Hearth less than 20 shillings a year and those who paid neither church nor poor rates. Also exempt were charitable institutions such as schools and almshouses, and industrial hearths with the exception of smiths' forges and bakers' ovens. The returns were lodged with the Clerk of the Peace between 1662 and 1688. A revision of the Act in 1664 made the tax payable by all who had more than two chimneys. The tax was abolished by William III in 1689 and the last collection was for Lady Day of that year. It was abolished in Scotland in 1690. Hearth tax records
Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩ well as in foreign borrowed words like "spa", "taco", "llama", "drama", "piranha", "Bahamas", "pasta", "Bach", many of which vary between and among different dialects of English. Some of these developments are discussed in detail in the following sections. In late Middle English, pairs such as "cat", "cart", were pronounced , respectively, distinguished only by the presence or absence of . However, by the late 17th century they were also distinguished by the quality and length of the vowel. In "cat", the vowel had been fronted to , while in "cart" it had been lengthened to . This latter change seems