ey End, Essex, are amongst the most picturesque
in the country. Such are some of these charming homes of rest that
time has spared.

The old people who dwell in them are often as picturesque as their
habitations. Here you will find an old woman with her lace-pillow and
bobbins, spectacles on nose, and white bonnet with strings, engaged in
working out some intricate lace pattern. In others you will see the
inmates clad in their ancient liveries. The dwellers in the Coningsby
Hospital at Hereford, founded in 1614 for old soldiers and aged
servants, had a quaint livery consisting of "a fustian suit of ginger
colour, of a soldier-like fashion, and seemly laced; a cloak of red
cloth lined with red baize and reaching to the knees, to be worn in
walks and journeys, and a gown of red cloth, reaching to the ankle,
lined also with baize, to be worn within the hospital." 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. They can remember the "machine riots," and tumultuous
scenes at election times, and scores of interesting facts, if only you
can get them to talk and tell you their recollections