrounded by a garter.
[Illustration: Ancient Inmates of the Fishermen's Hospital, Great
Yarmouth]
It is not now the fashion to found almshouses. We build workhouses
instead, vast ugly barracks wherein the poor people are governed by
all the harsh rules of the Poor Law, where husband and wife are
separated from each other, and "those whom God hath joined together
are," by man and the Poor Law, "put asunder"; where the industrious
labourer is housed with the lazy and ne'er-do-weel. The old almshouses
were better homes for the aged poor, homes of rest after the struggle
for existence, and harbours of refuge for the tired and weary till
they embark on their last voyage.
[Illustration: Cottages at Evesham]
CHAPTER XVI
VANISHING FAIRS
The "oldest inhabitants" of our villages can remember many changes in
the social conditions of country life. They can remember the hard time
of the Crimean war when bread was two shillings and eightpence a
gallon, when food and work were both scarce, and starvation wages were
doled out.
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