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