A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



administration of a curious list of medicines were included in the general 

 treatment. Small-pox was often prevalent, and prisoners were inoculated. 



Hints as to life in gaol are afforded by the order given to the 

 gaoler in 1785 not to suffer tippling or gaming in the gaol. It is probable 

 that these offences were committed in the yard, as we find that the felons 

 and the debtors were confined in separate dungeons at night, but as there was 

 only one yard they mingled in the daytime. One debtor petitions for bread 

 in 1752, on the plea that except for the kindness of the gaoler he should 

 have starved. Another debtor, in 1749, who had been in prison a great 

 while, prays for a share of the prison bread, as his friends and relatives can 

 no longer support him. There is a suggestiveness in the frequent mention of 

 leg-blocks, waist-belts, holdfasts in dungeon wall, large cramps and rings for 

 ditto, large staples for men's dungeons, large staples and rings for women's 

 dungeon, and of mending the floor where the rats came in. A man await- 

 ing trial for assault complains that for nine weeks he had been locked down 

 in the dungeon every night with the convicts. But the building of the new 

 gaol put an end to many of the evils of the old state of things, and introduced 

 modern conditions. 



Another interesting subject coming within the purview of this chapter 

 is the condition of the poorhouses during the i8th century. This subject 

 seems to have arrested the attention of the justices towards the end of the 

 century, and to have received considerable notice for the next thirty years. 

 Bad as the condition of the old gaol had been, that of the poorhouses appears 

 to have been even worse. The first parish that is reported upon is Shilling- 

 ton, where in 1790, though the house is good and there is a pest-house in the 

 field belonging to it, nine out of the twelve beds have only one pair of sheets, 

 and the poor lie without while the sheets are washed. The care of the 

 inmates is let by contract to a man who keeps an ale-house half a mile off, 

 where the victuals are dressed and carried thence to the poorhouse. There 

 are three infants in the house, but no cradle. The absence of the master 

 gives occasion for idleness, disorder, and much misconduct. There is little 

 attention to cleanliness, and the linen and clothing are in a wretched condition. 

 Eleven years later, in 1801, still worse reports are received of the condition 

 of the poorhouses at Langford, Houghton Conquest, and Haynes ; and the 

 parish officers are ordered to provide adequate household furniture, &c., to 

 pave, whitewash, drain, and to put the houses ' in a state of repair in every 

 respect fit for human habitation,' and thus ' to rescue themselves from the 

 disgrace of a system of management so cruel and oppressive to the poor and 

 so burthensome and unsatisfactory to those who contribute to their relief.' 

 At Stotfold, in 1803, the poorhouses were without floors and windows, the 

 inmates ill-clothed, ' unprovided with bedding of any description, and totally 

 destitute of all furniture or necessary articles for the preparation of their food.' 

 In the same year similar reports were received from Arlesey and Maulden. 

 Four years later, in 1807, Lidlington workhouse was pronounced 'not fit for 

 the habitation of men, ruinous, dilapidated, and decayed.' ' The poor therein 

 are in want of food, clothing, bedding, fire, and every other necessary accom- 

 modation.' The house was formerly the parish pest-house, but had been 

 converted into a workhouse, in which were twenty-one inmates ' in the most 

 wretched condition, without any governor or master, or without any care or 



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