frowned, and who finds in the Charterhouse
an honourable place of refuge and an easy
home in his old age, not too bitterly contrasting
with his memory of comforts past. Let
us suppose an educated man, a widower in
his old age, become destitute, and, being
worthy of all kindly feeling, presented to a
share in the benefit of Sutton's endowment.
He pays a visit to the room allotted for his
residence. A single room, not very large,
with a deal table and chair, bed and bedding;
nothing more. There is a closet, which will
be large enough to hold his bed and form
a separate apartment, if the lodging should
chance to be over an archway. A deal table
and chair, and a bed are cheerless lodging
to the eyes of the ancient gentleman, and
would seem more so if he could contrast them
with the luxuriously fitted thirty-two roomed
residence of the Master, whose income was
appointed by the founder of the institution to
be only nine times greater than his own.
The Master's income being eight hundred
pounds a-year, over and above the board and
lodging, that of the Brother should be about
eighty. It is, however, only twenty-five. The
payment of the manciple used to be eight
pounds, that of the Poor Brother five pounds,
six and eightpence. The manciple has now
two hundred, and the brother twenty -five.

The ancient gentleman, when he has finished
looking at his room, and considered how
much money he can raise wherewith to add
a little to its comfort, is informed that the
governors require him to bring in with him,
on entrance, two pairs of new sheets, — sheets
cannot be found for him. He proceeds to
inquire further, what is to be done, and what
will not be done on his behalf. He is
informed that he will have coats without stint,
and thirteen pounds of kitchen candles yearly,
which he finds out by arithmetic to yield
about an inch a night. He will have left at
his door daily in the morning a loaf,
containing twelve ounces of bread—a trifle larger
than a penny loaf — and two ounces of butter.
That he is to take this for his breakfast, or
lunch, or tea, or supper, or all of them in one.
That will be his provision for the day, dinner
excepted. A loaf is left every morning at
the master's door, with even-handed charity;
though the footman scorns it when he takes
it in. The ancient gentleman is to make
tea, sugar, cheese, or what he will out of his
loaf and butter. No restraint is put upon
his fancy. There will be dinner in the hall
at three o'clock, at which he may attend,
wearing his livery-gown, and eat as much
as he is able of good meat and pie, and
drink with it a pint of table beer. The dinner,
if he goes to eat it punctually at dinner
time — for a minute after time condemns
him to fast until the morning — has no
limit but his appetite. Experience of hungry
nights, caused many of the ancient gentlemen
to carry to the hall tin cases, wherein to
conceal a few scraps for their supper. This
practice being discovered, was denounced in
the hall by the officials as exceedingly
ungentlemanly; no doubt it was, nevertheless some
little allowance is to be made for the weakness
of old gentlemen, who do not like to be sent
supperless to bed.

The ancient gentleman, not being young
and lusty, will often be disposed to keep his
room, but when he does so, and desires to
dine in private, his dinner is straightway
weighed for him. A Shylock, with knife and
scales, holds firmly to a half-pound of flesh;
and if the invalid desire a pudding, then his
meat is reduced in allowance to a quarter of
a pound.

The old gentleman inquires whether there
is provision made for tending him, and looking
to his small domestic wants. He is
informed, that when he enters as Poor Brother,
he will be committed, with seven others, to
the care of a nurse, who will attend during
eight hours daily, upon those eight rooms; so
that he receives a daily average of one hour's
attendance. His room is cleaned out once
a-week; and his window is cleaned once
a-year — that is to say, every December.
During the sixteen hours free from nurses,
the Poor Brother will be left — very helpless
and infirm as he often is — wholly to himself,
or to the care of friends who may come to
him in the daytime, or to what service he may
hire out of his twenty-five pounds a-year—
one pound of that being payable in fees to
the nurse provided by the institution. In the
night he is left quite alone, and without means
of summoning assistance. Should he be
seized with illness, he must get up, and
having lighted a candle, place it in his
window; the light, if seen by the watchman,
brings his tender assistance when he next
comes on his hourly round. Whatever fit or
seizure to which age is liable may render
him unable to get up and light a candle, or
if he be blind, as three or four of the Poor
Brothers are — it must either pass from him,
remain on him, or kill him, as the chance
may be: no help can come until the morning.
So rigid is the exclusion of non-residents, that
it is a breach of Charterhouse law for a
mother or a sister to be present in the night
time. If a Poor Brother wish to leave the
world comfortably, he must not die in the
night time.

When the Poor Brother dies in the usual;
way, he spends his last days in the infirmary.
When dead, a coffin is supplied for him by
contract, and he is deposited in the burial-
ground attached to the foundation, service
being read over him in the chapel by the
chapel-reader. Towards the expense of the
coffin twenty-four shillings is allowed from
the foundation; and to this there is added a
sum of one pound, six shillings and sixpence,
towards defraying the expense of the ground,
clergyman, &c. So the Poor Brother is.
buried. No head-stone is permitted. For
a few weeks the mound, which covers his