Bookmark this on Delicious
Recommend to StumbleUpon
Have a quick look at what follows, by all means. But if you have never visited the parent page, with "scene setting", I hope you will visit it one day. It tries to explain what an amazing achievement Thomas Coram's Foundling Hospital was.
If you have seen the above, and just want the "home page" of the images pages, and it's links to the different images pages, then there's the link you need.
Here, without much ado (here) from me, is the part of the bylaws which sets out the daily routine of the children. From the age of four, into their twenties, if not apprenticed out, or otherwise gone from the hospital. (I will add some comments after the text...)
(Further comments to come. For now, a quick recap...)
Remember that in the UK, the length of the day varies quite dramatically from summer to winter.
Rise at seven in the winter, 5 in the summer.
Be out of dormitory in 15 minutes.
And thus to work... the boys and girls, as always, kept apart. At least it would be unusual, if not unheard of, for siblings to be resident at the Hospital.
Note that "work", except as noted, was not school "work". "Their work is to be such bodily Labour, as is suitable to their Age and Strength, and may be most likely to fit them for Agriculture, or the Sea Service, such as Digging, Houghing, Plowing with Plows, manageable without Horses, Hedging, Cleaving Wood, Carrying Burthens, and such like Employments, proper Tools are to be provided."
Find and read, in the image above, more on the same matters.
The people who set up the hospital were not dewy-eyed. The children's future was bleak. The hospital was shelter in which to grow, but the regime looked ahead to the best futures the children might expect. (In other passages, we learn that they are also to be made Good Little Christians.)
Eight in summer, nine in winter: An hour for breakfast and a break.
Until twelve: More work. Then two hours for dinner and a rest... but, except for the youngest, or in particularly foul weather, the children to be outside. Including for eating at least breakfast, for the boys. (The girls get some time indoors, notably in the morning, making all the beds, including the boys'. They were kept apart, but made the boys' beds? The boys didn't make their own beds? I've seen princes making their beds in English boarding schools. Admittedly somewhat after the 1700s. And not English princes. (But I doubt anyone but William or Harry made their beds.)
From two to six in summer, "dark" in winter: More work.
From that time until supper (eight in summer, seven in winter), part is to be employed in learning to read, the rest may be given over to play, in the open air, or school rooms.
Nine pm: Bed.
Note the lack of differentiation for the different ages... from four to early twenties. I suspect common sense was allowed to expand the slight wiggle room already present in the regulations.
For the "home page" of the images pages, and it's links to the different images pages, then there's the link you need. Alternatively, I offer my broader introduction to Thomas Coram and his Foundling Hospital.
Search across all my sites with the Google search button which I have provided at the top left on the page to which the link will take you.
Or...
Search just this site without using forms,
Or... again to search just this site, use...
The search engine merely looks for the words you type, so....
*! Spell them properly !*
Don't bother with "How do I get rich?" That will merely return pages with "how", "do", "I", "get" and "rich".
This page's editor, Tom Boyd, will be pleased if you get in touch by email.
Page has been tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. Mostly passes. There were two "unknown attributes" in Google+ button code. Sigh.