But not only in time of plague was provision made for the sick. At Norwich it was part of the regular organisation for the poor; in London St Thomas's and St Bartholomew's hospitals were already in existence, and in most towns there were numerous lazar houses. In some places the help provided was even greater than that of to-day; a town physician was appointed especially to look after the poor. Newcastle adopted this plan in the reign of Elizabeth, and the practice was continued down to the time of the Civil War, and in 1629 a "learned physician" was engaged by the Mayor and Corporation of Barnstaple to give advice gratis to the poor[486]. This happened just at the time when, as we have seen, there was great activity in matters connected with the poor, and is an illustration of the fact that the duties of the seventeenth century municipality were very various, and that even in 1629 the town authorities were sometimes pioneers in matters concerning the poor. [486] 1599: the Town's physician was appointed at Newcastle. _Welford, Newcastle and Gateshead_, III. p. 132. Seven years earlier a surgeon obtained by grant of the mayor 40_s._ as his accustomed fee for helping to cure the maimed poor folk. In 1599, a physician was paid his quarter's fee and in later years was known as the town physician. [Sidenote: 7. Contributions to sufferers from fire.] Fire was another way in which sudden loss was caused to large numbers of people. Houses were still built largely of wood and often very close together. Whole towns were not infrequently destroyed. Tiverton suffered twice in this way, and the suddenness of the calamity to so flourishing a town seems to have especially struck men's imagination. "He which at one a clocke was worth fiue thousand pound and as the Prophet saith drunke his Wine in bowles of fine Siluer plate, had not by two a clocke so much as a woodden dish left to eate his meate in, nor a house to couer his sorrowfull head"[487]. In the second destruction of 1612 three hundred of the poor people were boarded in the shire, and collections to rebuild the town were made throughout the country. Similar disasters happened to several other towns, to Dorchester in 1613 and Hertford in 1637, and like collections were made for them among charitable people. [487] Pamphlet of 1598 reprinted in Harding's _Tiverton_, Appendix, p. 7. 1632: "Paid Mr Henderson the townes physician his ½ yeares stipend due at lady-day 1632, 20_l._" A payment of £10 was also made in 1647, to "doctor Samuel Rand the townes physition." M. A. Richardson's _Tracts_, Vol. III. p. 47. Extracts from the municipal accounts of Newcastle. Barnstaple, Nov. 24th, 1629: "Dr Symes a learned Physician engaged by Mayor and Corporation to be resident in town and give advice gratis to the poor at £20 per annum for two years to be paid out of town stock if not raised by subscriptions." Wyot's Diary, Barnstaple Records, _North Devon Herald_, April 21, 1881.