Homer Sykes on the depicted tradition:

The turn of the century saw the founding of a number of settlements in the poorest parts of London, each sponsored by a school with the aim of alleviating distress and promoting awareness amongst the better off of the appalling conditions of some sections of society. The Fern Street Settlement was founded on behalf of the Devon's Junior School in 1907 in continuation of a personal effort begun in 1900 by the school's headmistress and warden, Miss Clara Grant. She therefore started an imaginative scheme known as 'farthing bundles'. Any child who had a farthing and could walk under a wooden arch forty-eight inches high without stooping received a bundle. These usually contained notepads, pencils, small toys, pieces of string, etc. Over the arch she had painted: 'Enter all ye children small, none can come who are too tall.' Taller children had to pay a penny for their bundle. The scheme clearly appealed to the children for every Saturday from seven to eight hundred of them would line up to go through the arch.

Inflation and the welfare state have modified the custom a little. The bundle has risen by stages to the price of a new half-penny, and today's taller children have a fifty-two-inch arch to go through every other Saturday; attendance is also down to between fifteen and thirty.