[Picture: The Blue-coat School]
There are nearly one thousand children educated here at a time. The boys
continue to wear the dress worn in the days of the virtuous and youthful
prince, Edward the Sixth, who founded this school for orphans and other
poor children.
Their singular dress consists of a coat of blue cloth, formed something
similar to a woman’s gown; and in winter they wear a yellow woollen
petticoat. Their stockings are of yellow worsted, and round their waist
they buckle a red-leather girdle. They are also furnished with a round,
flat woollen cap, about the size of a tea-saucer, which they generally
carry under their arm. A pewter badge on their breast, and a clergyman’s
band round their neck, complete their antique uniform.