Page:The golden book of King Edward VII.djvu/52

KING EDWARD VII.

members of the Royal Commission on the subject. visiting the blackest and most unhelathy slums incognito. "Lord Nelson's captains," said he of one district, "had a sorry fate when their names were borrowed to distinguish the streets and lanes of this foul area." And he expressed himself with unusual vigour upon one of the very few occasions when he spoke in the House of Lords.

I take the keenest and liveliest interest in this great question. The subject of the Housing of the Poor is not entirely unknown to me, as, having acquired a property in Norfolk now for thirty years, I have had something to do in building efficient dwellings for the poor and the working classes. On arriving there I found the dwellings in the most deplorable 47