he wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement. They were alternately known as "waste people", "offals", "rubbish", "lazy lubbers", and "crackers". By the 1850s the downtrodden included so-called "clay eaters" and "sandhillers", known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds.

The strange story of the prince who became a ragged pauper and the ragged pauper who became a prince has persisted in English legend for four hundred years.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a novel by Robert Tressell  first published in 1914 after his death in 1911. An explicitly political work, it is widely regarded as a classic work of working-class literature.