Tuscan, and Grecian orders, containing paintings of Mars and Minerva, the Annunciation, and the Last Supper; the arms of the founder, and of James I. This apartment is now only nsed for the celebration of the foundation, which anniversary festival takes place on December the 12th. Adjoining is the library, containing many scarce and valuable works, principally presented by Mr. Wray, a portrait of whom is suspended over the fire-place.

The boys' apartments consist of a handsome room, and a large dining-hall. Over these are the dormitories, the assistants' chambers, and the monitors' studios.

The chapel is nearly square, and is divided into north and south aisles, by four pillars of the Tuscan order. Over the entrance is a richly carved gallery, bearing date 1612, containing an organ; there are numerous tablets and monuments, amongs the most interesting of which is the cenotaph of the founder (who died the 12th of December, 1611), by Nicholas Stone and Jansen.

The annual revenue of this establishment amounts to about £6000. Eighty pensioners are maintained in handsome separate apartments, living in the collegiate style, having all necessaries found them, and an allowance of £14 per annum, and a cloak, in lieu of clothing. The nomination lies in the governors, in rotation.

There are also forty-four boys, at present, on the foundation, who are admitted between the ages of ten and fourteen, in the same manner as the pensioners, and supported free of expense. There are several exhibitions to the universities, varying in value from £20 to £100 per annum. The play-ground is three acres in extent, for the use of the scholars. Amongst the distinguished men who have received their education here may be named Dr. Isaac Barrow; Blackstone, author of the commentaries; Addison and Steele, who were scholars together; the Rev. John Wesley; Sir C. L. Eastlake, P.R.A.; and W. M. Thackeray.

ST. KATHERINE'S HOSPITAL,

On the east side of Regent's Park. Erected in 1826, from designs by A. Poynter, Esq. The buildings are of white brick, in the pointed style of architecture, and consist of two ranges, each forming three houses, for the brethren and sisters. In the centre, but detached, is the collegiate church, consisting of a nave and aisles, containing the curious pulpit, monuments, &c., brought hither on the destruction of the ancient hospital, at the formation of St. Katherine's Docks. On the opposite side of the road is a villa, the residence of the master, having pleasure-grounds attached, two acres in extent.

The ancient hospital was founded by Matilda, queen of Stephen, in 1145, re-founded by Elinor, queen of Edward I., in 1273 and enlarged by Philippa, queen of Edward III. The office of master is the only piece of preferment in the gift of the Queens Consort or Dowager of England.

CALEDONIAN ASYLUM,

Copenhagen Fields, Islington; incorporated 1815. This handsome structure was erected in 1827-8, from the designs of Mr. George Tappen; the foundation stone having been laid by His Royal Highness the late Duke of Sussex, in grand masonic form, on the 27th, of May; and the present building, which is, however, but the centre of the original design, was completed in October following. The Caledonian Asylum was instituted for "supporting and educating the children of soldiers, sailors, and marines, natives of Scotland, who have died, or been disabled in the service of their country; and of indigent Scotch parents, resident in London, not entitled to parochial relief." The present number in the Asylum is seventy-two boys, and forty-two girls. The children are admitted from the age of seven to ten years,, and are retained until they have attained the age of fourteen, when they are apprenticed to trades, or otherwise disposed of according to circumstances.

The boys' military band is a justly-admired one, and is often rendered available for the festivals of kindred institutions.

SCHOOL FOR THE INDIGENT BLIND,

St. George's Fields; instituted 1799, an admirable establishment, where youth of both sexes, afflicted with one of the most painful privations to which our nature is liable, are humanely and ingeniously educated, and taught to earn their own subsistence.

The present buildings, which are of white brick, with stone dressings, were commenced in April 1834, and were erected from designs by Mr. J. Newman; they form an exceedingly pleasing composition, in the Tudor, or Domestic Gothic style. The north front, chiefly remarkable for its regularity and great extent, produces an agreable impression, whilst the more highly ornamented entrance front, from its oblique position, with regard to the longer line of building, has a novel and striking appearance.

The annual income is about £6,000. The number of pupils has been gradually increased from fifteen males, to eighty-five males, and eighty-six females, and a manufactory has been established; the produce of the articles sold, the work of the inmates, during 1849, was £1291. 11s. 2d.

The inmates may be seen at work every day, except Saturday and Sunday, between ten and twelve in the forenoon, and between two and five in the afternoon.

In addition to the above valuable institution, there are several other societies, having for their object the education and instruction of the blind; and by means of whose exertions, the painful deprivation of a very large number of sufferers is greatly ameliorated.

THE LYING-IN HOSPITALS

Are five in number, all affording relief to such poor women as cannot afford the charge of procuring proper assistance at home. In connection with these admirable institutions, it is highly interesting to learn from their reports, that the deaths have decreased in average amongst their patients, from one in fifty, to one in three hundred, with mothers; and from one in twenty, to one in eighty, amongst the children, during the last eighty or ninety years; a result attributable to the superior medical science, and increasing care bestowed upon the inmates.

THE BRITISH LYING-IN HOSPITAL, Endell Street, Long Acre. Instituted in 1749, and was the first established in London. It was rebuilt in 1849, at a cost of about £6,000, and is capable of receiving forty patients. Since the foundation, upwards of 40,000 persons have participated in its benefits. It is exclusively for the reception, or treatment, of married women.

CITY OF LONDON LYING-IN HOSPITAL, corner of Old Street, City Road. Instituted in 1750, at Shaftesbury House, Aldersgate Street, and removed from thence to its present site in 1773. The annual number of women delivered at this hospital is about five hundred and fifty; and the whole number since its establishment, has been upwards of thirty-nine thousand.

QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S LYING-IN HOSPITAL, Manor House, Lisson Grove, Marylebone. Instituted in 1752. With a view to facilitate repentance, and to remove every motive for acts which conscious guilt excites in the minds of many unlawful mothers, this hospital admits penitents once, but in no instance are they received a second time. The average annual treatment within the hospital is two hundred and forty, and since its foundation, nearly fifty-seven thousand women have partaken of its benefits.

GENERAL LYING-IN HOSPITAL, York Road, Lambeth.

Instituted

in 1765, rebuilt on its present site in 1825, and incorporated in 1830. The benefits of this charity are also extended to such single women as can produce satisfactory testimony of previous good conduct, and who, on diligent enquiry, appear to the committee to be objects of real commiseration, an indulgence, however, strictly confined to the first instance of misconduct.

QUEEN ADELAIDE'S LYING-IN HOSPITAL, Queen Street, Golden Square. Established in 1824, as the Middlesex Dispensary, and in 1835, as a lying-in hospital. During the past year, there were about one thousand cases, not one of which terminated fatally. The annual average of cases is about that number.

In addition to the above hospitals, there are numerous institutions for delivering poor married women at their own homes, which by their unostentatious benevolence, render great service to thousands of industrious women in their hour of sorrow, and are well deserving of the benevolence of the charitable.

DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM,

Kent Road. Instituted in 1792, for the support and education of indigent deaf and dumb children. No child is eligible under the age of eight and a half, nor above eleven and a half. Open to inspection daily, Sundays excepted. The most convenient time is from eleven to one o'clock.

THE MAGDALEN,

Blackfriar's Road; for the reception and reformation of erring females, who, if they behave well, are never dismissed from it, until provided with the means of obtaining a reputable livelihood. The number of inmates avereges one hundred and fifty. A resident chaplain is attached to this institution, which has a neat chapel within its walls. The singing of the inmates render the services very attractive. Morning service commences at a quarter past eleven, evening at seven.

LONDON FEMALE PENITENTIARY,

Pentonville. An institution similar in its nature to the preceding. During the year 1815-6, the sum of £1,150 4s. 10d. was received for washing and needlework, done by the inmates of this establishment, many of whom had become qualified to earn a respectable maintenance, on leaving the asylum.

FEMALE ORPHAN ASYLUM,

Westminster Road, owes its existence to the zeal and judicious conduct of the celebrated Sir John Fielding. It was instituted in 1758, and is an admirable charity for friendless and deserted girls under twelve years of age, who attend the chapel on Sundays, and whose neat and cleanly dress, coupled with their healthful and happy appearance, form a most interesting sight to a feeling mind.

LONDON OPTHALMIC HOSPITAL,

Moorfields. Instituted in 1804, by a Mr. Sanders, and removed to this place in 1821. It is a valuable institution for the relief and cure of that dreadful calamity-blindness, and since its institutition, nearly 200,000 patients have been under the care of its medical officers.

Many of the above charities being supported by voluntary subscriptions, we earnestly recommend them to the reader's benevolence.

CHAPTER XVIII.

EXETER HALL AND THE MAY MEETINGS.

St. Stephen's is not better known as the seat of legislation than Exeter Hall as the recognised temple of modern philanthropy. The associations connected with it are peculiarly characteristic of an age which in many respects is marked and distinct from all other eras in the history of the national manners, and which had scarcely exhibited any of its phases half a century ago.-Platt.

EXETER HALL,

Strand. A spacious edifice erected in 1831, from designs by Mr. J. P. Gandy Deering, at a cost of £30,000, on the site of Exeter Change, and devoted almost exclusively to the uses of religious and benevolent societies, especially for their anniversary meetings. The frontage to the Strand is very narrow, the exterior simply consisting of a lofty portico, formed of two handsome Corinthian pillars, with a flight of steps from the street to the hall door.

The great hall, on the upper floor of the building, is ninety feet broad, one hundred and thirty-eight feet in length, forty-eight feet in height, having an arched roof for the conveyance of sound, and is lighted by seventeen large windows. It will accommodate three thousand persons with comfort, and four thousand may be crowded within its walls. The platform is at the east end, and will accommodate seven hundred persons; it is fenced from the audience portion of the hall by a light railing. The platform has been modelled with a view to the accommodation and display of the orchestra and chorus of the Sacred Harmonic Society, and the London Sacred Harmonic Society, whose concerts take place here, when the sublime compositions of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and other eminent composers, are given, by a body of seven hundred vocal and instrumental performers, in a style of unapproachable excellence. In the centre of the orchestra is placed one of the finest organs in the world, built by Walker.

Beneath the great hall is a smaller one, in which are held meetings of a more limited character than those for which the upper hall is suitable; there are likewise numerous rooms appropriated to the use