Almshouse

“ Alleyn’s Almshouse, in Pesthouse lane near Old street, was founded by the above Edward Alleyn, about the year 1616, for ten poor men and women; who receive 6d. per week each, and every other year coats and gowns.
Alleyn’s Almshouse in Soap yard, Deadman’s Place in Southwark, was also founded by the above Edward Alleyn, about the year 1616, for ten poor men and women, with an allowance of only 6d. per week.
Allhallows Barking church, at the east end of Tower street, is so denominated from its being dedicated to all the Saints, vulgarly called Allhallows ”

“ Had we not known that it was the Almshouse, we might have been tempted to believe it the residence of some retired monarch of the old world, who had come here, and at the expense of a million of dollars or more, had erected this splendid palace for a residence. The traveller is generally treated a little better, and charged a little less in Philadelphia, than he is in any other Atlantic city. As a whole, this city has always been celebrated for its good qualities of all sorts, and yet a few, a very few men here have done not a little to injure its still fair character. ”

“ We all know the melancholy landscape of a poor-house.
The Potter's Field preceded the poor-house on this site by many years. The almshouse was formerly erected on M Street, between Sixth and Seventh, and, being removed here, it burned to the ground in the month of March, fourteen years ago, when the present brick structure was raised. The entire premises, of which the main part is the almshouse garden, occupy less than fifty acres, and the number of inmates is less than two hundred, the females preponderating in the proportion of three to one. ”

“ Adjoining the school is "Napper's Mite", a small seventeenth-century almshouse with a picturesque open gallery and a clock bracket, copied from the one that adorns the old George Inn at Glastonbury. The almshouse clock came from the old workhouse near by when it was pulled down. Farther along the street, but on the opposite side, is the Antelope Hotel, a Jacobean building whose beauties are concealed behind nineteenth-century walls, although some interior panelling and carving remain in situ. ”

“ Edwards’s Almshouse, in the parish of Christ Church, Surry, was built and endowed by the trustees of Mr. Edward Edwards, a citizen and mason of London, for such poor persons of that parish as receive no alms from that or any other parish. Each person has one room, an allowance of 40s. ”

“ It has a church, a Presbyterian meeting house, two charity schools, a work house, and a kind of nunnery.
Hammond’s Almshouse, in Almshouse yard, Snow hill, consists of six neat rooms, and was founded by Edmund Hammond, Esq; in the year 1651, for as many poor batchelors or widowers, with an allowance 10l. a year each: but the estate appropriated for its support being reduced by the fire of London, the Haberdashers company, to which the care of this charitable foundation was intrusted, at present only pay the pensioners the annual sum of 7l. 10s. each. ”

“ You may now look in vain for the old buildings: they are gone; in their place we have the consolidated almshouses and the consolidated schools.
There were almshouses—eight of them—in the Woolstaple, which is now Cannon Street; they looked out upon the river, and the bedesmen turned an honest penny by letting them in lodgings for Parliament men. There were other almshouses founded by Henry VII., outside the Gatehouse in Tothill Street. There was an almshouse for women founded by Lady Margaret in the Almonry. ”

“ In the female house, the infirm are more numerous than among the males. Those able to work are employed in sewing and knitting, in keeping the wards in order, and in nursing the feeble and cripples. In 1870, there were 1114 persons in the Almshouses, from fifteen years of age upwards. A special provision is made in each house for blind inmates.
Attached to the Almshouse are the Hospitals for Incurables, which consist of two one-story buildings, 175 feet long, and 25 feet wide. One is devoted to men and the other to women. ”

“ The first almshouses recorded were founded in the fourteenth century by William Elsing, mercer, who, in 1332, endowed a house for the support of a hundred blind men, and by John Stodie, citizen and vintner, Mayor in 1358, who built and endowed thirteen almshouses for as many poor citizens. In 1415 William Sevenoke, citizen and grocer, founded a school and almshouses in his native place, and two years later Whittington founded by will his college and almshouses. The college has been swallowed up, but the almshouses remain, though transferred to Highgate. ”

“ The Almshouses stand on the west side, facing the road, behind a quadrangle of green grass. They were founded in 1824, and contain accommodation for thirty inmates of either sex. Five of the houses are endowed, and the pensioners pass on in rotation from the unendowed to the endowed rooms. They must be Roman Catholics and exceed the age of sixty years before they are received. On the north side of the quadrangle is the Roman Catholic parish church, a fine building in the Gothic style, with a high spire and moulded entrance doorway, built in 1851. ”

“ Pemberton’s rents, 1. Hand alley.† 2. New street.†
Pemberton row, Fetter lane.†
Pemell’s Almshouse, at Mile-end, was founded by Mr. John Pemell, citizen and draper, in the year 1698, for four poor drapers widows, and the same number of 169seamen’s widows, to be presented by the Churchwardens of Old Stepney parish. Each of these almswomen have an allowance of 1s. 8d. per week, half a chaldron of coals every year, and a gown every other year. Maitland. ”

“ This church with its ornaments was given by King Henry VIII. to the Mayor and Commonalty of the city, towards the maintenance of the new parish church then to be erected in the Grey Friars. Maitland.
46Nicholas’s Almshouse, in Monkwell street, was founded in the year 1575, by Sir Ambrose Nicholas, citizen and salter, for the accommodation of twelve widows of his company, to each of whom he allowed 1s. per week, and twenty-four bushels of coals a year. This charity he committed in trust to the company of Salters ”

“ It stood in the suburb of Frankwell, near a place since called The Stew. Speed notices its site in his map (1610) ; but not a fragment of the building now remains.
THE DRAPERS’ ALMSHOUSES.
The generally received opinion has been that these almshouses were founded, in 1461, by Degory Watur, Draper, from the circumstance that he lived himself in the centre house, or “almshouse hall,” among the poor people, and whose practice (as a Manuscript Chronicle records) was to attend them “dailye to our Lady’s Chirch, and to kneel with them in a long pew in the quire made for them and himself.” ”

“ First, there are the pre-Reformation bede-houses or hospitals; the second group is composed of those which were built during the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I. The Civil War put a stop to the foundation of almshouses. The principal landowners were impoverished by the war or despoiled by the Puritans, and could not build; the charity of the latter was devoted to other purposes. With the Restoration of the Church and the Monarchy another era of the building of almshouses set in, and to this period very many of our existing institutions belong. ”

“ A service was to be provided twice daily in the church of St. Dionis Backchurch, a school was to be maintained at Landrake, and the poor of St. Erney and Landrake to be relieved. The residue of his estate was to be devoted to the erection of almshouses in or near London. The company accordingly purchased a piece of ground in Kingsland Road, on which they built fourteen almshouses and a chapel, and appointed rules for their government on 17 Nov. ”

“ Immediately opposite, two neat rows of almshouses, in red brick, face one another; on the exterior wall of each wing is the half-length effigy of a man in a niche. Beneath that on the northern wing is the inscription: "Mr. Emery Hill, late of the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, founded these almshouses Anno Domini 1708. ”

“ On Brook Green itself one or two old cottages with tiled roofs are still to be seen—reminiscences of old Hammersmith. The long strip of grass, in shape like a curving tongue, justifies the name of "Green." Dr. Iles' almshouses, known as the Brook Green Almshouses, have long been established here, though the present buildings date only from 1839. They stand at the corner of Rowan Road, and are rather ornately built in brick with diamond-paned windows. The charity was founded in 1635 by Dr. Iles, who left "houses, almshouses, and land on Brook Green, and moiety of a house in London." ”

“ Homes and schools for the boys and girls, hospitals for the adult, there remain the aged. Dotted about all over London there are about a hundred and fifty almshouses; of these about half are situated in and about East London. Not that the people of East London have been more philanthropic in their endowments than those of the west, but, before there was any city of East London, almshouses were planted here on account of the salubrity and freshness of the air and the cheapness of the ground. ”

“ The workhouses of the seventeenth century were mainly places for people who could work, the aged and impotent poor were often relieved by almshouses controlled by public and by private authorities, but founded and maintained by private liberality. It was indeed an age in which almshouses or hospitals as they were often called abounded. Probably there were nearly as many in existence then as there are to-day, in spite of the fact that our population has increased sixfold. Some of these hospitals were old endowments that had survived the Reformation ”

“ The Trust Income of the Company is expended in schools and almshouses, the most important schools being Aske’s, referred to above. There are other almshouses at Monmouth, at Newland in Gloucestershire, and at Newport, Salop. There are also schools at Monmouth, Pontypool, Newport, Salop, and Bunbury connected with the Company. They give several exhibitions, and they grant pensions and give large subscriptions to philanthropic objects. ”

“ The mixture of the stonework and the black-and-white work of the house is effective, and the small court, with its formal paved walks leading from the gatehouse to the porch, and from one side doorway to the [83] other, is full of interest; especially as the house lies amid the chimneys of a busy part of Lancashire, and is surrounded by the abomination of desolation which accompanies the spread of populous places. The initials G. R. occur in the topmost step of the coping, and the date 1631 on the lintel of the doorway.
60.—Gateway to Almshouses, Oundle, Northamptonshire. ”

“ The young man walked quietly on the beaten track. He passed the church which, almost in the centre of Alsheim, raised its square tower, surmounted by a slate roof in the form of a steeple, with a metal point, and came to the centre of a group of four enormous walnut-trees, serving as landmarks, as ornament and shelter to the last farm in the village. There began the property of M. Xavier Bastian, the mayor of Alsheim, the old friend of M. Joseph Oberlé, a man of influence, rich and patriotic, and to whose house Jean was going. The sound of flails could be heard in the neighbouring yard. ”

“ I am persuaded that later on, when life in the garrison takes me away from Alsace, I shall have visions of Alsheim. I shall see it in imagination, just as it stands there."
In the midst of its girdle of orchards were massed together the red roofs of the village. And both village and trees formed an island among the corn and April clover. Little birds, gilded by the sunshine, were flying over Alsheim. The house of the Oberlés at this distance seemed only to be one of many. There was so much sweetness in all things that one might have imagined life itself sweet. ”

“ No one who has not stayed in Alsace among Alsatians can realize the intense clinging to France among the people, nor the sacrifices made to retain their nationality. And it is well the true state of feeling throughout the annexed territory should be known outside its limits. With a considerable knowledge of French life and character, I confess I went to Mulhouse little prepared to find there a ferment of feeling which years have not sufficed to calm down. ”

“ NOW a city of 100,000 population, with prosperous suburbs that make it the business centre for 175,000 people, Omaha is the outgrowth of the Nebraska & Council Bluffs Ferry Company. This company was organized under the incorporation laws of Iowa, in 1853, to carry on the lucrative ferriage traffic for transcontinental pilgrims in quest of the gold-fields of California that had been begun two years previously by a halted gold-seeker, Brown by name, who saw more gold in paddling passengers across the murky Missouri than in washing the yellow sands near Sutter's mill. ”

“ Kountze, who had invited us to stay with her in her town house, but fearing that three of us might be embarrassing, we decided to go to the hotel.
Omaha is a lovely city, with avenues of trees on either side of wide boulevards, and within easy reach of stretches of wild and beautiful country. As our hostess had been obliged to go to New York, her kind relations conducted us to see the wonderful views surrounding the town.
After speaking in the afternoon to an encouraging audience, with Mr. Hall, the British Consul, as my chairman, I dined with Mr. and Mrs. Ward Burgess. ”

“ As I could not make up my mind to adopt their opinion, Almer rose, and laying the ladder at my feet, said, with much energy, 'Adieu, I leave you, for my conscience as an honest man forbids me to lend a hand to a peril which I know to be inevitable.'
"I called him back, and rising in my turn, exclaimed: 'Will the difficulties be as great in the way of an ascent of the Mönch? There it is, only a few paces from us. It is free from mist, why should we not reach its summit?' At these words the astonishment was general, and everybody turned towards the peak I had named. ”