Receiving the rich, rejecting the poor: towards a history of hospital visiting in nineteenth-century provincial England.

The changing perceptions of visitors to hospitals in provincial England during the long nineteenth century are examined in this chapter. In particular, it discusses the experience of visitors to hospitals in nine general and specialist hospitals in Birmingham, England's 'second city'. Though the history of visitors in this provincial setting supports the general assumption that hospital governors received the rich and rejected the poor, this chapter demonstrates that attitudes to visitors were not always straightforward. Views of hospital governors and medical staff varied with medical specialism, hospital finances, and a host of other factors.