Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-11-06
A LESSON IN CHARITY
BEQUEST OF THE COUNTESS OF
RICHMOND TO FORTY OLD WOMEN.

RICHMOND TO FORTY OLD WOMEN.
It Has Been Observed Every Saturday
Morning For Nearly 400 Years-A Dear
Old Lady Whose Office In Well Doing
Has Not Become "Commonplace."
In respect to quaint and curious Gus
toms in England, instituted in some in
stances at time when "the memory of
man runneth not to the contrary" time
seems to have stood still for centuries.
Some of these observances are kept up
daily, others weekly, and others only at
certain seasons of the year.
One of the most interesting and phil
anthropic of these ancient customs it
was the writer's privilege to witness
during a recent visit to London. e..
that of the bestowal of aims, beef and
bread in the dining hall of Westminster
college. This bequest comes from the
good Countess of Richmond, otherwise
Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry
VII, wife of Edmund Tudor, earl of
Richmond. During her life she was
reckoned ga great and noble woman, to
whom the king, her son, owed every
thing" She was noted for her charities
and interest in things educational. She
had founded st. Johns and Christ's
colleges at Cambridge; also a chair of
divinity at both universities and con-
tributed to the endowment of her son s
chapel, in connection with which she
left the bequest, to 40 INDECENT old
women, of q loaf of bread, l Z pounds
of beef and twopence to be distributed
each Saturday morning at II O'Clock.
All this and much more as interest
ing we had heard from the lips of our
guide through Westminster abbey as we
stood beside the tomb of black marble,
with its kneeling portrait-effigy to
Margaret, which represented her in her
old age, the delicate and most charac-
teristic hands raised in prayer.
"This bequest," continued our guide,
''has been observed without a single
omission every Saturday morning at II
O'Clock since the year of the good coun-
tess death, which was in 1509."
Being yet more interested in customs
than in tombs, in life observances rather
than dead people, we inquired the way
to the place where the aims would be
distributed, and whether we might be
privileged to witness the observance of
this time hOnored custom. We were
given the directions all right, but the
guide could not successfully conceal his
surprise that we should care to hunt up
anything so commonplace. In all these
years he had never heard of anybody
whose curiosity went to such lengths.
Arriving at the college shortly before
II O'Clock we were halted at the foot of
the stairs by a policeman, who told us
no one except the recipients of aims was
permitted to go inside, but, then, he
chad never heard of any one caring to
60 in" However, he "did not see what
harm it could do'' (this after receiving
a generous "tip''), and he would sim
ply not look at us passing in, and the
janitor could settle with us once we
were inside. So we mounted the narrow,
crooked stairs, and were met by an angel
at the top landing, said angel being
Mrs. Bow, wife of the janitor, who with
her husband has been for 80 years the
dispenser of this peculiar bequest. A
dear, motherly soul, with the kindest face
light we afterward knew was refiec-
tion of her good heart. The hair, like
drifted snow, combed high off a really
noble brow, seemed a very halo about
her benign face.
With a smile instead of reproach for
our intrusion she showed us in the hall,
which seemed to be put to double use as
schoolroom and dining room, since the
walls were lined with blackboards and
maps, and floor space taken up with
long, bare tables, with equally long and
bare benches for seats, both of which
were whittled and carved as only nine
teenth century boys could have whitfield
and carved them. On a side table were
counted out and laid in systematic rows
40 loaves of white bread and 40 pieces
of good beef, each weighing q pounds,
while in bowl were exactly 80 pennies,
two of which would be given to each old
lady or her representative, for many
were now too old or too infrm to call
in person for the aims
Soon they began to gather, and by the
stroke of ii all were in. Old women
they We're, so old we wondered how they
ever had gotten there, or, reaching the
house, how they had crawled up stairs.
One there was whom we felt reasonably.
sure had come for her last time. She
could not speak so she could be heard,
nor could we see her breathe until good
Mrs. Bow had gotten her ''a drop" of
wine We still have our doubts about
her ever reaching her home as we saw
her later resting every few yards on the
way
But the most pitiful feature of this
altogether novel almsgiving was to see
the pathetically old children, all wrin-
kled and dwarfed by poverty's cruel
wand, who had come in place Of parents
or grandparents now too feeble to longer
come themselves.
Mr.. and Mrs. Bow knew each one,
old or young, by name, and when the
name was called either that one or the
person acting as representative would go
forward to receive her portion, and with
it never failingly motherly pat on the
shoulder and few words of cheer,
which Mrs. Bow would bestow with
tears of sympathy which all these years
of serving in this capacity had not hard
ened her to repress. She at least has
never been able to see the common
place" in this charity. She deals it out
religiously and has never grown weary
in such righteous work. Blessings on
her and on the gracious Countess Of
Richmond for this object lesson in char
ity, the like of which, if to be found
anywhere else on earth, we know not of
it.-Mary Semple Bayard in Pittsburg
Dispatch.
Cents and Nickels.
Il II: