Note 79 — Part I.

Before the introduction of the present complex Poor Law system, each parish in Scotland, through its kirk session, gave relief to its own poor. The strictness of the authorities passed into a proverb. Many parishes had barrows on which the infirm poor not belonging to them were wheeled outside the boundaries and left to do for themselves as best they could. We have read of a case in which relief was refused to a sickly stranger, and the village joiner was employed to make a barrow for the person’s removal. Before the work was done the poor unfortunate had died.