The benefits of living in the workhouse

In the 1830s  John Glyde (a 19th century historian)  reported examples of conditions under the old Poor Law system which, in his opinion, gave the paupers a life which was superior to that of the labourer.

 Regarding Wangford Hundred which had it workhouse at Shipmeadow two or three miles to the west of Beccles, where there was  a quantity of brick earth in land surrounding the house, he wrote that a man was contracted ‘to complete the mechanical part of making the bricks, such as moulding, clamping, and burning at 10s. per 1,000, and agreed to find men to prepare the earth and other rough work from the workhouse.
There were no men in the immediate neighbourhood capable of moulding the bricks, so that the contractor was obliged to hire men for that purpose at some four miles distant from the brick fields. These hard-working men walked four miles to their work every morning, worked hard all day, lived upon very coarse fare, actually drinking water at their meals, and cheerfully returned to their wives and families in the evening; whilst the able-bodied, lazy paupers from the house were supplied on the spot with good hot meat dinners and other profuse allowances of food, five pints of strong beer each daily, and one shilling per week each on Saturday to spend. Here was an instance of the improvident pauper living better by 50 per cent, than the independent labourer.
 The indulgences were very numerous, but we can only instance a few. Great pains appear to have been taken to render the situation of the pauper far superior to that of the independent labourer.   . . . Some idea of the extent of indulgences may be gained by the following illustration. Elizabeth Hannard, who had been a pauper for 16 years in the workhouse, Shipmeadow, was permitted by the master to go out for the day. On her return in the evening, the porter discovered that she was drunk. She was ordered to be searched, and, having refused, was taken into custody, and the following articles were found upon her person:—Three quarters of a pint of rum, two pounds of pork, half a pound of sausages, six eggs, some apples, one piece of stone blue, three parcels of sweetmeats, half a pound of cheese, two caps, two bunches of keys, £1 9s. in silver, 9¾d. in copper, and in her box £5 10s. in gold, and many articles of clothing.’