the inhabitants, this was a very large amount. The liberality of the citizens was not always however stimulated by such bishops as Bishop Ridley, or such Lord Mayors as Sir Richard Dobbs, Sir Martin Bowes, and Sir George Barnes. In the reign of Elizabeth St Thomas's was in debt and the number maintained there had to be considerably reduced. Before 1557 Bridewell also was established and thus the number of the four Royal hospitals was completed. The hospital of Bethlehem was included in the original grant of Henry VIII. and probably had a continuous existence. It was a comparatively small institution, in which fifty or sixty lunatics were maintained, and in later times was always reckoned with Bridewell, so that it also formed part of the system of Royal hospitals under the management of the City although it was not counted as a separate hospital. In 1557 orders were drawn up for the government of the hospitals[71], and we can see that their erection had already made it more possible to distinguish between the different classes in need of relief. The City rulers do not now as in 1552 consider the word "beggars" interchangeable with the word "poor" but explain that "there is as great a difference between a poor man and a beggar, as is between a true man and a thief." ... "The policy of the erection of hospitals ..." they say "hath had good success and taken effect; for there is no poor citizen at this day that beggeth his bread but by some mean his poverty is provided for." The objects of the organisation are also explained to include the yielding "alms to the poor and honest householder[72]." [66] _Memoranda of the Royal Hospitals_, Appendix, pp. 52 and 59. [67] A copy of the original pamphlet is in the British Museum. Eight hundred persons had been healed "in the meane season" during the past five years. The list of expenses is interesting because of the light it casts upon the cost of living in 1552. The diet of the hundred patients is calculated at 2_d._ the day; each sister was allowed for her board sixteen pence a week, while the matron obtained eighteen pence. [68] "Account of Expenses incurred by the City in erecting and maintaining St Thomas's Hospital." Harleian MSS. No. 604, p. 176, printed in Supplement to _Memoranda of Royal Hospitals_, p. 32. [69] The allowance paid for the children was tenpence a week.