The Emajicipation of LaboiLr. 499 



possible for him to keep body and soul together. The richer 

 members of the Landed Interest fully recognised the responsi- 

 bility of such a position as this, and attempted by private 

 charity to supplement the public poor-funds. Some time 

 towards the end of the century, " The Society for Bettering 

 the Condition of the Poor" was organised, and a cursory 

 glance either at its reports or through the correspondence of 

 1794 with the Board of Agriculture, will satisfy the reader that 

 a widespread benevolence prevailed amongst the seignorial 

 class. The king, the gentry, and the clergy (the three orders 

 in France then being annihilated by the poor) vied with each 

 other throughout this happier land in bestowing comforts on 

 those unable to purchase them. At Epping, in 1794, a Society 

 of Industry was formed, workrooms erected out of voluntary 

 subscriptions, and spinning, knitting, and needle-work taught 

 gratis ; at Wanstead in Essex, and Greenford in Middlesex, 

 a village shop for the supply of coals at prime cost was estab- 

 lished ; at Mongewell in Oxfordshire a general stores was 

 formed in order to furnish for ready money all the weekly wants 

 of the cottage ; at Hadham in Hertfordshire flour was offered 

 for sale at miller's prices ; at Barton in Staffordshire an enter- 

 prising tradesman, aided by benevolent neighbours, started a 

 dairy business for the sole purpose of supplying the poor with 

 cheap milk. At Lower Winchenden, near Oxford, wood was 

 scarce, and the cottages were seldom provided with that neces- 

 sary adjunct of a coal fire, the grate. Public spirited parish- 

 ioners therefore taught the village blacksmith how to tack 

 together a few iron bars by means of an iron rim at each end, 

 which, being raised above the hearth by a few loose bricks, 

 served all the uses required of it. Then to induce the poor to 

 change their fuel, eight families were supplied with as much 

 coal again as they themselves had purchased. At Barham 

 Downs in Kent the benevolent erected a parish mill, and so 

 controlled the miller's practice of grinding that the poor were 

 accommodated with Hour, both as regards its price and time 

 of delivery, on better terms than the farmers.^ 



^ Reports for Bettering the Condition of the Poor, 5 vols, passim, 1705. 



