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 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Aldeburgh — a description of an old warehouse let out as a shelter to beggars and vagabonds : "* Where'er the floor allows an even space, Chalking and marks of various games have place ; Boys, without foresight, pleased in halters swing — On a fix'd hook men cast a flying ring ; While gin and snuff their female neighbours share, And the black beverage in the fractured ware. But some few of the Suffolk landlords, intent on improvement, turned their attention to the condition of their tenants' dwellings ; '" and the i8th century saw the introduction of a new system of Poor Law, which endeavoured to deal more effectually than the old with the vagabond population, and to control the education of pauper children. Suffolk, as an industrial county, had from an early date experience of the problem of poor relief. Between 15 14 and 1569 the town councils throughout England were active in forwarding measures for the relief of the poor. The lead which London had given was closely followed by Ipswich. In 1551 two persons were nominated by the bailiffs ' to inquire into the poor of every parish and thereof to make certificate.' '^^ In 1556 eight burgesses were appointed to frame measures for the ordering and maintenance of poor and impotent people, for providing them with work, and for suppressing vagrants and idle persons : licensed beggars were supplied with badges. Compulsory taxation for the benefit of the poor was adopted, and the rate levied according to the value of house-property — punishments being inflicted for non-payment. In 1569 Christ's Hospital, the counterpart of Bridewell — a house of correction, an asylum for the aged, and a training-school for the young — was erected. Bury also possessed a house of correction ; the regu- lations for food compare favourably with the workhouse dietary of a later date : the inmates were supplied with two principal meals a day, dinner and supper, and on days when meat was eaten everyone was to have eight ounces of rye bread, a pint of porridge, a quarter of a pound of meat, and a pint of beer : on fast days one-third of a pound of cheese, and one or two herrings instead of meat. All were to rise at four in the summer, and five in winter, and to work till seven with intervals for morning and evening prayer. The Bury Articles of 157 1-5"' reflect the prevalent opinion that idle persons were a menace to the prosperity of town life. ' Item that every artificer and labourer suspected of loitering do weekly declare to one of the constables of the ward every Sunday in the morning where he wrought every day in the said week, and the said constable to inquire immediately the truth thereof. ' If any labourer shall not be provided of work on the Sunday for the week following, then the curate or constable to move the parish for work.' No poor persons were allowed to keep their children at home when they were of an age for service. The history of the Poor Law in Suffolk during the i6th and 17th centuries is closely bound up with the history of the cloth industry. '" Borough (ed. 1834), 296. '" Young, loc. cit. ^^ Cf. Bacon, Ann. oflpsmch, 126—235, quoted E. M. Leonard, Early Hist, of Engl. Poor Reftef, 42. '" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. viii, 139. 676