The nobility then kept plain and hospitable houses, where want
frequently procured a supply; but, as these were thinly scattered, they
were inadequate to the purpose.

As the abbey was much more frequent, and as a great part of the riches
of the kingdom passed through the hands of the monk, and charity being
consonant to the profession of that order, the weight of the poor
chiefly lay upon the religious houses; this was the general mark for the
indigent, the idle, and the impostor, who carried meanness in their
aspect, and the words _Christ Jesus_ in their mouth. Hence arise the
epithets of stroller, vagrant, and sturdy beggar, with which modern law
is intimately acquainted.

It was too frequently observed, that there was but a slender barrier
between begging and stealing, that necessity seldom marks the limits of
honesty, and that a country abounding with beggars, abounds also with
plunderers. A remnant of this urgent race, so justly complained of,
which disgrace society, and lay the country under contribution, are
still suffered, by the supineness of the magistrate.

When the religious houses, and all their property, in 1536, fell a
sacrifice to the vindictive wrath of Henry the Eighth, the poor lost
their dependence, and as want knows no law, robbery became frequent;
justice called loudly for punishment, and the hungry for bread; which
gave rise, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to that most excellent
institution, of erecting every parish into a distinct fraternity, and
obliging them to support their own members; therefore, it is difficult
to assign a reason, why the blind should go abroad to _see_ fresh
countries, or the man _without feet to travel_.