I did wonder whether the grey coats were a school uniform. Julie, you really are a goldmine of information - the description of the horrible life inside those charity schools was depressing but not unexpected. I don't know if you've ever read Public School Ties (I think it's called) by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, which tells the history of elite British boys' boarding schools through the centuries. They may not have been quite so bug-infested as the charity pupils, but life in those schools was no picnic either. Reading it really made me wonder how any loving parent could bear to send their son to one of these places!