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potatoes and possibly dumplings. For supper they sometimes just like as what they have in breakfast, with the occasional addition of an apple pie. Sometimes
they used vegetables as their food when they could not afford the meat. That was why the idea of vegetables as paupers food was still very strong at that time.
People of this time did not use the utensils that the noblemen use. They thought that using their hands to scoop out the food was much more efficient Food in
England.
d. The Life
The way of life common people depended on the social class that divided them. The helpless poor included the old, the sick, the disabled and children. The
elderly and the disabled received a sum of money and possibly some food each week. If they were unable to collect both, it would be delivered to their house. The
poor children were given apprenticeships which were paid by the parish. In this way, the parish could expect to get benefit from the children when they had grown
up and learned a new skill. Boys were usually apprenticed until they were 24 years old. While the girls could be apprenticed until they were 21 years old, while
they would work with their mistress. People who were considered as the aged, poor and impotent persons were not considered to be a burden as the government
believed that it was not their fault that they were in their position. While, some parishes gave these people a license to beg Lockyer 138.
Then, the poor who were included in the Able Bodied Poor usually built a workhouse. The unemployed worked in these making clothes or anything that
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might benefit the parish. They got paid out of the Poor Rate. They would remain in the workhouse until they found a ‘normal’ job.
The next kind of classes was the class of people which were usually hunted by the government. They were Rogues and Vagabonds. They were people who
could work but they preferred to beg or steal. This group worried the government as they were mostly troublesome. The government prohibited begging, and
considered it as an illegal and anybody who was found begging would be flogged or lashed until his back was bloody. If they were found begging outside of their
parish, they would be beaten. Those who were caught continually begging could be sent to prison and hanged. During the reign of Edward VI, caught vagabonds
could have their tongue branded and kept as slaves for two years In London, the rich lived in one part of the city while the poor lived
towards the east where modern-day Fleet Street is and towards the City. They had to separate each other. If a poor person was found in the west of the city, it would
be assumed by those that made the law the rich that the poor was against the law and could be punished. The poor kept themselves living with their own tribe in
London and even they had developed their own form of language. This was known as canting. This kind of language-form occurred behind the idea that no-one else
could or would know what they were talking about. They meant it as a kind of self-protection against the law Poor in Elizabethan England.
4. Social Values
