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⟩ varieties of English, by analogy with "father". The table below represents the results of broadening before fricatives in contemporary Received Pronunciation. In general, all these words, to the extent that they existed in Middle English, had ("short A" as in "trap") which was broadened to . The exceptions are: The words "castle", "fasten" and "raspberry" are special cases where subsequent sound changes have altered the conditions initially responsible for lengthening. In "castle" and "fasten", the was pronounced, according to a slight majority of 16th and 17th century sources. In "raspberry" we find rather than . The pattern of lengthening shown