,
Directors of the G.N.R., Major Amcotts and Sir M. J. Cholmeley, and on
his left by J. Banks Stanhope, Esq., M.P., Director of the Horncastle
Railway, and Rev. W. H. Milner, Vicar. Congratulatory speeches were
made, and the day closed with a fine display of fireworks.

Opened under such favourable auspices, and supplying a felt need, the
railway has continued to be a success; improvements have been made, from
time to time, in the stations at Horncastle and Woodhall Spa. The line
continues to be a single one, but it is sufficient for the local
requirements, and the shares, as before mentioned, at the present time
(1907) find a ready sale at an advance of about 50 per cent. on their
original price. We might add that if the railway could be continued to
Spilsby, and then connected with the different lines running to the
Skegness, Mablethorpe and other health resorts on the coast, its utility,
and doubtless its paying value, would be largely increased, as it would
shorten the distance by many miles.

CHAPTER X.
WORKHOUSE OR UNION.

We now notice the chief of those public institutions, and the buildings
connected therewith, which have been established in the town, within more
recent times, for its welfare, or its adornment; in order to bring its
corporate efficiency into more complete accord with the advanced
requirements of what may be called modern municipal life. Among these
the foremost place, from its general importance, is naturally due to the
Union, or Workhouse; and here it is necessary to make some preliminary
remarks.

The workhouse, or union, for a large district is a comparatively recent
creation. "The poor" we have had "always with" us, but they have not
always been dealt with as they now are. By statute 23 Edward III.
(1349), it was enacted that "none should give alms to a beggar who was
able to work." By common law the really deserving poor were to be
assisted "by parsons and parishioners, so that none should die for
default of sustenance." By Act, 15 Richard II. (1392), impropriators
(_i.e._ laymen holding church property) were bound to contribute a
certain yearly sum to the poor of the parish, but no compulsory law was
passed till 27 Henry VIII. (1536). The present poor law system dates
from 43 Eliz. (1601); successive amendment acts being passed from 1836 to
1847, and again in 1861; and a further relief act in 1862.

At first parishes regulated their own methods and amounts of relief