ABSTRACT
POOR Law work had its happier side—a side even lighted up with humour. Not all workhouses were haunts of misery; masters and matrons had it in their power to give them some atmosphere of home, and this was the ideal for which Bridges lived and worked. As an inspector he was alarming; “ terrifying,” Miss Baker calls him, adding, “ he was the best of friends.” The quiet voice which Mrs. Nettleship remembers, had in it something which a culprit, be he guardian, matron or child, was not likely to forget. As she says, he made them feel, and the few scathing words in which he expressed his disapproval, still more the quiet tone in which they were said, would stand out in the memories of those who heard and felt them. Against wrong doing, neglect or cruelty, his anger would be white hot. “ May God deliver us from Dr. Bridges,” a guardian was heard to exclaim, and that guardian echoed the feelings of many others.
