ABSTRACT
Historians have recently paid increasing attention to Louisa Twining's work as a leading example of upper-middle class philanthropy. This chapter looks at the experiences of the poor elderly women whom Louisa encountered in her philanthropic work, comparing them with the experiences of the wealthy old women within her family circle. It seeks to explore the lives of these women in some depth in order to bring to life the contrasting realities of the experiences of older women of different social backgrounds in the nineteenth century Victorian Britain. Louisa Twining was evidently shocked by the treatment of pauper inmates. The Brabazon Scheme, which was active in the Kensington and Tonbridge workhouses when Twining was a guardian, gave the inmates means of occupying themselves. The poor aged women inmates who were too frail for the heavy work were given sewing such as mending as their workhouse task.
