III.] POOR MAN'S FRIEND, 67 



work-people and neighbours ; then I answer and say, 

 What a selfish, what a dastardly wretch is he, who 

 is not ready to do all he can to change this disgrace- 

 ful, this horrible state of things ! 



72. But, at any rate, is the salary of the " ASSIST- 

 ANT OVERSEER" necessary ? Cannot that be dispen- 

 sed with ? Must he have as much as all the widows, 

 or all the old men ? And his salary, together with 

 the charge for printing and other his various expen- 

 ses, will come to a great deal more than go to all the 

 widows and old men too! Why not, then, do without 

 him, and double the allowance to these poor old wo- 

 men, or poor old men, who have spent their strength 

 in raising crops in the parish ? I went to see with 

 my own eyes some of the "parish houses," as they 

 are called ; that is to say, the places where the select 

 vestry put the poor people into to live. Never did my 

 eyes before alight on such scenes of wretchedness ! 

 There was one place, about 18 feet long and 10 wide, 

 in which I found the wife of ISAAC HOLDEN, which, 

 when all were at home, had to contain nineteen per- 

 sons ; and into which, I solemnly declare, I would not 

 put 19 pigs, even if well-bedded with straw. Another 

 place was shown me by JOB WALDRON'S daughter ; 

 another by Thomas Carey's wife. The bare ground, 

 and that in holes too, was the floor in both these places. 

 The windows broken, and the holes stuffed with rags, 

 or covered with rotten bits of board. Great openings 

 in the walls, parts of which were fallen down, and 

 the places stopped with hurdles and straw. The 

 thatch rotten, the chimneys leaning, the doors but bits 

 of doors, the sleeping holes shocking both to sight and 

 smell; and, indeed, every-thing seeming to say: 

 " These are the abodes of wretchedness, which, to be 

 believed possible, must be seen and felt: these are 

 the abodes of the descendants of those amongst whom 

 beef, pork, muttonand veal were the food of the poorer 

 sort ; to this are come, at last, the 'descendants of 

 those common people of England, who, FORTESCUE 

 tells us, were clothed throughout, in good woollens, 

 whose bedding, and other furniture in their houses, 



