I’m glad that they are building the evidence to support this but I do feel a bit sad that it isn’t just obvious to all that “people happier and more relaxed when they have access to nature”.

You understand perfectly and it is a terrible thing that unfortunately still exists today in the form of payday loans. This is the brutal cost of being poor. They could have slipped into the cycle of pawning clothes, because they had a week/day without wages and then I imagine it is very hard to get out of. Not sure why they didn’t just not buy the clothes back. Perhaps they just still wanted to be part of the community or perhaps they truly believed that the afterlife was a better option for them so attending church was the best security for a good life after the bad one they are in!

Apparently people would pawn of their Sunday Best and then buy it back at the end of the week to go to church.

https://visitvictorianengland.com/2019/05/24/victorian-pawnbrokers/

“For the majority of the working classes, pawning was simply a way of life. The only way to make ends meet was to pledge their belongings to raise cash for the week ahead. When in work, they used their clothing, especially their Sunday best, as capital. This was why Saturdays and Mondays were the pawnbrokers’ busiest days. Clothing was frequently pledged on a Monday and redeemed on a Saturday after the breadwinner of the family had been paid. It was worn to chapel or church on a Sunday, and pledged again the next day. This cycle of pledging and redeeming, week in, week out, might continue for years, and pawnbrokers made their profits on the interest charged”