Lamb's Essays A Biographical Study Author:Charles Lamb General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1891 Original Publisher: D. Lothrop company Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you ... more »can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: ON CHRIST'S HOSPITAL, AND THE CHARACTER OF THE CHRIST'S HOSPITAL BOYS. [This essay was the author's sole contribution to the Gentleman's Magazine, and was suggested by various abuses of the right of presentation, recently brought to public notice. Christ's Hospital was founded expressly for orphans, but changing conditions had caused the governors to admit boys whose parents were not able to provide for their support and education. At the time that this essay was written, however, the son of a clergyman with £ 1200 a year was being educated at the school. Such evident disregard of the spirit as well as the letter of the foundation did not pass unheeded, and the friends and beneficiaries of the school rushed into print for the preservation of the ancient rules of the institution. E. D. H.] Page 52 -- Costume of this school. Leigh Hunt, who was a pupil at Christ's Hospital, not long after Lamb left, thus describes the costume of the boys: " Our dress was of the coarsest and quaintest kind, but was respected out of doors, and is so. It consisted of a blue drugget gown, or body, with ample coats to it; a yellow vest underneath in wintertime ; small-clothes of Russia duck; worsted yellowstockings; a leathern girdle; and a little black worsted cap, usually carried in the hand. I believe it was the ordinary dress of children in humble life, during the reign of the Tudors. We used to flatter ourselves that it was taken from the monks. 59 -- A religious foundation. Leigh Hunt, in his Autobiography gives a different view of the religious services: " On Sundays, the scho...« less