182 • EEPORT — 1864. 



Cheltenham. Clifton. 



Domestic servants (male) ... 83 ... 27 



„ „ (female) . . . 416 . . . .341 



Coachmen or gi-ooms (domestic) . 19 ... 14 



Milliners and dressmakers . . . 210 . . . 153 



Tailors 69 ... 30 



Hairdressers 8 . . . 3 



Druggists 12 . . . 7 



Engaged about horses .... 100 ... 54 



Masons, cabinet makers, &c . . 3l5 . . . 242 



On turning from these evidences of wealth and luxury, it seems strange to find the 

 amount per head spent on the poor of the Cheltenham Union increasing, and per- 

 sistently in excess of the average for the kingdom at large. One reason has been 

 already suggested ; others might probably be found in the enormous charities of 

 the place and the lapse of the Mendicity Society, which formed one of the most 

 eifectual checks on mendicancy and imposture. The mean number of paupers per 

 cent, for the year ending Lady Day was : — 



1856. 1859. 1862. 1863. 1864. 



Cheltenham .... 5-5 5-6 5-9 6-2 63 



England and Wales . , 4-8 4-4 4-5 



and the expenditure for the last four years has shown a steady increase ; thus in 

 the year ending Lady Day : — 



1859. 1860. 1861. 1862. 1863. 1864. 



s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 



Cheltenham ..60 6 2| 6 4i 6 8^ 6 11^ 7 OJ 



England ...581 56 59 60 



The increase in pauperism bears no proportion to the increase of the population, 

 and it is probably, to a great extent, independent of this cause. The various medi- 

 cal charities, including the General Ilosi^ital and Dispensary, the Coburg Institution, 

 the Ophthalmic Infirmary, and L'nion Workhouse, were treated of at some length, 

 and the need of some special provision in connexion with the Hospital for the 

 treatment of infectious cases was strongly urged. These cases are now treated from 

 the out-patient department at their own miserable homes, devoid most frequently 

 of the commonest necessaries of life, and likely to become foci for the spread of 

 disease and death. The various church charities were also passed in review, so 

 far as information concerning them could be obtained ; and amongst these a school 

 for instruction in household duties, instituted by the Rector, was regarded as the 

 germ of a better and more organized system for the relief of the sick poor in the 

 town. By the two-fold workiugs of this institution the girls are, on the one hand, 

 educated in household duties and trained to thrift and tidiness; whilst, on the 

 other, the produce of the kitchen, which represents the alms of the congregation, is 

 distributed to the sick and aged poor through district \'isitors appointed for the 

 purpose. Means were suggested for extending the systfem to other chiu'ch districts, 

 and so organizing the whole as to direct the streams of charity more exclusively to 

 the sick and disabled, and it was expected that the period of convalescence might 

 thus be materially shortened to working men, and the continual di-ain upon the 

 vatepavers, from this source at least, be perceptibly diminished. Several tables 

 were drawn iip to show the prevalent diseases and most frequent causes of death 

 in the district ; a few extracts only can be given. It must first be premised, how- 

 ever, that Cheltenham, in the Registrar General's Returns, and the Cheltenham 

 of ordinary conversation are two entirely different quantities. The former being 

 the town or borough, with a population of 39,693, in 1861, on an area of 3,740 

 acres, plus the twelve surrounding parishes of Swindon, Prestbury, Charlton 

 Kings, Leckhampton, Cubberly, Cowley, AiNTiitcombe, Badgworth, Shurdington, 

 Up Hatherly, and Staverton, containing together in 1861 a population of 10,099, 

 on an area of 21,136 acres. The returns therefore obtained from the whole district 

 cannot be held to represent the state of one portion to the exclusion of the rest 

 without the corrections afforded by an appeal to local records. It is strange, then, 



