OLD HOSPITALS AND ALMSHOUSES
There are in many towns and villages hospitals--not the large modern
and usually unsightly buildings wherein the sick are cured, with wards
all spick and span and up to date--but beautiful old buildings
mellowed with age wherein men and women, on whom the snows of life
have begun to fall thickly, may rest and recruit and take their ease
before they start on the long, dark journey from which no traveller
returns to tell to those he left behind how he fared.
Almshouses we usually call them now, but our forefathers preferred to
call them hospitals, God's hostels, "God huis," as the Germans call
their beautiful house of pity at Lübeck, where the tired-out and
money-less folk might find harbourage. The older hospitals were often
called "bede-houses," because the inmates were bound to pray for their
founder and benefactors. Some medieval hospitals, memorials of the
charity of pre-Reformation Englishmen, remain, but many were
suppressed during the age of spoliation; and others have been so
rebuilt and restored that there is little left of the early
foundation.
We may notice three classes of these foundations. 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.
[Illustration: Gateway of St. John's Hospital, Canterbury]
Of the earliest group we have several examples left. There is the
noble hospital of St. Cross at Winchester, founded in the days of
anarchy during the contest between Stephen and Matilda for the English
throne. Its hospitable door is still open. Bishop Henry of Blois was
its founder, and he made provision for thirteen poor men to be housed,
boarded, and clothed, and for a hundred others to have a meal every
day. He placed the hospital under the care of the Master of the
Knights Hospitallers. Fortunately it was never connected with a
monastery. Hence it escaped pillage and destruction at the
dissolution of monastic houses. Bishop Henry was a great builder, and
the church of the hospital is an interesting example of a structure of
the Transition Norman period, when the round arch was giving way to
the Early English pointed arch. To this foundation was added in 1443
by Cardinal Beaufort an extension called the "Almshouse of Noble
Poverty," and it is believed that the present domestic buildings were
erected by him.[58] The visitor can still obtain the dole of bread and
ale at the gate of St. Cross. Winchester is well provided with old
hospitals: St. John's was founded in 931 and refounded in 1289; St.
Mary Magdalen, by Bishop Toclyve in 1173-88 for nine lepers; and
Christ's Hospital in 1607.
[58] Mr. Nisbett gives a good account of the hospital in
_Memorials of Old Hampshire_, and Mr. Champneys fully describes
the buildings in the _Architectural Review_, October, 1903, and
April, 1904.
We will visit some less magnificent foundations. Some are of a very
simple type, resembling a church with nave and chancel. The nave part
was a large hall divided by partitions on each side of an alley into
little cells in which the bedesmen lived. Daily Mass was celebrated in
the chancel, the chapel of hospital, whither the inmates resorted; but
the sick and infirm who could not leave their cells were able to join
in the service. St. Mary's Hospital, at Chichester, is an excellent
example, as it retains its wooden cells, which are still used by the
inmates. It was formerly a nunnery, but in 1229 the nuns departed and
the almswomen took their place. It is of wide span with low
side-walls, and the roof is borne by wooden pillars. There are eight
cells of two rooms each, and beyond the screen is a little chapel,
which is still used by the hospitallers.[59]
[59] The _Treasury_, November, 1907, an article on hospitals by
Dr. Hermitage Day.
Archbishop Chichele founded a fine hospital at Higham Ferrers in
Northamptonshire, which saw his lowly birth, together with a school
and college, about the year 1475. The building is still in existence
and shows a good roof and fine Perpendicular window, but the twelve
bedesmen and the one sister, who was to be chosen for her plainness,
no longer use the structure.
Stamford can boast of a fine medieval hospital, the foundation of
Thomas Browne in 1480 for the accommodation of ten old men and two
women. A new quadrangle has been built for the inmates, but you can
still see the old edifice with its nave of two storeys, its
fifteenth-century stained glass, and its chapel with its screen and
stalls and altar.
Stamford has another hospital which belongs to our second group. Owing
to the destruction of monasteries, which had been great benefactors to
the poor and centres of vast schemes of charity, there was sore need
for almshouses and other schemes for the relief of the aged and
destitute. The _nouveaux riches_, who had fattened on the spoils of
the monasteries, sought to salve their consciences by providing for
the wants of the poor, building grammar schools, and doing some good
with their wealth. Hence many almshouses arose during this period.
This Stamford home was founded by the great Lord Burghley in 1597. It
is a picturesque group of buildings with tall chimneys, mullioned and
dormer windows, on the bank of the Welland stream, and occupies the
site of a much more ancient foundation.
There is the college at Cobham, in Kent, the buildings forming a
pleasant quadrangle south of the church. Flagged pathways cross the
greensward of the court, and there is a fine hall wherein the inmates
used to dine together.
As we traverse the village streets we often meet with these grey piles
of sixteenth-century almshouses, often low, one-storeyed buildings,
picturesque and impressive, each house having a welcoming porch with a
seat on each side and a small garden full of old-fashioned flowers.
The roof is tiled, on which moss and lichen grow, and the
chimney-stacks are tall and graceful. An inscription records the date
and name of the generous founder with his arms and motto. Such a home
of peace you will find at Quainton, in Buckinghamshire, founded, as an
inscription records, "Anno Dom. 1687. These almshouses were then
erected and endow'd by Richard Winwood, son and heir of Right Hon'ble
Sir Ralph Winwood, Bart., Principal Secretary of State to King James
y'e First." Within these walls dwell (according to the rules drawn up
by Sir Ralph Verney in 1695) "three poor men--widowers,--to be called
Brothers, and three poor women--widows,--to be called Sisters." Very
strict were these rules for the government of the almshouses, as to
erroneous opinions in any principle of religion, the rector of
Quainton being the judge, the visiting of alehouses, the good conduct
of the inmates, who were to be "no whisperers, quarrelers, evil
speakers or contentious."
These houses at Quainton are very humble abodes; other almshouses are
large and beautiful buildings erected by some rich merchant, or great
noble, or London City company, for a large scheme of charity. Such are
the beautiful almshouses in the Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, founded in
the early part of the eighteenth century under the terms of the will
of Sir Robert Geffery. They stand in a garden about an acre in extent,
a beautiful oasis in the surrounding desert of warehouses, reminding
the passer-by of the piety and loyal patriotism of the great citizens
of London, and affording a peaceful home for many aged folk. This
noble building, of great architectural dignity, with the figure of the
founder over the porch and its garden with fine trees, has only just
escaped the hands of the destroyer and been numbered among the bygone
treasures of vanished England. It was seriously proposed to pull down
this peaceful home of poor people and sell the valuable site to the
Peabody Donation Fund for the erection of working-class dwellings. The
almshouses are governed by the Ironmongers' Company, and this proposal
was made; but, happily, the friends of ancient buildings made their
protest to the Charity Commissioners, who have refused their sanction
to the sale, and the Geffery Almshouses will continue to exist,
continue their useful mission, and remain the chief architectural
ornament in a district that sorely needs "sweetness and light."
City magnates who desired to build and endow hospitals for the aged
nearly always showed their confidence in and affection for the Livery
Companies to which they belonged by placing in their care these
charitable foundations. Thus Sir Richard Whittington, of famous
memory, bequeathed to the Mercers' Company all his houses and
tenements in London, which were to be sold and the proceeds
distributed in various charitable works. With this sum they founded a
College of Priests, called Whittington College, which was suppressed
at the Reformation, and the almshouses adjoining the old church of St.
Michael Paternoster, for thirteen poor folk, of whom one should be
principal or tutor. The Great Fire destroyed the buildings; they were
rebuilt on the same site, but in 1835 they were fallen into decay, and
the company re-erected them at Islington, where you will find
Whittington College, providing accommodation for twenty-eight poor
women. Besides this the Mercers have charge of Lady Mico's Almshouses
at Stepney, founded in 1692 and rebuilt in 1857, and the Trinity
Hospital at Greenwich, founded in 1615 by Henry Howard, Earl of
Northampton. This earl was of a very charitable disposition, and
founded other hospitals at Castle Rising in Norfolk and Clun in
Shropshire. The Mercers continue to manage the property and have built
a new hospital at Shottisham, besides making grants to the others
created by the founder. It is often the custom of the companies to
expend out of their private income far more than they receive from the
funds of the charities which they administer.
[Illustration: Inmate of the Trinity Bede House at Castle Rising,
Norfolk]
The Grocers' Company have almshouses and a Free Grammar School at
Oundle in Northamptonshire, founded by Sir William Laxton in 1556,
upon which they have expended vast sums of money. The Drapers
administer the Mile End Almshouses and school founded in 1728 by
Francis Bancroft, Sir John Jolles's almshouses at Tottenham, founded
in 1618, and very many others. They have two hundred in the
neighbourhood of London alone, and many others in different parts of
the country. Near where I am writing is Lucas's Hospital at Wokingham,
founded by Henry Lucas in 1663, which he placed in the charge of the
company. It is a beautiful Carolian house with a central portion and
two wings, graceful and pleasing in every detail. The chapel is
situated in one wing and the master's house in the other, and there
are sets of rooms for twelve poor men chosen from the parishes in the
neighbourhood. The Fishmongers have the management of three important
hospitals. At Bray, in Berkshire, famous for its notable vicar, there
stands the ancient Jesus Hospital, founded in 1616 under the will of
William Goddard, who directed that there should be built rooms with
chimneys in the said hospital, fit and convenient for forty poor
people to dwell and inhabit it, and that there should be one chapel or
place convenient to serve Almighty God in for ever with public and
divine prayers and other exercises of religion, and also one kitchen
and bakehouse common to all the people of the said hospital. Jesus
Hospital is a quadrangular building, containing forty almshouses
surrounding a court which is divided into gardens, one of which is
attached to each house. It has a pleasing entrance through a gabled
brick porch which has over the Tudor-shaped doorway a statue of the
founder and mullioned latticed windows. The old people live happy and
contented lives, and find in the eventide of their existence a
cheerful home in peaceful and beautiful surroundings. The Fishmongers
also have almshouses at Harrietsham, in Kent, founded by Mark Quested,
citizen and fishmonger of London, in 1642, which they rebuilt in 1772,
and St. Peter's Hospital, Wandsworth, formerly called the Fishmongers'
Almshouses. The Goldsmiths have a very palatial pile of almshouses at
Acton Park, called Perryn's Almshouses, with a grand entrance
portico, and most of the London companies provide in this way homes
for their decayed members, so that they may pass their closing years
in peace and freedom from care.
[Illustration: The Hospital for Ancient Fishermen, Great Yarmouth. Aug
1908]
Fishermen, who pass their lives in storm and danger reaping the
harvest of the sea, have not been forgotten by pious benefactors. One
of the most picturesque buildings in Great Yarmouth is the Fishermen's
Hospital, of which we give some illustrations. It was founded by the
corporation of the town in 1702 for the reception of twenty old
fishermen and their wives. It is a charming house of rest, with its
gables and dormer windows and its general air of peace and repose. The
old men look very comfortable after battling for so many years with
the storms of the North Sea. Charles II granted to the hospital an
annuity of £160 for its support, which was paid out of the excise on
beer, but when the duty was repealed the annuity naturally ceased.
The old hospital at King's Lynn was destroyed during the siege, as
this quaint inscription tells:--
THIS HOSPITAL WAS
BURNT DOWN AT LIN
SEGE AND REBULT
1649 NATH MAXEY
MAYOR AND EDW
ROBINSON ALDMAN
TREASURER PRO TEM
P.R.O.
Norwich had several important hospitals. Outside the Magdalen gates
stood the Magdalen Hospital, founded by Bishop Herbert, the first
bishop. It was a house for lepers, and some portions of the Norman
chapel still exist in a farm-building by the roadside. The far-famed
St. Giles's Hospital in Bishopsgate Street is an ancient foundation,
erected by Bishop Walter Suffield in 1249 for poor chaplains and other
poor persons. It nearly vanished at the Reformation era, like so many
other kindred institutions, but Henry VIII and Edward VI granted it a
new charter. The poor clergy were, however, left out in the cold, and
the benefits were confined to secular folk. For the accommodation of
its inmates the chancel of the church was divided by a floor into an
upper and a lower storey, and this arrangement still exists, and you
can still admire the picturesque ivy-clad tower, the wards with cosy
ingle-nooks at either end and cubicles down the middle, the roof
decorated with eagles, deemed to be the cognizance of Queen Anne of
Bohemia, wife of Richard II, the quaint little cloister, and above
all, the excellent management of this grand institution, the "Old
Man's Hospital," as it is called, which provides for the necessities
of 150 old folk, whose wants are cared for by a master and twelve
nurses.
[Illustration: Inscription on the Hospital, King's Lynn]
Let us travel far and visit another charming almshouse, Abbot's
Hospital, at Guildford, which is an architectural gem and worthy of
the closest inspection. It was founded by Archbishop Abbot in 1619,
and is a noble building of mellowed brick with finely carved oak
doors, graceful chimneys with their curious "crow-rests," noble
staircases, interesting portraits, and rare books, amongst which is a
Vinegar Bible. The chapel with its Flemish windows showing the story
of Jacob and Esau, and oak carvings and almsbox dated 1619, is
especially attractive. Here the founder retired in sadness and sorrow
after his unfortunate day's hunting in Bramshill Park, where he
accidentally shot a keeper, an incident which gave occasion to his
enemies to blaspheme and deride him. Here the Duke of Monmouth was
confined on his way to London after the battle of Sedgemoor. The
details of the building are worthy of attention, especially the
ornamented doors and doorways, the elaborate latches, beautifully
designed and furnished with a spring, and elegant casement-fasteners.
Guildford must have had a school of great artists of these
window-fasteners. Near the hospital there is a very interesting house,
No. 25 High Street, now a shop, but formerly the town clerk's
residence and the lodgings of the judges of assize; no better series
in England of beautifully designed window-fasteners can be found than
in this house, erected in 1683; it also has a fine staircase like that
at Farnham Castle, and some good plaster ceilings resembling Inigo
Jones's work and probably done by his workmen.
The good town of Abingdon has a very celebrated hospital founded in
1446 by the Guild of the Holy Cross, a fraternity composed of "good
men and true," wealthy merchants and others, which built the bridge,
repaired roads, maintained a bridge priest and a rood priest, and held
a great annual feast at which the brethren consumed as much as 6
calves, 16 lambs, 80 capons, 80 geese, and 800 eggs. It was a very
munificent and beneficent corporation, and erected these almshouses
for thirteen poor men and the same number of poor women. That hospital
founded so long ago still exists. It is a curious and ancient
structure in one storey, and is denoted Christ's Hospital. One of our
recent writers on Berkshire topography, whose historical accuracy is a
little open to criticism, gives a good description of the building:--
"It is a long range of chambers built of mellow brick and
immemorial oak, having in their centre a small hall, darkly
wainscoted, the very table in which makes a collector sinfully
covetous. In front of the modest doors of the chambers inhabited
by almsmen and almswomen runs a tiny cloister with oak pillars, so
that the inmates may visit one another dryshod in any weather.
Each door, too, bears a text from the Old or New Testament. A more
typical relic of the old world, a more sequestered haven of rest,
than this row of lowly buildings, looking up to the great church
in front, and with its windows opening on to green turf bordered
with flowers in the rear, it could not enter into the heart of man
to imagine."[60]
[60] _Highways and Byways in Berkshire_.
We could spend endless time in visiting the old almshouses in many
parts of the country. There is the Ford's Hospital in Coventry,
erected in 1529, an extremely good specimen of late Gothic work,
another example of which is found in St. John's Hospital at Rye. The
Corsham Almshouses in Wiltshire, erected in 1663, are most picturesque
without, and contain some splendid woodwork within, including a fine
old reading-desk with carved seat in front. There is a large porch
with an immense coat-of-arms over the door. In the region of the
Cotswolds, where building-stone is plentiful, we find a noble set of
almshouses at Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, a gabled structure
near the church with tall, graceful chimneys and mullioned windows,
having a raised causeway in front protected by a low wall. Ewelme, in
Oxfordshire, is a very attractive village with a row of cottages half
a mile long, which have before their doors a sparkling stream dammed
here and there into watercress beds. At the top of the street on a
steep knoll stand church and school and almshouses of the mellowest
fifteenth-century bricks, as beautiful and structurally sound as the
pious founders left them. These founders were the unhappy William de
la Pole, first Duke of Suffolk, and his good wife the Duchess Alice.
The Duke inherited Ewelme through his wife Alice Chaucer, a kinswoman
of the poet, and "for love of her and the commoditie of her landes
fell much to dwell in Oxfordshire," and in 1430-40 was busy building
a manor-place of "brick and Tymbre and set within a fayre mote," a
church, an almshouse, and a school. The manor-place, or "Palace," as
it was called, has disappeared, but the almshouse and school remain,
witnesses of the munificence of the founders. The poor Duke, favourite
minister of Henry VI, was exiled by the Yorkist faction, and beheaded
by the sailors on his way to banishment. Twenty-five years of
widowhood fell to the bereaved duchess, who finished her husband's
buildings, called the almshouses "God's House," and then reposed
beneath one of the finest monuments in England in the church hard by.
The almshouses at Audley End, Essex, are amongst the most picturesque
in the country. Such are some of these charming homes of rest that
time has spared.
The old people who dwell in them are often as picturesque as their
habitations. Here you will find an old woman with her lace-pillow and
bobbins, spectacles on nose, and white bonnet with strings, engaged in
working out some intricate lace pattern. In others you will see the
inmates clad in their ancient liveries. The dwellers in the Coningsby
Hospital at Hereford, founded in 1614 for old soldiers and aged
servants, had a quaint livery consisting of "a fustian suit of ginger
colour, of a soldier-like fashion, and seemly laced; a cloak of red
cloth lined with red baize and reaching to the knees, to be worn in
walks and journeys, and a gown of red cloth, reaching to the ankle,
lined also with baize, to be worn within the hospital." They are,
therefore, known as Red Coats. The almsmen of Ely and Rochester have
cloaks. The inmates of the Hospital of St. Cross wear as a badge a
silver cross potent. At Bottesford they have blue coats and blue
"beef-eater" hats, and a silver badge on the left arm bearing the arms
of the Rutland family--a peacock in its pride, surmounted by a coronet
and surrounded by a garter.
[Illustration: Ancient Inmates of the Fishermen's Hospital, Great
Yarmouth]
It is not now the fashion to found almshouses. We build workhouses
instead, vast ugly barracks wherein the poor people are governed by
all the harsh rules of the Poor Law, where husband and wife are
separated from each other, and "those whom God hath joined together
are," by man and the Poor Law, "put asunder"; where the industrious
labourer is housed with the lazy and ne'er-do-weel. The old almshouses
were better homes for the aged poor, homes of rest after the struggle
for existence, and harbours of refuge for the tired and weary till
they embark on their last voyage.
[Illustration: Cottages at Evesham]