nd chancel. The nave part
was a large hall divided by partitions on each side of an alley into
little cells in which the bedesmen lived. Daily Mass was celebrated in
the chancel, the chapel of hospital, whither the inmates resorted; but
the sick and infirm who could not leave their cells were able to join
in the service. St. Mary's Hospital, at Chichester, is an excellent
example, as it retains its wooden cells, which are still used by the
inmates. It was formerly a nunnery, but in 1229 the nuns departed and
the almswomen took their place. It is of wide span with low
side-walls, and the roof is borne by wooden pillars. There are eight
cells of two rooms each, and beyond the screen is a little chapel,
which is still used by the hospitallers.[59]

[59] The _Treasury_, November, 1907, an article on hospitals by
Dr. Hermitage Day.

Archbishop Chichele founded a fine hospital at Higham Ferrers in
Northamptonshire, which saw his lowly birth, together with a school
and college, about the year 1475. The building is still in existence
and shows a good roof and fine Perpendicular window, but the twelve
bedesmen and the one sister, who was to be chosen for her plainness,
no longer use the structure.

Stamford can boast of a fine medieval hospital, the foundation of
Thomas Browne in 1480 for the accommodation of ten old men and two
women. A new quadrangle has been built for the inmates, but you can
still see the old edifice with its nave of two storeys, its
fifteenth-century stained glass, and its chapel with its screen and
stalls and altar.

Stamford has another hospital which belongs to our second group. Owing
to the destruction of monasteries, which had been great benefactors to
the poor and centres of vast schemes of charity, there was sore need
for almshouses and other schemes for the relief of the aged and
destitute. The _nouveaux riches_, who had fattened on the spoils of
the monasteries, sought to salve their consciences by providing for
the wants of the poor, building grammar schools, and doing some good
with their wealth. Hence many almshouses arose during this period.
This Stamford home was founded by the great Lord Burghley in 1597. It
is a picturesque group of buildings with tall chimneys, mullioned and
dormer windows, on the bank of the Welland stream, and occupies the
site of a much more ancient foundation.

There is the college at Cobham, in Kent, the buildings forming a
pleasant quadrangle south of the c