The earliest record we have found of the cost of relieving the poor of the parish is of the date of 1673 in which year the sum of L309 was thus expended.  In 1773 the amount was L6,378, but the pressure on the rates varied considerably about then, as in 1786 it required L11,132, while in 1796 the figures rose to L24,050.  According to Hutton, out of about 8,000 houses only 3,000 were assessed to the poor rates in 1780, the inhabitants of the remaining number being too poor to pay them.  Another note shows up the peculiar incidence of taxation of the time, as it is said that in 1790 there were nearly 2000 houses under L5 rental and 8,000 others under L10, none of them being assessed, such small tenancies being first rated in 1792.  The rates then appear to have been levied at the uniform figure of 6d. in the L on all houses above L6 yearly value, the ratepayers being called upon as the money was required—­in and about 1798, the collector making his appearance sixteen or eighteen times in the course of the year.  The Guardians were not so chary in the matter of out-relief as they are at present, for in 1795 there were at one period 2,427 families (representing over 6,000 persons, old and young) receiving out-relief.  What this system (and bad trade) led to at the close of the long war is shown in the returns for 1816-17, when 36 poor rates were levied in the twelvemonth.  By various Acts of Parliament, the Overseers have now to collect other rates, but the proportion required for the poor is thus shown:—­

Rate    Amount     Paid to    Cost of In and  Other Parochial
Year  in L  collected  Corporation    Out Relief      Expenditure
s.d.      L           L              L                L
1851  4 0    78,796     39,573         17,824            21,399
1861  3 8    85,986     36,443         34,685            14,878
1871  3 2   116,268     44,293         37,104            34,871
1881  4 8   193,458    107,520         42,880            48,058

The amounts paid over to the Corporation include the borough rate and the sums required by the School Board, the Free Libraries, and the District Drainage Board.  In future years the poor-rate (so-called) will include, in addition to these, all other rates levyable by the Corporation.  The poor-rates are levied half-yearly, and in 1848,1862, and 1868 they amounted to 5s. per year, the lowest during the last forty years being 3s. in 1860; 1870, 1871, and 1872 being the next lowest, 3s. 2d. per year.  The number of persons receiving relief may be gathered from the following figures:—­

Highest       Lowest
Year.    No. daily    No. daily
1876      7,687       7,058
1877      8,240       7,377
1878      8,877       7,242
1879     14,651       8,829
1880     13,195       7,598
1881     11,064       7,188
1882      9,658       7,462
1883      8,347       7,630

Not long ago it was said that among the inmates of the Workhouse were several women of 10 to 45 who had spent all their lives there, not even knowing their way into the town.