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CHARITIES FOB WOMEN. 227
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Preston Hospital, Shropshire. T The Ains...
with situations tlie g as ift domestic of five pounds servants for to clothing the duties , are of usuall which y , they provided have been with
gentlewomen trained . They , to are regard taught them to , behave as their with superiors great , and respect many to the the are little the old
trining acts of kindness and duty which pass between whifce The -capped village damsels of Preston and is their very aged small friends , consisting . only of four or five
way farm and some from houses Welling score , the cottages rectory ton passing , . the The church the Hosp lod , ge about ital gates is which close , green at the hand fields houses , surround the cluster high - - ,
ing Preston its garden hallsuch s on as two a b sides arn , and and a some wealth part of wheat of the stacks homestead , throug of h which , the church belfryapproaching it on the other side .
peeps , The and somewhat country immediatel thinlinhabited y contiguous for thoug is a h purel the p y arish agricultural is extensiv one e , ,
its inhabitants were y under three , hundred when the last census was takenThe gentle land on which the village standsslopes down
on three . sides to an up extensive and somewhat irregular , tract of land which in old times was a vast morass or moor . This is now in a
large roads measure across it reclaimed but by h drainage yet remains , embankment of swamp , and and b fen y _carrj to g dng ive
some idea of the , former enoug condition of this weird solitude , wherein , if tradition be correct , many a man and horse have been engulfed .
"When the hospital was built , a hundred and thirty years ago , the solitude of this little village must have been extreme , and earlier
some still it documents might well state be it called the weald Preston or -on wooded -the-Wild moors -Moors . , Densel or , as y
wooded they no doubt were , ; as Mr . Eyton in his -work on Shropshire mentions cursorilsome grant connected with the forests of this
breadth district ; of and wooded such y swainp land . s were Nine the tenths natural of the drainage surface for of a Great great
Britain was in those days a dense and impervious forest , and Matthew of Westminster ' s strong expression in speaking of the
country between London and St . Albans , _horridce silvce , the dread woodswas as licable to this county as elsewhere . Now
everything , is changed app . The Shropshire canal , a fine piece of engineering work , where it is carried on embankments across the morass—a work
of an earlier day than George Stephenson—glides on within a stone ' s throw of the Hospital ; within a mile and half is a railway ; and
within three miles is the upland ridge of Ketley and its district , where ministry extent ni of g to ht the the and morass needs day coal of the a pit mi country and ghty blast civilization again furnace becomes . carry Beyond on beautiful their the ceaseless ori , ginal and
amongst other places , we have Lilleshall abbey and its picturesque environments . The hospital covers a considerable space of ground
and forms three sides of a square , the upper side being the hall , and
ing from feature either end of the branches old ho a sp small ital , wing runs . up A either cloister side , the , the most r charm oofs of
Charities Fob Women. 227
CHARITIES FOB WOMEN . 227
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1858, page 227, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121858/page/11/
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