_Clothing._ Augustine Knapp, 1602, gave to the churchwardens 20_s._ a year for ever to be bestowed for the clothing of poor, lame, blind and impotent people in the parish. 1625. Richard Shaile gave £10 upon trust to buy yearly three shirts and three smocks worth 2_s._ 6_d._ a piece for three poor aged men and three poor aged women, chosen by the churchwarden. This gift was lost before 1688. _Bread._ 1606. Thos. Deane gave an annual rent of £3 to be bestowed yearly in good, wholesome, well sized bread and given to the poor of the town in St Giles's churchyard as might be settled by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor. The bread was to be given as follows: yearly upon Christmas Eve, 20 dozen of bread: upon Good Friday another 20 dozen, and upon Ascension Eve another 20 dozen. 1623. Rich. Aldworth gave another gift of £3 a year for the same purpose, to be distributed at the same times. _Money._ In 1614 A. Humphrey Champion had given a gift of £10, the interest of which was given to poor people. Now lost. Altogether the number of endowed charities which afforded assistance to old people was large in the seventeenth century in comparison with the number of persons who were in need of relief. Moreover, new almshouses were continually founded throughout this period and until the close of the century. Probably many of these are in existence to-day, but there has been no increase at all proportionate to the growth of the population, while a few of the old institutions like the Redcliffe almshouse at Bristol have become part of the legal system of relief while others have disappeared altogether[506]. [506] There is an almshouse in St Just not now occupied. See _Rep._ 32, Pt. I., p. 438. In Gloucester also almshouses were founded by a Mr Hill, Mr Keylock, Mr Pater, and Alderman Thomas Semys. The two last were in existence in 1643, but are not now distinguishable. Rudder's _Gloucestershire_, p. 204. [Sidenote: 2. Provision for the old from compulsory rates.] [Sidenote: 2 _a_. Relief provided by county funds.] But although the aged poor were largely relieved by almshouses there were still many who were provided for by the legal and compulsory system. Some hospitals were supported by the county funds. There were several in the North Riding of Yorkshire which were used as almshouses for the impotent and aged poor and received grants from the County Treasurer[507]. [507] Sums were paid out of the county funds of the North Riding to hospitals at New Malton, Old Malton, and Scarborough. _Quarter Sessions Records, North Riding_, Vol. I. p. 43, Vol. II. p. 183. In 1618/9 New Malton hospital was dissolved, and pensions were then allotted to the old and impotent poor there. _Ib._ Jan. 7th, 1618/9. Aged soldiers and sailors were also provided for not by the parish but by the county. As we should expect this was found to be a heavy charge in Devonshire, and the magistrates grumbled at the amount they had to give for this purpose[508].