Pest houses were often established; at Reading eight were built, and we hear of their erection in Norwich, London, Cambridge and Windsor[481]. The way the funds were raised for the plague-stricken poor of Windsor is one of the many illustrations of the fact that private charity and public rates were often used for the same purposes and administered by the same officials. The site for the pest house was given by an alderman, some of the money was raised for the relief of the infected poor "by way of taxation," part was given by gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and the rest was probably paid out of the town chest[482]. At Hitchen and in other places relief was given to the plague-stricken by means of the poor law organisation[483]. [481] Reading: 1639. More than £190 is spent in building eight pest houses. _Records of Reading_, Vol. III. p. 454. Norwich: _Court Books_. 12th May, 1630: a pest house was built. 24th June, 1630: a separate pest house was built by the Dutchmen. 14th May, 1632: two more pest houses ordered to be made. London: _Remembrancia_, 7, 19. Cambridge: _Cooper's Annals_, III. p. 226. [482] Windsor: Tighe and Davis, _Annals of Windsor_, Vol. II., p. 52, 1604. The site of the building was given by Thos. Aldem an Alderman. Also "There was collected within the Towne for ye reliefe of infected people by way of taxation £25. 11_s._ 1_d._ Given by divers gentlemen and other neighbours £29. 6_s._ 6_d._ and paid them over and above these two somes £17. 5_s._ 2_d._" [483] The justices of Hitchen thus report their expenses in time of plague. "By the ouerseers of the poore in this tyme of y^e visitation 128^{li}. Besides the charges of six watchmen and one officer with them euerie night, And besides dailye reliefe from the houses of the able and welldisposed. And xx^{li} taxed by us upon the halfe hundred the greatest parte wherof is not yet payd in. And besides the charges in setting of poore on worke etc." _D. S. P._, Chas. I., Vol. 349, No. 70. The Privy Council frequently made orders connected with the plague. Sometimes they ordered the erection of pest houses, sometimes a special collection. In Grantham and Worcester the rich fled from the infected town, so that government was at a standstill; the absentees were required to pay double rates and, if necessary, to return and help govern the town[484]. At another time the paper-makers in Suffolk were prevented from working because of the plague, and a special collection was ordered for them[485]. All these orders illustrate the paternal nature of the Privy Council government, and also seem to show that in social matters it was exercised in favour of the poor. [484] _Privy Council Reg._ 22nd April, 1636. [485] _Ib._, 6th and 27th Nov. 1638.