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the road belongs to us, a part of Messrs. Davis's oilcloth works, Mann
and Crossman's brewery, and the public house known far and wide—"The
Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green"—of traditionary fame, are parts and
parcels within our sphere. Proceeding in a direct line from these prominent
objects, he arrives at Brick Lane, on the borders of Spitalfields,
and to Truman and Hanbury's brewery, which is partly within our
line of march; and from drawing an imaginary line to Shoreditch
Church—the goal from whence he set out—our tired, but enterprising
pedestrian friend, will have skirted the marginal lines of Bethnal Green;
in other, and homelier, and familiar words, he will have "beaten the
bounds of our Parish," having acccomplished, during his rambles, a
distance of 7 miles, and comprised within that space 48 miles of
streetway.
Bethnal Green, with its population of 122,000, located on 760 acres of
gravelly soil, at a mean elevation of 38 feet above high-water mark, is
divided into 13 Clerical Districts—St. Andrew's, St. Bartholomew's, St.
James-the-Great, St. James-the-Less, St. John's, St. Jude's, St. Matthias,
St. Peter's, St. Philip's, St. Simon Zelotes', St. Thomas's, and St. Paul's ;
these, though severally designated parishes by their incumbents, are
all merged into one—that of St. Matthew's—to which is appointed a
rector, the Rev. S. Hansard, M.A.
I may here observe, that portions of our Parish—purely for ecclesiastical
purposes—have been arbitrarily annexed to adjoining Parishes; for
example—a portion to St. Stephen's, Spitalfields ; to Holy Trinity, Shoreditch
; to St. Augustine, Haggerston ; and to St. Stephen's, Haggerston.
For the purposes of registration, it is divided into 4 Districts—Hackney
Road, Church, Town, and Green. There are 7 Medical Officers, appointed
under the Poor Law Board, for the purpose of attending and supplying
medicines to the pauper sick ; they are distinct from the Workhouse,
to which is attached a Surgeon and a Resident Medical Officer. We have
also 3 Relieving Officers, 3 Assistants, and a Pay Clerk, for the relief of
the out-door poor; 3 Sanitary Inspectors, two w holly and one partially
engaged in the duties.
The greatest number of our poor, and the chief inmates of our Workhouse,
are broken-down weavers—weaving having been the principal
occupation of the inhabitants half a century ago, and remained so up to
the time I first became acquainted with the district, a quarter of a century
since. This business has, from various causes, become nearly extinct; those