ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS
The Hospital known as _St. Giles-in-the-Fields_ was founded by
Maud, Queen of Henry the First, about the year 1117. It was a large
foundation, designed for forty lepers, the Master, Chaplains, Matrons,
and servants.
The original endowment was only £3 a year, which, even in the twelfth
century, would not go far towards the support of forty lepers. It
appears, however, as if the custom of lepers going about begging with a
bowl and a clapper was considered the right thing, because it is said
that the Proctor of the House went begging for the lepers. Probably
those who could crawl were allowed at the outset to beg for themselves.
But other benefactions fell in. The lepers obtained rents and lands
at Isleworth, St. Clement Danes, and round their own house; they also
obtained the manor of Feltham in Middlesex; Henry the Second gave them
lands at Heston; people left them houses in London; the House became
wealthy.
There were many dissensions and disputes as to the rule and management
of this House. They were finally terminated by Edward the Third, who
placed it under the authority of the House of Burton Lazars, the
central Leper Hospital of England.
The area covered by the ground of the Hospital consisted of eight
acres, which was afterwards largely increased. The Hospital buildings
were situated near to the present church on the west of it; they were
surrounded by a triangular wall running along Crown Street (formerly
Hog Lane), High Street, and Monmouth Street. At the lower end of what
is now the Tottenham Court Road on the west side of it was the Pound:
when the gallows was removed from the Elms at Smithfield, it was set up
at the north end of the Hospital enclosure opposite to the Pound. On
the same spot Sir John Oldcastle had been slowly roasted to death some
years earlier.
Criminals in later times, on their way to Tyburn, stopped at St. Giles,
there to take their last draught of ale at a tavern named The Bowl.
The lazar houses were probably all governed by similar laws and
regulations. Those of Sherburn, near Durham, will stand, therefore, for
many others. The house was dedicated to Christ, the Blessed Virgin,
Lazarus, and his sisters Martha and Mary. The lepers were under the
rule of a steward; there were three priests and four clerks, of whom
one was a deacon. During Lent and Advent all the brethren had to
receive corporal discipline three times a week in the chapel, and the
sisters in like manner in presence of their prioress. Why lepers should
be flogged more than ordinary people is not apparent. Perhaps there was
some feeling that a loathsome and incurable disease argued the wrath
of the Almighty on account of some great crime. The daily allowance of
food to the lepers was as follows:—A loaf and a gallon of ale to each;
one mess of flesh between two for three days in the week; or of fish,
cheese, or butter, on the remaining four; on high festivals a double
mess; on St. Cuthbert’s Day, fresh salmon; on Michaelmas Day, four
messed on one goose. The dress of lepers generally consisted of a grey
gown with a hood, and each one carried a basin and a wooden clapper.