Anonymous

“ Middlesex Hospital, for the reception of the sick and the lame, and for lying-in married women, in Marybon Fields near Oxford road. This is a neat, plain, and not inelegant brick building: it has the decent appearance and all the accommodations one would wish in a house devoted to charity, without that ostentatious magnificence which too often in a great measure defeats the humane and noble end of such pious and charitable institutions, where those sums are squandered away in useless decorations, that ought to be employed in administering health to the sick, and giving feet to the lame. ”

“ In this chariot sat the four grand masquers of Gray’s Inn, who were handsome young gentlemen. Their habits, doublets, trunk hose and caps, were of the richest tissue, covered as thick with silver spangles as they could be placed; large white silk stockings up to their trunk hose, and very fine sprigs in their caps.
On each side of the chariot were four footmen, in liveries of the colour of the chariot, carrying huge flambeaus, which, with the torches, gave the greatest lustre to the paintings, spangles and habits. ”

“ The present edifice, which was built by the great Sir Christopher Wren, was finished in 1673, and is a handsome structure, chiefly admired for the elegance of its steeple, which is extremely light in its aspect, and though very high and full of openings, is secure from any second fall by the geometrical proportion and lightness of its several parts. It is thought to be the most beautiful thing of its kind in Europe.
The tower is square from the ground, and in this form rises to a considerable height; but with more ornament as it advances. ”

“ It is natural to observe, that the arguments for establishing any hospital, are at least as strong when applied to these. Poverty is an object of pity; sickness and poverty united seem to comprehend all the natural evils of life, and how great is the calamity of those poor who are frequently or periodically afflicted with sickness; and though their labour is at other times a bare support, are annually disqualified for providing for themselves and families! During the latter part of their pregnancy, and the time of their lying-in, the needy family is wholly taken up in attendance upon them ”

“ The stone balustrade of the stairs is continued along the front of the portico, and the columns, which are wrought in the proportions of Palladio, support a large angular pediment, adorned with a very noble piece in bas relief, representing the dignity and opulence of the city of London, by Mr. Taylor.
In the center stands a very graceful woman crowned with turrets, representing the city, her left foot placed upon the figure of Envy, who lies on her back, and seems endeavouring to rise. Her left arm rests upon a large shield, which has the city arms, and in her right hand she holds a wand. ”

“ A taste for elegance in architecture, and a desire to improve and adorn the city, have produced one of the finest bridges in the world at Westminster; have caused London bridge to be stripped of its ruinous buildings that encumbered the passage, and will soon render it as commodious 116and beautiful as possible. Another elegant bridge is erecting at Black Friars, in so grand a taste as to do honour to the city. We are become sensible of the absurdity of building magnificent structures in holes and narrow passages, where they cannot be seen to advantage ”

“ On the 29th of May, the time prefixed for this pompous procession by water, the Mayor, Aldermen and Commons assembled at St. Mary Hill; the Mayor and Aldermen in scarlet, with gold chains, and those who were knights, with the collars of SS. At one they went on board the city barge at Billingsgate, which was most magnificently decorated; and attended by fifty noble barges, belonging to the several companies of the city, with each its own corporation on board; and, for the better regulation of this procession, it was ordered, that each barge should keep twice their lengths asunder. ”

“ This Gothic edifice is very spacious, it being an hundred feet in length and sixty-three in breadth; the height of the roof is forty-five feet, and that of the steeple an hundred and thirty-five. The body is enlightened by a single series of large Gothic windows. The wall has well-contrived buttresses and battlements; these buttresses run up pilaster fashion, in two stages, not projecting in the old manner from the body of the building. The tower, which is full of ornament, consists of five stages, each of which, except the lowest, has one Gothic window ”

“ It is obvious that there cannot be greater objects of compassion than poor, young, thoughtless females, plunged into ruin by those temptations to which their youth and personal advantages expose them, no less than those passions implanted by nature for wise, good, and great ends ”

“ A stranger cannot any way form a more just notion of the dignity of the English nation, than by attending this noble and august Assembly, when the King is present, with the crown upon his head, and not only his Majesty, but all the Lords are in their robes, and the Commons attending without the bar. ”

“ A Physician, a Man-midwife, and a Surgeon in ordinary, attend daily at the hospital; besides whom the house is supplied with a Physician and Man-midwife extraordinary, a Surgeon extraordinary, and an apothecary, who supplies the patients with such medicines as shall be found necessary in their respective cases. And that the patients may not want necessary comfort under their afflictions, a Clergyman has undertaken the kind and charitable office of attending the house as Chaplain, baptizes the children born there, churches the women, and reads prayers publickly twice a week. ”

“ This, and the London hospital for lying-in women, must be allowed to be truly noble charities; but many have thought them too limited, as the relief afforded to poor distressed women in a situation that calls upon humanity to lend them help, ease, and comfort, is confined to those who are married: and the more unhappy women, who have the sting of guilt added to pain, are excluded from receiving the least benefit from those foundations. ”

“ In July the bill increasing to 2010, all houses were shut up, the streets deserted, and scarce any thing to be seen therein but grass growing, innumerable fires made to purify the air, coffins, pest-carts, red crosses upon doors, with the inscription of Lord, have mercy upon us! and poor women in tears, with dismal aspects, and woeful lamentations, carrying 85their infants to the grave! ”

“ On the opposite side of the house, sit those Peers who rank above Barons; the President of the King’s Council, and the Lord Privy Seal, if they are Barons, here sit above all Dukes, Marquises, and Earls; and the Marshal, Lord Steward, and Lord Chamberlain, sit above all others of the same degree of nobility with themselves.
Just before the throne are the woolpacks across the room, on which are seated the Dignitaries of the law. The Lord High Chancellor, or Keeper of the Great Seal, sits on that nearest the throne, with his great seal and mace by him; he is Speaker of the house of Lords. ”

“ The running post’s employment is fetching in a basket the broken meat from the Lord Mayor’s table, provisions from the clerk of the market, private families, and charities given in the streets; which when so inconsiderable as not to admit of being divided among them all, are publicly sold, as before. ”

“ This not only pleased every inhabitant of the city of London and the borough of Southwark, but every one who had occasion to pass and repass over this useful bridge; and all whose business leads them to pass in any kind of craft thro’ the arches, began to please themselves with the thought, that their lives would hereafter be secure in the exercise of their lawful employments. ”

“ Those under the small-pox, who were formerly sent to pest-houses, and treated as if they had the plague, are now happily accommodated in places prepared for their relief; and there is even an hospital for inoculating the young who never had this formidable disease, in order to prevent the fatal effects which commonly attend its being caught in a riper age. In short, the last charitable foundation I shall mention, as an honour to the present age and nation, is the Marine Society ”

“ The King having divorced Queen Catharine, and married Anne Boleyn, or Boloine, who was descended from Godfrey Boloine, Mayor of this city, and intending her coronation, sent to order the Lord Mayor, not only to make all the preparations necessary for conducting his royal consort from Greenwich, by water, to the Tower of London; but to adorn the city after the most magnificent manner, for her passage through it to Westminster. ”

“ Martin’s le Grand is a liberty distinct from the government of London, and subject to the Deanery of Westminster, it has a court of record kept every Wednesday, for the trial of all personal actions of what nature soever, and there is a court-house and a prison.
In this court the leading process is a capias against the body, or an attachment against the goods; so that a man’s goods may be seized in his own house, upon the first process, if he himself be not taken: which is according to the practice of all ancient liberties or franchises. Stow. ”