THESE things were not done without causing great discontent among the people. The monks had been good landlords and hospitable entertainers of all travellers, and had been accustomed to give away a great deal of corn, and fruit, and meat, and other things. In those days it was difficult to change goods into money, in consequence of the roads being very few and very bad, and the carts and waggons of the worst description; and they must either have given away some of the good things they possessed in enormous quantities, or have suffered them to spoil and moulder.
So, many of the people missed what it was more agreeable to get idly than to work for;* and the monks who were driven out of their homes and wandered about encouraged their discontent; and there were, consequently, great risings in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. These were put down by terrific executions, from which the monks themselves did not escape, and the King went on grunting and growling in his own fat way, like a Royal pig.
Abridged
Desperate shortages and civil unrest led Elizabeth I to codify Poor Laws in 1597 and again in 1601, in an attempt to recreate the support once given by the monasteries. They were barely adequate to the task, and fresh reforms from 1834 introduced workhouses and ever more stringent criteria in the vain hope of helping the needy while weeding out what Alfred Doolittle called the ‘undeserving poor’. Dickens’s own damning judgment on the New Poor Laws in Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol is comment enough.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Greedy. Impose. Person.
2 Find. Heaven. Out.
3 Every. Molder. No.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Confusables Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that are similar to one another, but not exactly the same. Compose your own sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between them, whether in meaning, grammar or use.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Verb and Noun Find in Think and Speak
Many words can serve as noun or verb depending on context: see if you can prove this with the examples below. Nouns go well with words such as the/a, or his/her; verbs go well after I/you/he etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Keep. 2 Boot. 3 Miss. 4 Arm. 5 Hand. 6 Document. 7 Fill. 8 Call. 9 Work.
Variations: 1.if possible, use your noun in the plural, e.g. cat → cats. 2.use your verb in a past form, e.g. go → went. 3.use your noun in a sentence with one of these words: any, enough, fewer, less, no, some.
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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