Letter from H.J. Harris to David Mayall, 30 January 1984

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

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text excerpt

Dear David Mayall

Thanks for your letter of January 23. Willingly, I will explain how life in a Victorian Orphanage could be paralleled to what I experienced in a lunatic asylum. (Notice I said lunatic Asylum, NOT mental hospital!) 

In the early thirties I was committed to an asylum.  I found the routine quite similar to what I had been used to 20 or so years before. We were counted in and counted out whenever we were to leave the permitted areas and were required to go “en masse” with a master or at least a “monitor” who would be responsible for us, and good behaviour at all times. 

[…]

[Following the strict daily routines of school at the orphanage] [we] had another hour-and half school after tea, and finally going to bed at 9.30 after sing[ing] an evening hymn and a prayer. 

excerpt from 'Letter from H.J. Harris to David Mayall, 30 January 1984' pp. 6 (140 words)

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