Show beggary in old england queen elizabeth put down her royal foot and the golden age of begging was halted before the passage of the statute of 1572 thousands of vagabonds most of them able bodied scamps scalps made a livin living by willi wandering derIng the length find and breadth of england begging stealing and pestering householders as they went lit in great companies they swarmed fron from shire to shire at that time the profession numbered about roving beggar beggars S who throve on the indiscriminate charity distributed at monasteries before their dissolution at weddings or other countryside feasts and at the treat great baron baronial lall homed v o |