r those which shall bee found lying under
stalls, having no habitation or parents (from five to nine years old),
are to be sent to the Wardrobe House_[2], _to be provided for by the
corporation for the poore; and all above nine years of age are to be
sent to Bridewel._ And for men or women who are able to work and goe
begging with young children, such persons for the first time to be
passed to the place of their abode as aforesaid; and being taken
againe, they are to be carryed to Bridewel, to be corrected according
to the discretion of the governours. _And for those persons that shal
be found to hire children, or go begging with children not sucking,
those children are to be sent to the several parishes wher they dwel,
and the persons so hiring them to Bridewel, to be corrected and passed
away, or kept at work there, according to the governour's discretion._
And for al other vagrants and beggars under any pretence whatsoever, to
be forthwith sent down to Bridewel to be imployed and corrected,
according to the statute laws of this commonwealth, except before
excepted; and the president and governours of Bridewel are hereby
desired to meet twice every week to see to the execution of this
Precept. _And the steward of the workehouse called the Wardrobe, is {7}
authorised to receive into that house such children as are of the age
between five and nine, as is before specified and limited_; and the
said steward is from time to time to acquaint the corporation for the
poor, what persons are brought in, to the end they may bee provided
for. Dated this four and twentyeth day of January, 1650.

SADLER."

JOHN BRUCE.

[Footnote 2: I suppose this to have been the ancient building known by the
name of The Royal, or The Tower Royal, used for a time as the Queen's
Wardrobe. It will be seen that it was occupied in 1650 as a workhouse.]

* * * * *

LETTERS OF EMINENT LITERARY MEN.

Sir,

I send you, as a New Year's Gift for your "N. & Q.," transcripts of
half-a-dozen Letters of Eminent Literary Men, specimens of whose
correspondence it will do your work no discredit to preserve,

Yours faithfully,
HENRY ELLIS.

British Museum, Dec. 26, 1853.

I.

_Dean Swift to_ * * * * * * *.

[MS. Addit., Brit. Mus., 12,113. _Orig_.]

Belcamp, Mar. 14th.

Sir,

Ridin