35. The Blue-coat School, called Christ’s Hospital.
There are nearly one thousand children educated here at a time. The boys continue to wear the dress worn in the days of the virtuous and youthful prince, Edward the Sixth, who founded this school for orphans and other poor children.
Their singular dress consists of a coat of blue cloth, formed something similar to a woman’s gown; and in winter they wear a yellow woollen petticoat. Their stockings are of yellow worsted, and round their waist they buckle a red-leather girdle. They are also furnished with a round, flat woollen cap, about the size of a tea-saucer, which they generally carry under their arm. A pewter badge on their breast, and a clergyman’s band round their neck, complete their antique uniform.