Publishers' Note. 
 
 This Book, Issued at 3/6, and Raised to 
 7/6 ON Publication, is allowed Gratis to 
 Subscribers towards the work of the 
 Survey Committee. At the close of the 
 Year the Price of the Remaining Copies 
 will be further raised. 
 
 There are Twelve Sets of Illustrations 
 separately struck, which may be had at 
 10/6 the set. The Stones are Destroyed. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/trinityhospitaliOOashb_0 
 
THE TRINITY HOSPITAL IN • • 
 
 MILE end: an object lesson 
 
 IN NATIONAL HISTORY^ BY • • 
 C. R. ASHBEE, M.A., ARCHITECT. 
 
 S£/^G THE FI1{ST MO^N^O- 
 GT{/1PH OF THE COM- 
 MIllEE FOR THE SUT^VET 
 OF THE MEMO'EJALS OF 
 GREATER LONDON. 
 
 TUBLISH8T> "BT THE 
 qUILT> m SCHOOL 
 OF HAHiTDIC^AFT, 
 ESSEX HOUSE, BOW, 
 L03iT>0N, E, i8g6. 
 
THE COMMITTEE FOR THE 
 SURVEY OF THE MEMORIALS 
 OF GREATER LONDON. 
 
 The Late LORD LEIGHTON was President of the Committee. 
 
 HONORARY MEMBERS. 
 
 W. ADAMS. 
 
 Mrs. H. S. ASHBEE. 
 
 B. T. BATSFORD. 
 
 E. W. BROOKS. 
 
 A. G. BROVv^NING, F.S.A. 
 R. M. BURGH. 
 The Right Hon. 
 
 LORD CARLINGFORD, 
 W. CARPENTER. 
 
 G. CHAMBERS. 
 WALTER CRANE. 
 Miss S. DUCKWORTH. 
 
 F. M. DUTTON. 
 
 The Rev. J P. FAUNTHORPE. 
 GEORGK FRAMPTON, A.R.A. 
 Dr. RICKMAN J. GODLEE. 
 The Rev. W. GOODCHILD. 
 L C. GOULD. 
 Professor J. W. HALES. 
 A. J. HOLLINGTON, L.C.C. 
 Mrs. HOPE. 
 
 H, P. HOPGOOD. 
 H. L. HOPKINSON. 
 Mrs. E. HUBBARD. 
 
 The Rev. J. E. KELSALL, M.A. 
 The Rev. J. KENNEDY, M.A. 
 H. LUXMORE. 
 
 C. J. MARSHALL, A R.I.B.A. 
 The Right Hon. 
 
 THE EARL OF MEATH. 
 
 J.T.MICKLETHWAITE.F.S A. 
 
 Mrs. MITCHELL. 
 
 F. D. MOCATTA. 
 
 THEO. MOORE, A.R.LB.A. 
 
 WILLIAM MORRIS. 
 
 ERNEST W. MOUNTFORD, 
 
 F.R.I. B.A. 
 A. J. MUNBY. 
 F. MURRAY. 
 PHILIP NORMAN. 
 The Rev. J. P. NOYES, M.A. 
 GEO. PITT. 
 W. G. RAWLINSON. 
 J. S. REDMAYNE. 
 E. R. ROBSON, F.R.I B.A. 
 W. K SHIRLEY. 
 The Hon.LYULPH STANLEY. 
 J. J. STEVENSON. 
 Miss STONK, 
 R. G. TATTON. 
 W. THOMPSON. 
 T. THORNTON. 
 HAMO THORNYCROFT, R.A. 
 The Right Hon. 
 
 LORD TREDEGAR. 
 Mrs. THACKERAY TURNER. 
 J. A. C. VINCENT. 
 J. HUMPHREY WARD. 
 J. WELLS, M.A. 
 
 ACTIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 C. R. ASHBEE, M.A., 
 
 Ckairman of the Committee. 
 
 JOS. ALDRIDGE. 
 
 W. ASHFORD. 
 
 The Rev. G. B. ATKINSON, 
 
 M.A. 
 F. BAINES. 
 MAX BALFOUR. 
 Sir WALTER BESANT. 
 CECIL BREWER 
 SPEDDING CURWEN. J.P. 
 A. DUNBAR-SMITH. 
 MATT. GARBUTT, A.R.LB.A. 
 H. LOWERISON. 
 
 E. T. MARRIOTT, B A. 
 
 F. E. MASEY. 
 
 THEO. MOORE, A.R.LB.A. 
 
 A. E. NUTTER. 
 
 W. E. SEDGWICK. 
 
 F. R. T.\YLOR. 
 
 ALFRED P. WIRE. 
 
 E. W. M. WONNACOTT. 
 
 ERNEST GODMAN, 
 
 Secretary of the Committee. 
 
 THE Committee was formed in 1894. Its object is to watch and register what 
 still remains of beautiful or historic work in Greater London, and to bring such 
 influence to bear from time to time as shall save it from destrudlion or lead to its 
 utilization for public purposes. 
 
 THE Committee is at present engaged in compiling a Register in which every 
 interesting memorial within the radius treated is recorded, together with a 
 series of illustrated monographs on the more interesting buildings. Of this 
 series the present volume is the first issue. 
 
 ADDITIONS to the Committee are welcomed either as honorary {i.e., subscribing) 
 members, or as active members, who are prepared to visit buildings and assist 
 in the making of the Register. Subscribing or acStive membership entitles to 
 possession of the publications. Those desirous of joining the Committee in either 
 capacity, or of obtaining copies of the forthcoming Register, should send in their 
 names to the Secretary, Mr. Ernest Godman, Essex House, Bow, E. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 WHILE these sheets are being completed in the press, the announce- 
 ment appears that the Charity Commissioners have decided to dismiss 
 the petition of the Corporation of Trinity House for the breaking up of 
 the Hospital, and the consequent destruction of the Almshouses. The 
 decision is conveyed in a letter carefully drawn up, and published in TJie 
 Times of Wednesday, May 27th, i8g6, and the reasons given for not 
 sanctioning the proposal are stated as two 
 
 (1) That there has been no insufficiency of endowment ; 
 
 (2) That there has been no failure of Trusts. 
 
 It will not unreasonably be asked, v/ould the decision of the Com- 
 missioners have been the same had there not been so great a public 
 outcry against the destruftion of the Hospital. 
 
 THE letter contains a wise and valuable judgment; but it avoids, and 
 doubtless rightly from the immediate point of view of the Commissioners, 
 any direct reference to the greater questions of National History, public 
 health and beauty, and the maintenance of the original intentions of the 
 founders. These questions are usually dismissed as sentimental ; but 
 may it not be pleaded from the public point of view, and without in any 
 way impugning the grounds on which the Commissioners have based 
 their judgment, that the maintenance or destrucl;ion of any national 
 memorial should in future be treated on the broadest public grounds ? 
 
 C. R. ASHBEE. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS BY MEM- 
 BERS OF THE WATCH COMMITTEE 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
 PLATE 
 I. 
 
 2. 
 
 3- 
 
 5- 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 8. 
 
 9- 
 
 10. 
 
 II. 
 
 12. 
 
 13- 
 
 Plan of the whole site. Mr. J. Allen j 
 
 Mr. Ernest Godman ' 
 
 General view. Mr. Matt. Garbutt 
 
 Front Elevation 
 
 Elevation of E. Wing 
 Plan of front Wall 
 
 Elevation of East Gable 
 
 Stone Ship on Gable ends 
 
 Mr. J. Allen 
 
 Mr. J. Allen 
 
 Detail of Mouldings. Mr. J, Allen 
 
 Elevation of Chapel with sections. Mr. Ernest Godman 
 Stained Glass in S.E. Window (coloured). Mr. Ernest Godman 
 
 Statue of Captain Maples. Mr. Max Balfour ... 
 Statue of Captain Sandes. Mr. Max Balfour ... 
 Reading Room (interior). Mr. Max Balfour ... 
 Two Old Captains playing Drafts Mr. Max Balfour ... 
 Sketch from the Governor's Room. Mr. Joseph Pennell 
 
 (Kindly lent to the Committee by the Editor of the Daily Chronicle.) 
 
 34 & 35 
 .. 4&5 
 
 .. 6 & 7 
 
 30 & 31 
 14 & 15 
 22 & 23 
 
 Stained Glass in S.W. Window (coloured). Mr. Ernest Godman 24 & 25 
 
 26 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 28 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Sir Richard Browne's Arms. From a photo, by Mr. F. R. Taylor ... 17 
 
7 
 
 CHAPTER I. THE PURPOSE 
 OF THE MONOGRAPH. 
 
 THE endeavour of the following Monograph is to give a description of a 
 famous London building, to trace its relation to certain periods of 
 national life, and to show what it may be regarded as implying to us 
 historically and aesthetically at the present day. 
 
 MOST great architecture bears upon it the mark of what is best in the fqunda- 
 
 national character that gives birth to it, and its purpose is always distinct ?r°nity^"^ 
 
 and appropriate. The Trinity Hospital, or College, built in the reign of "^^p^"^^^- 
 
 William III., in 1695, shares this appropriateness with other great English 
 
 buildings, and up to the present day serves the wise and beneficent 
 
 purpose for which it was originally erected. What, however, gives the 
 
 Hospital in Mile End its peculiar historic interest, is that it remains the 
 
 only memorial left to us of the Trinity Corporation, or, as it would be more 
 
 correct to call it, the Guild of the Trinity House, in the time when the 
 
 Guild was actually the English Navy. From the day of Henry VHI. 
 
 to the day of James H., from the time of Sir Thomas Spert, the traditional 
 
 founder, to the time of Mr. Secretary Pepys, the English Navy either 
 
 actually is synonymous with the Trinity Guild, or is guided and watched 
 
 over from the Trinity House of Deptford Strond. The little group of 
 
 buildings on the Waste are the only remaining record of the work of the 
 
 Guild at the time of its greatest influence and authority, and they combine 
 
 in themselves the two vitally important traditions, that of the Navy Office j[i^^i^vAL 
 
 with its little official Board under the later Stuarts, out of which sprang ^^^d^i^^ons] 
 
 the Admiralty, and the Guild tradition of the middle ages, which brought 
 
 with it the element of charity and fellowship. It was in the conception of 
 
 this later tradition that the hospital was built, by those who were working 
 
 out the destinies of the earlier, and it will be seen that the architecture 
 
 is expressive of both. 
 
 IN its style and external characteristics, the building is classic, of the 
 period of Sir Christopher Wren, in its planning and general disposition 
 it is still mediaeval. The endowments and the bequests of the site are of 
 the Stuart time, but the nature and manner of endowing are in spirit 
 many centuries earlier, and the buildings are built on the model of an 
 earlier set at Deptford, now destroyed, which, in their turn, very probably 
 replaced a yet earlier foundation. The character of the middle ages is 
 evidenced in the planning of the Collegium, the little open court walled 
 off", with the chapel at the end for service, and the manner and purpose of 
 the Charity, as we shall presently see, was in no wise Stuart, but entirely 
 mediaeval. 
 
 TO trace this dual relationship between the existing buildings and the 
 two periods of English history to which they owe their origin, it will be 
 necessary to briefly review such of the functions of the Trinity Corporation 
 as may be considered to have given rise to the Hospital. 
 
8 
 
 CHAPTER II. THE TRINITY 
 COLLEGE AS A RECORD OF 
 THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 MR. BARRETT in his book on the Trinity House^' has already written 
 the history of the Corporation so carefully, that little or nothing remains 
 to be said, but he has not, I think, done justice to the Hospital, nor has he 
 sufficiently brought out the historical importance of what is left of the 
 Corporation's old world records in brick and stone. What I wish to do here 
 is to trace the connection between the historical idea underlying the 
 institution of the Hospital, and the mediseval principles of the Mariners' 
 Guild of Deptford, to which the Corporation owes its origin, and to 
 discover in so doing what were the essentially mediaeval principles in the 
 spirit of which the Hospital was founded. To do this more satisfactorily, 
 we may first of all compare the constitution and functions of the Deptford 
 Guild with those of other Maritime Guilds in mediaeval sea towns, notably 
 those dedicated to the Trinity, and yet remaining to us under the name 
 of Trinity Houses. We shall find that for the most part they possess 
 certain features in common. 
 
 CHARTER OF ^^^^^ ucccssary to go into the question of the remoter origin of 
 
 HENRY VIII. the Guilds, or to consider whether they were or were not of Teutonic 
 growth. Suffice it that, in the middle ages, they represented what we 
 may term the Teutonic principle of voluntary Association, and different 
 trades and occupations formed themselves into societies bearing distin6l 
 characteristics. The Tradition held since the beginning of the 17th cen- 
 tury and confirmed by the memorial in Stepney Church as to the 
 founding of the Deptford Guild by Sir Thomas Spertf appears to me 
 to be quite compatible with the existence of an earlier Guild, and this 
 the Charter of Henry VIII. | would seem to prove. " And further" says 
 the a6t of Henry VIII. "we have granted to our said liege people and 
 subjects {i.e., the existing Guild), that they may have and enjoy all and 
 singular the Liberties, Franchises, and Privileges, which their Predecessors, 
 the Shipmen or Mariners of this our Realm of England, ever had, used 
 or enjoyed. And also that they may have and hold to them, and their 
 successors, all the lands and tenements which they now have in Deptford 
 Strond aforesaid, of the gift or grant of whatsoever person or persons." 
 
 porat'ion.'^' what took place in the reign of Henry VIII., then, was merely a 
 re-modelling or re-incorporation, one of those periodical re-incorporations 
 by which the Guilds adapted themselves to changing social conditions, and 
 while not accepting altogether Mr. Barrett's view that "the Guild was 
 incorporated as a consequence of the wise naval policy of Henry VIII.," 
 I think it may be safely stated that Sir Thomas Spert, who, according to 
 
 * Barrett's History of the Trinity House of Deptford Strond, London, 1893. 
 
 t Which memorial however was ereded in 1622, 81 years after his death. 
 
 t The ad of Henry VIH. exernplified by George HI. S33 the Royal Charter granted to the Trinity House, 
 
 1763. 8vo. in the British Museum. 
 
PLATE 
 
 • E)LE:VATIQN'-OF-EAST-GABLa- 
 
 ■"^lu^ — j— H — \ — I . r I — i-H — 1 — f-A — I — \ — \ — f 
 
9 
 
 the inscription on the monument, was Controller of the Navy, was Master 
 of the Guild at the time of its re-incorporation, and that in accordance 
 with the general policy of Henry VIII. the existing Guild that controlled 
 the mouth of the Thames, as the Hull Guild controlled the mouth of the 
 Humber, and the Newcastle Guild the mouth of the Tyne, was re-modelled 
 with slight variations in its mediaeval constitution in 15 14. It is much to 
 be regretted that the Charters that might have established these facts have 
 been destroyed by fire, but we may safely assume the existence of the 
 earlier mediseval fraternity, and an inspection of the records left to us of 
 the other Trinity Guilds devoted to naval purposes in other parts of the 
 Kingdom, will give us a fairly complete picture of what the mediseval 
 Guild down to the Stuart time must have been like. 
 
 WE find then that there were Associations of this nature, and of which °^f^^:^Y 
 we have records, in the principal sea-faring towns of mediaeval England, houses. 
 in Newcastle, Boston, Hull, Lynn, Sleaford, Wisbeach and Wyngale, and 
 their nature, purpose, and function is for the most part the same. They 
 are voluntar}^ associations of mariners, they fulfil the purpose of burial and 
 benefit clubs, they are religious in character, and also social, they undertake 
 in varying degrees the duties of the port, sea or fen water with which 
 their members come in contact, and when need ofiers, they act as coast 
 defence, in other words, they are Royal Marine and Navy. 
 
 TO take first the Trinity Guild of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, we find that Newcastle 
 it purchases its present House in 1492, and pays a red rose yearly every trinity. 
 mid-summer for ever as quit money, and throughout the Tudor period it 
 exercises similar privileges to those allowed by Henry VIII. to the London 
 Guild. In 1536 the King grants it a new Charter, gives it license to 
 build and embattle two towers as lighthouses, and confirms its rights of 
 pilotage and primage. In 1584, it becomes the Trinity House of 
 Newcastle, and from successive Kings receives local privileges similar to 
 those granted to the Trinity House in London. 
 
 IN Boston we have another Trinity Guild who had their Hall and did J^g 1^°^^^^ 
 duty towards " the better maintenance of the Bridge and Port of Boston."* trinities. 
 In Hull was a very famous Trinity of whose founding we have a record in 
 1369. A group of some thirty worthy folk of Hull come together and 
 form a fraternity, which, like those of Newcastle, and Boston, and 
 Deptford, ultimately becomes the Corporation of Trinity House and 
 legislates in matters of seamanship. There are brothers and sisters who 
 form the benefit and burial club, they agree to meet regularly at the 
 Church of the Holy Trinity, or submit to the wax fine, and they make 
 regulations for the maintenance of any of their number in old age or 
 infirmity, even to the tunic and the little cap at the feast of St. Martin. 
 
 IN Lynn, the great mediseval Merchants' City of the East, the Trinity ^^j^j^^^^ 
 Guild occupied a most important position. In the reign of John one of its 
 members was mayor of the town, and at the time of the Reformation, — 
 for we may estimate the wealth of Guilds by the number of Chaplains they 
 
 ♦Walford, "Guilds." 
 
16 
 
 THE 
 
 WYNGALE 
 TRINITY. 
 
 THE 
 
 WISBEACH 
 TRINITY. 
 
 THE 
 
 DEPTFORD 
 TRINITY. 
 
 supported and gave Henry VIII. the opportunity of suppressing — its wealth 
 must have been very great, for it maintained thirteen. 
 
 THE Guild of the Holy Trinity of Wyngale again gives us a record 
 from 1387, and we find rules laid down for keeping up lights, and for 
 the searching of the bodies of the drowned. 
 
 THE most interesting of all the records of Guilds dedicated to the 
 Trinity, is that of Wisbeach, which appears to have been founded in 
 the reign of Richard II. (1379), and which did many years of good 
 work in keeping out the sea and saving the fen country from inun- 
 dations. This Guild has left us a minute account of its receipts and 
 expenditure for the first few years of its existence. The Christmas feast, 
 the cost of the image of the Trinity, and the pay to the plasterers for 
 putting it up ; the removal of the Parclos ; the beer for the workmen, the 
 woollen cloths for the hoods that came all the way from London for the 
 brethren, and the expenses of a certain grand Guild feast, at which it would 
 seem that apparel for ten dancers had to be purchased — all are recorded, 
 not to mention the cost of the many delightful things with which the 
 hall was ornamented. As might have been expected, the expenditure 
 exceeded the income, and so a levy had to be raised, which, says the 
 chronicler, " ought to be paid by the sixty-seven brethren, viz., each of 
 them 5d. ; and thus there would remain is. ii^d. (no mean sum !), which 
 the said brothers expended in wine before they departed, and so, from 
 the account, nothing remains. Amen." 
 
 THERE are also a variety of other entries from time to time, records of 
 local government, the maintenance of the fen-dyke against inundations, 
 judicial business, the institution of a school, matters of benefit, burial, 
 and alms, and among them in 1477 " for the salvation of the soul of 
 Thomas Blower" the entry of a bequest of "one new edifice called the 
 Almshouse, built and situate in the New Market of Wisbeach."* 
 
 FROM the character of these various Guilds, we may also judge the 
 character of the Guild of Deptford, and in what exists of its customs and 
 its duties at the present day the mediaeval conditions are quite evident. 
 In the lights and pilotage we have the origin of powers similiar to those of 
 Boston, Hull and Newcastle, in the Mile End Hospital is traceable the 
 old principle of Mediaeval Charity, in the Chapel the religious intention, 
 and in the suits of the old pensioners — the blue stuff and the brass 
 buttons as we still see them — the "cloth for the hoods that came from 
 London " for the brethren of Wisbeach, or the tunics and caps for the 
 brethren of Hull. 
 
 IT must be borne in mind, however, that these associations in the 
 middle ages v/ere not charities. The object was not to give doles or alms 
 to the poor. They were voluntary associations, trade unions, in this 
 instance trade unions of mariners, and clubs for mutual aid. They 
 fulfilled divers and certain functions, and the character of corporate unity 
 
 • Watson's "History of Wisbeach." 
 
II 
 
 gave also a distinct character to the manner in which their benefits were 
 bestowed. Even well into the 17th century there appears neither in the 
 Deptford Guild, nor in such of the others as still continue, any change 
 in the corporate conception ; it is understood that help is given to the 
 poorer members of the Guild ; but it is not charity bestowed from outside 
 or from above, it is internal — the real sort of charity, as one might call it 
 — every brother of the fraternity has equal rights. One could wish that 
 this mediaeval conception of the limits and functions of charity were a 
 little more regarded by the Charity Commissioners in their schemes of 
 reconstruction. 
 
 IN his "Very Merry Wherry-Ferry Voyage," Taylor, the poet, writing of the^hull 
 Hull, in 1662, says of the Trinity House in that City : — '662. 
 
 " Besides for every sea or marine cause 
 
 They have a house of Trinity, whose lawes 
 
 And orders doe confirm, or else reforme 
 
 That which is right, or that which wrongs deform ; 
 
 It is a comely built, well ordered place. 
 
 But that which most of all the house doth grace 
 
 Are rooms for vvidowes, who are old and poore, 
 
 And have bin wives to Mariners before. 
 
 They are for house roome, food or lodging, or 
 
 For firing, Christianly provided for. 
 
 And as some dye, some doth their places win. 
 
 As one goes out another doth come in." 
 
 JUST so it is in the Mile End Hospital to this day. From Taylor's Jhr^^^^^ 
 poem, too, it would appear that the ladies of the Guild not only lived in life. 
 the house itself, but that Government and Communal life were conduced 
 under the same roof. I press this point of the Communal life, upon 
 which all these houses of Trinity were founded, because in our often 
 insufficiently considered re-modelhng of Chairties now-a-days, we lo-se 
 sight of the founders' intentions, even when they are quite realizable.* statu' 
 But there is a further point still to be noted, which applies to the Trinity ^i^J/^v^l 
 Houses and their Charities : — the status of the recipients of the aid. I g|;^"±D 
 
 1 •111 1 ri 'i r -t**^^ HiiKo. 
 
 have said that these endowments were none of them m the nature of 
 doles or alms to the poor, but insurance for house, home, life and limb to 
 brothers and sisters of the Guild. How this was the case even in 
 Evelyn's day is brought out very pointedly in the unintentional rebuke 
 which he enters against the Trinity Corporationf in the building of their 
 Hospital at Deptford. The Seamen's widows he apparently thought were 
 well enough off, and though the work was a good one, the money would have 
 been better spent on the poor of the parish. The distinction between the 
 seamen's widows and the poor is one that it is well to bear in mind, and 
 it brings with it the reflection that the contemplated destruction of the 
 mediaeval purpose, — the Communal life of the Mile End Hospital, must 
 inevitably bring with it a lowering of status to the recipients of the 
 Charity. Our Charity Commissioners have not yet abandoned the 
 prevalent belief that the " out pension " is preferable to what is commonly 
 
 * See letters of Sir Robert Hunter, Miss Octavia Hill and Sir Walter Besant in Chapter VI. of 
 
 this Monograph. 
 
 I Evelyn's Diary, May 25th, 1671. 
 
12 
 
 and contemptuously called the "alms house," but that is because they 
 have as yet made no attempt to re-cast one of these old Charities in the 
 fuller Communal spirit of the middle ages. A knowledge of the way in 
 which "out-pensions" work, and of the trend of modern industrial life 
 into groups and communities, will show that not only might a re-modelling 
 on the mediaeval method prove a wise one, but that it may be inevitable 
 in the near future. It is to be hoped that the Commissioners will be 
 sufficiently far sighted to see that such of these institutions of Communal 
 Charity as still remain, have yet a great purpose to fulfil in the newer 
 industrial life that is springing up around them. 
 
 DFPTroRD THERE is yet something to add as to the militant functions shared by 
 as'the^ the Deptford Guild with the other Maritime and Trade Guilds of England. 
 NAVY. Just as they were voluntary associations for life, limb and labour, so 
 they were also associations for defence when called upon. The Guilds of 
 Craft sent their levies to the City Watch, the Maritime Guilds served the 
 purpose of coast defence or of sea power. The most important oi these 
 was inevitably the one that controlled the port of London. There was no 
 navy, as we understand it, in the middle ages, and when fighting had to 
 be done it was done by marine levies. It is a traditional memory of ours 
 that when the Spanish Armada came, the English ships were so little that 
 the great Spaniards shot away over their heads, but those little ships were 
 guided and directed by the Guild of Mariners from Trinity House. We 
 have records of the transference of rights that passed between the Lord 
 High Admiral Howard of Effingham and the Trinity Brethren. In the 
 THE ACT OF ^^^^^^7 pfeamble of the A61 of Elizabeth in 1566* " Touchinge Sea- 
 ELizABETH, markcs and Maryners " the corporation of the Trinity House is described 
 (note the significance of the words !) as being " charged with the con- 
 duction of the Queen's Majesties Nayve Royall." History has shown 
 that this little impromptu navy answered its purpose and did its work 
 very well ; for us it only remains to observe that the memory of it in any 
 practical form, and of the Guild of Mariners who manned it, is preserved 
 only in the Mile End College. 
 
 HERE then are some of the fafts which a study of such of the mediaeval 
 Guilds as were distinctly maritime, and of the Deptford Guild in particular, 
 brings home to us. From these fafts we can reconstruct the history, 
 nature, purpose and functions of the Trinity Guild in London, and we 
 note how its mediaeval traditions have found expression in the Hospital 
 in Mile End, how, in short, it is an objeCt lesson in mediaeval history. 
 But if it preserves for us the Guild traditions of the Middle Ages, and of 
 the days when the navy was the maritime levy, it preserves for us in a still 
 more vivid manner — as I shall show in the next chapter — a yet more 
 sacred tradition, the birth of the British Navy itself, in the transition 
 period between mediaeval and modern times. 
 
 * Royal Charter, 1763 (quoted above). 
 
13 
 
 CHAPTER III. THE TRINITY 
 COLLEGE AS A RECORD OF 
 THE STUART PERIOD AND 
 THE GROWTH OF THE NAVY. 
 
 WE owe our navy in great measure to the Stuarts, and the Trinity 
 Corporation is the agency through which the work of construction is 
 accomplished. It is in the reign of James II., just before the time when 
 the Mile End Hospital is built, that the Deptford Guild receives its 
 final, and, perhaps, its most important re-incorporation.* In the day of 
 Elizabeth the Guild was the navy, in the Stuart time the functions begin om^ERpN. 
 to differentiate, and the stri6tly naval as apart from the marine fa6tor 5f'^^a°val 
 forms outside, but is still inseparably conneded with the Guild. On July ^|]^ct%'^s 
 20th, 1685, Evelyn recorded in his diary, "The Trinity Company met 
 this day, which should have been on y^ Monday after Trinity, but was 
 put off by reason of the Royal Charter being so large that it could not be 
 ready before. Some immunities were superadded. Mr. Pepys, Secretary 
 to y^ Admiralty, was a second time chosen Master. There were present 
 the Duke of Grafton, Lord Dartmiouth, Master of y^ Ordnance, the 
 Commissioners of y^ Navy, and brethren of y^ Corporation. We went to 
 church according to costome, and then took barge to the Trinity House, 
 in London, where we had a great dinner, above 80 at one table." It is 
 not till the time of Admiral Blake and of the later Stuarts that the 
 modern navy takes definite shape as apart from the Trinit}^ House, but 
 the connection still remains, and inseparably bound up with these half- 
 naval, half-civic duties are the names of Samuel Pepys, Sir Richard 
 Browne, John Evelyn, Charles II., and James II. With all of them the 
 Trinity House and its Hospital are direftly connected. 
 
 THE 
 
 GROWTH 
 
 AS is to be expe6led, a notable change comes over the mediaeval Guild in 
 
 the 17th century. It becomes official, and partakes more of its modern §pp[ciAL 
 form ; we note a growing division into two distinct classes. The allusions 
 to it in the diaries of Evelyn and Pepys give us the key to this ; there is 
 the Secretary to the Navy, Mr. Samuel Pepys, for whom a special clause 
 is inserted in the Charter of Charles II., and there are the poorer brethren 
 and the charities ; but so essential to the proper development of naval 
 affairs is the Trinity Corporation, that the leading naval officials ad in its 
 councils, and the Crown assumes rights in the appointment of its master. 
 Instead of the simple guild life of the earlier time we come now into a 
 different existence. The atmosphere is more courtly, less breezy, in lieu 
 of the guildsman's tunic and hood, we have the periwig and the curls. 
 
 WRITING in very evident satisfaction at the good fare he had received 
 at the Trinity House, Evelyn enters in his diary, June igth, 1671, "To 
 a splendid dinner at the greate roome in Deptford Trinity House, Sr. Tho. 
 Allen chosen Master, and succeeding the Earl of Craven," and again on 
 March 26th, 1673, — for a good diarist is usually a good dinner eater—" I 
 
 * The Royal Charter, 1763 (above quoted). 
 
was sworn a younger brother of the Trinity House, with my most worthy 
 and long acquainted noble friend Lord Ossorie (eldest son to the Duke of 
 Ormond), Sir Rich'^- Browne my Father-in-law being now Master of 
 that Society; after which there was a greate Collation." We are 
 reminded of the great collations of the City Companies of the present 
 day and of the membership of those august bodies, where it not unfre- 
 quently happens that any connection with the craft or mystery of the 
 Guild in its original intention is the exception rather than the rule. 
 
 HOW far the notable "quality" that Evelyn and Pepys delight to 
 honour in their postprandial reflections had any working connection with 
 Pilotage and Ballastage and Buoyage, or even with the defence of the 
 Thames, it is now difficult to trace, but it is evident that the official class 
 enter in and take possession, as it were, of the ancient Mariners' Guild of 
 Deptford. Possibly the right of patrimony may, though to a lesser degree, 
 have warped the Mariners' Guild as it did the other Guilds of England, 
 but the political importance of the command of the Port of London 
 necessarily caused a gravitation of the political official to the Board of 
 the Trinity House. 
 
 EVELYN. EVELYN himself was a man of independent means, a gentleman, a 
 courtier and a scholar, who was trained for the law and had no direCt 
 connection with naval matters. He dabbled in science, architecture, 
 education and horticulture, and it was not till later on in life that he was 
 made Lord Privy Seal by James H. and Treasurer of the Greenwich 
 Hospital for Seamen. That he should have been appointed a Brother 
 of the Trinity had reason enough, for his studies in navigation, and in 
 timber for shipbuilding exercised a considerable influence on his contem- 
 poraries. His famous Sylva, or " Discourse concerning Forest Trees," 
 was the outcome of the appeal of the Navy Office to the Royal Society, — 
 of which he was one of the original members,— on the question of timber 
 for shipbuilding; and the significant words of Isaac Disraeli are enough 
 to prove the importance attaching to this when he says " Inquire at 
 the Admiralty how the fleets of Nelson have been constructed, and they 
 can tell you that it was with the oaks which the genius of Evelyn planted." 
 
 BUT Evelyn had yet another link with the Trinity House, which bears 
 upon the aCtual Hospital about which this Monograph treats. His father- 
 in-law. Sir Richard Browne, was an Elder Brother and a great benefaCtor 
 to the guild, indeed to one of his benefactions the Mile End Hospital may 
 in part be traced, and the remnants of the Deptford endowment are at 
 present in Mile End. " I dined," writes the diarist on May 25th, 1671, 
 "at a feast made for me and my wife by the Trinity Company for our 
 passing a fine of the land which Sir R. Browne my Wife's father freely 
 gave to found and build their Colledge or Almeshouses on at Deptford, it 
 being my wife's after her father's decease. It was a good and charitable 
 work and gift, but would have been better bestow'd on the poor of that 
 parish, than on the seamen's widows, the Trinity Compy- being very rich 
 and the rest of the poore of the parish exceedingly indigent." 
 
PLATE -6 
 
 GROUND • LI IVEL 
 
 CHAPEL- 
 
 HOUSE- 
 
 SECTION • ACROSS • MAIN • QUADRANGLE : LODKING • NORTH • 
 
15 
 
 ON the wall opposite the North Side of the Chapel at Mile End may still 
 be seen the coat of arms of Sir Richard Browne (see page 17). I am 
 inclined to think with Mr. Barrett that this coat was originally at Sayes 
 Court, and was subsequently put up at the Deptford Hospital, from whence 
 it was removed here. The engraving which remains to us of the destroyed 
 Hospital at Deptford,* though it only shows one side of the block, tends 
 to prove that the Deptford foundation was the prototype of the existing 
 one in Mile End, the latter therefore fitly commemorates the name of 
 Sir Richard Browne, who was in a sense its author. 
 
 THE aftual founder of the Mile End College was Captain Henry Mudd, g^^^ATcY?FF 
 of Ratcliff, as the inscriptiont on the building states (see pi. 4, p. 8), and 
 this worthy is recorded in conjunction with Samuel Pepys, as one of those 
 whose names appear in the James H. Charter. J As the extracts which 
 relate to Pepys and Mudd are significant as proving the social change 
 that had come over the Guild in the Stuart time, and the distinction 
 between the wealthier official class and the poorer or pensioned class, to 
 which I have before referred, I give them at some length. 
 
 "AND for the better execution and accomplishment of this our Will and thk cl^ass 
 Grant in that behalf, We have assigned, nominated, constituted, and tion. 
 made, and by these Presents, for Us, our Heirs, and Successors, do 
 assign, nominate, constitute, and make our trusty and well beloved 
 Samuel Pepys, esquire. Secretary of our Admiralty of England, to be the 
 first and present Master of the said Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood, 
 to continue in the said Office or Place by himself, or his sufficient 
 
 Deputy from henceforth until the Morrow after Trinity 
 
 Sunday, com.monly called Trinity Monday, now next coming .... 
 
 "AND also we have assigned, nominated, constituted, and made, and by 
 these Presents, for Us, our Heirs, and Successors, do assign, nominate, 
 constitute, and make Captain John Nichols, Captain Henry Mudd, Captain 
 Nicholas Kerrington, and Captain William Green to be the four first and 
 present Wardens of the said Guild 
 
 " AND that all and singular sum and sums of money, whatsoever, due or 
 hereafter to be due, and received by the said Decrees, Orders, Agreements, 
 Fines, Forfeitures, or otherwise, shall be to the use. Commodity, and Profit 
 of the said Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood, unto and for the repairing 
 of a certain House or Tenement, commonly called or known by the name 
 of Trinity House ; and of other Tenements or Almshouses, situate and being 
 in Deptford-Strond, aforesaid, and Upper Deptford, in the said County of 
 Kent, belonging to the said Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood ; and for 
 the finding of certain poor Persons, Brethren, and the Wives of Brethren, 
 of the said Guild, Fraternity, or Brotherhood, which are fallen into 
 Decay, Misery, Poverty and Need, or hereafter shall fortune to fall 
 
 * Grace Colledion, British Museum, 
 f'THis Almeshovse wherein 28 decayed Masters & Comanders of Ships or ye widows of such are 
 maintain'd was built by ye Corpo. of Trinty Hovse An. 1695. The Ground was given by Cap"- 
 Heny. Mudd ol Ratcliff an Elder Brother whose widow did also contribute." 
 % The Royal Charter 1763 (above quoted). 
 
i6 
 
 into Decay, Misery, Poverty and Need ; and also for Relief of other poor 
 Manners and Seafaring-Men, such as by them, and their successors, shall 
 be thought meet and necessary therewith to be relieved ; and for other 
 public uses of the said society." 
 
 element'^ the old guild system remains, but class division tends to separate the 
 AND^^'"^*^^ functions. The hard and fast division between rich and poor, between 
 t/nies^^ Elder Brother and Pensioner, is, however, one that does not appear till 
 the present day, and the final expression of it is in the plan already 
 adopted in the case of the Deptford Hospital and which is now under 
 consideration for Mile End, of sweeping the whole institution away and 
 substituting a money dole in place of the old corporate life of the College 
 with its ancient seamen, their wives and widows. Such a course would 
 not only destroy the constructive record of the Stuart time, it v/ould also 
 wipe out what is left of the spirit and fellowship of the Middle Ages, 
 which, as I endeavoured to show in the previous chapter, the Mile End 
 College still retains. 
 
 IN the Stuart time then we find the centre of gravity of the Guild's 
 government shifting to an important official class in close touch with the 
 Crown ; but they, too, are affefted with the Guild spirit, and the govern- 
 ment of the Trinity House at its headquarters is conducted in a very 
 comfortable and cheery manner. 
 
 PEPYS' 
 kecukd. 
 
 STUART 
 MEMvjKIALS. 
 
 AS Evelyn recorded the dinners, so Pepys entered into the minutiae of the 
 luncheons. One almost gets the impression from reading his allusions to 
 the Trinity House in the immortal Diar}^, that it is a place v/here eating 
 is always going on. You merely drop in and, as a rule, you find the right 
 thing; sometimes you are " cloyed with pasties," and sometimes "My 
 Lady Batten," the wife of one of the Masters — and she is Pepys' bete 
 noire — comes bothering at the Trinity House with her "crew of friends;" 
 when the diarist records it very clearly and solemnly that he cannot abide 
 her. But my Lady Batten's intrusions are merely a survival of the 
 "brethren and sisteren " spirit of community. The point in short that 
 is to be noted is that these post-prandial and social allusions only 
 prove the distinctively mediaeval charafter of the Guild's constitution. 
 Institutions that dine never die. 
 
 HERE, then, we have a pifture of v/hat the Trinity Guild, or as it would 
 now be more correct to call it, the Corporation of the Trinity House, was 
 in the time of the later Stuarts, at the time, in faft, when the present 
 buildings in Mile End were erected. Just as we see how the little Hospital 
 preserves for us the traditions of the Maritime Guild of the middle ages — 
 the King's Majesties Nay"'' Royall — so it preserves for us, in a still more 
 living and concrete form, the record of the birth of the great British Navy, 
 the beginnings of the Admiralty Board, and the groups of statesmen and 
 sailors, to whom we owe the first large outlines of our national seamanship. 
 The whole archite6tural design and treatment of the detail is calculated 
 to impress this ; the first thing that strikes the visitor is the little stone 
 ships (pi. 4, p. 8) at the ends of the gables, then he looks in through the 
 gates and sees the two rows of cabin-like houses, the flagstaff in the 
 
17 
 
 garden and the statue of the sea captain in the centre; closer examination 
 of the carved detail in the pediments will show him all the maritime forms 
 and conceits of which it is composed, and if he finds his way into the 
 Chapel he will note all the glass panes dedicated to the different Elder 
 Brethren, their coats, canting heraldry and merchants' marks, and if then 
 he passes into the inner court there is the statue of Capt. Maples for 
 him in the full costume and stupendous periwig of the period of Samuel 
 Pepys and John Evelyn. 
 
 THE ARMS OF SIR RICHARD BROWNE. 
 
i8 
 
 CHAPTER IV. THE TRINITY 
 COLLEGE AS IT IS. 
 
 I PASS now to a brief description of the existing buildings, and shall 
 hope to still further show how they remain for us an object lesson in 
 national history. There is a peculiar, and, in many cases, a personal 
 interest in the variety of objefts that at present form this little living 
 museum on the Waste. For we have here the Wren work of the Hospital 
 itself, the records of two later dates, the remains of the previous Deptford 
 Hospital, the remains of the old Hall, the records from Sayes Court and 
 the statues of two founders, besides other trophies. In short, associations 
 with the names of Sir Christopher Wren, John Evelyn, Sir Richard 
 Browne, Samuel Pepys, Captain Sandes, Captain Mudd, Captain 
 Maples, with a number of earlier and later worthies of the Trinity House 
 recorded in one way or another either in glass or inscription. Let me take 
 the architecture first. 
 
 MR. BARRETT speaks rather as an antiquary than as an architeft 
 when he says that "the Trinity Almshouses at Mile End are, from an 
 antiquarian point of view, of considerable interest, though architedlurally 
 they cannot boast of any remarkable beauty." Allowing for all possible 
 latitude in matters of taste, the statement is an unfortunate one and 
 conveys an opinion that is not held by any practical architeft and certainly 
 not by those eminent artists who recently gave their judgment as to the 
 aesthetic importance of the building. It is to be hoped that the verdict of 
 the historian may not have biassed the Corporation towards the destruction 
 of their Ancient Trust. 
 
 THE plan (pi. i , p. 34) may be consulted for the disposition of the buildings. 
 The whole plan is of a T shape, but of this only the stem of the T is of 
 the 17th century or Wren period, the back court being structurally later. 
 There is something singularly bold in the general arrangement of the 
 earlier and older portion. Whether or not the exigencies of site demanded 
 it, the plan is so conceived as to give the greatest amount of vista to the 
 Chapel, the two wings of the buildings being thus set askew, while in order 
 to obviate any sense of a want of symmetry intruding itself on the beholder 
 from the south, the designer has screened off the Mile End front by a 
 ■ wall of singular grace and beauty. As Mr. Thackeray Turner pointed out 
 in his evidence before the Charity Commissioners' enquiry, this wall could 
 only have been the work of a great master. 
 
 T^Jifs^"^' WITH the exception of the two houses subsequently removed, but 
 once standing east and west of the Chapel, before the second court was 
 constructed at the back, the plan is the same as originally laid out, but a 
 reference to Gribelin's print of the early i8th century* which should be 
 
 GR/BELiN's compared with Mr. Garbutt's bird's-eye view (pi. 2, pp. 4, 5) of the grounds 
 
 * This print may be seen in the Grace Colleftion, Print Room, British Museum, or in the Governor's 
 
 Room in the Trinity Grounds, 
 
19 
 
 as they appear at the present day, will show certain dissimilarities between 
 the i8th and igth century drawings. Of these the most important is the 
 existence of nineteen dormers in the roofs in Gribelin's print ; the 
 " Palisadoes " round the grass mentioned in R. Seymour's Chronicle of 
 London are removed, as are also the two houses above referred to as 
 adjoining the Chapel ; the brickwork at the side of the steps is shown in 
 the print as without cement, and the two little statues of youths holding 
 nautical instruments and standing within the two niches towards Mile 
 End Road are absent ; there is also a very high vane. 
 
 AN early i8th century print, even of classic architecture, must, however, be 
 taken with reservation ; historical accuracy was not a quality that the 
 engraver felt himself called upon to exercise. If the dormers looked nicer 
 on paper, they were put in ; and if the niches looked bare without 
 statues, their insertion in the drawing could not but redound to the credit 
 of the Brethren, so they were put in also. I have not been able to find 
 any structural evidence of a previously gabled roof, and I am inclined to 
 think that the roofs are as they were originally designed. 
 
 IT is possible that the Chapel may have been originally in brick in the 
 same manner as the houses, but that, too, is doubtful. The floor level of 
 the Chapel v/as lowered in recent years owing to an accident that happened 
 to one of the old pensioners who it is stated fell down the steps on the 
 ice. Though the steps remain, the actual entrance to the Chapel is now 
 underneath them on the ground floor. 
 
 THE section by Mr. E. Godman (Plate 6) which shows the Chapel, 
 shows also the interior treatment of the rooms, which are painted rooms. 
 throughout and look much like ships' cabins ; for old folk, and especially old 
 sea m.en, few methods could be better devised. The end house at the 
 south-western side is given over to the Governor of the Hospital, and 
 that on the south-eastern is occupied in part as a library. It is a cheerful 
 little room within, well stocked with books and papers, and the old men 
 sit here, with the quiet garden for a look out on the one hand, and with 
 the great moving panorama of the Waste seen through the windows to library. 
 the south. Preferably within sight of the Thames says one of the bequests 
 for the founding and maintenance of the Trinity Almshouses, and when 
 the buildings were originally erefted, the masts and traffic of the river 
 must have been easily seen across the fields of Stepney from this 
 coign of vantage. Mr. M. Balfour's two drawings (pis. ii, 12, pp. 18, 28) 
 give a very charming picture of what may be seen inside there any day 
 by those anxious to have some illustration of what is meant by the 
 collegiate life, and what it has been recently proposed to do away with. 
 
 ARCHITECTURAL descriptions are unsatisfactory, and I cannot do l^f^^^j^j^g 
 better than refer to Mr. Allen's three sets of drawings in elevation 
 (pis. 3, 4, 5, pp. 6, 8, 30) with the larger drawn detail for those to under- 
 stand who can read in the language of the architeft. The drawings, as 
 they are presented, are just such as might have been prepared originally 
 for the builders to work from. The elevation of the S.E. gable, hov/ever. 
 
20 
 
 THE 
 
 GARDENS 
 AND 
 
 STATUES. 
 
 CAPT. 
 
 MAPLES. 
 
 CAPT. 
 SANDES. 
 
 A MUSEUM 
 OF 17th 
 CENTURY 
 ART. 
 
 shows the windows of the hbrary from the Mile End Waste, to the interior 
 of which I just called attention. 
 
 PASSING to the two little gardens within the enclosure, those precious 
 open spaces of which we have so few left in East London, I would like 
 particularly to call attention to the formal planning, the arrangement of 
 the grass plats, the true naval flagstaff, and the position of the two 
 statues. The statue to Capt. Sandes, or Sanders, as he appears in Pepys 
 and Evelyn, stands in the front court (pi. 10, p. 20), that of Capt. Maples 
 (pi. g, p. 26) in the back, the inscriptions respectively record the reasons why. 
 i^^sthetically the two statues are of vital importance because of their 
 costume.* In the day when everybody with the least pretension to 
 "taste" insisted in masquerading, if immortalized by statuary, in the 
 classic toga, as Roman consul or Attic orator, these two honest seamen 
 had the common sense to see that their own clothes suited them best. 
 Contemporary statues that are not in the pedantic costume of Greece or 
 Rome, but in the periwig and tails of Mr. Vanslipperken, might be 
 numbered on the fingers of one hand ; in London, I believe, these two statues 
 are unique. They are of interest, moreover, for the little biographical 
 touches that they call forth. Both these old mariners were men of note 
 as well as benefactors, and in a comprehensive history of British 
 seamanship would find an honourable place. Capt. Maples was one of 
 the pioneers of English enterprise in India, in those early days just after 
 Bombay had come to us by the dowry of Catherine of Braganza. He 
 appears as Capt. Maples of Madrasspatam, and when his will was 
 proved on August 28th, 1680, it was found he had been faithful to the 
 old Trinity spirit of fellowship. There is a glimmer of romance and 
 generosity about the record that he had left diamonds to the value of 
 1,500 pagodas to be sent over for the use of the Guild. 
 
 CAPT. SANDES has an equally interesting record. Like most of the 
 Trinity Brethren he was a staunch royalist, and he seemed to have been 
 trusted with important letters by both the Duke of York (afterwards 
 James II.) and the King. When poor Pepys was sent to the Tower in 
 1679, on a charge of popery, Capt. Sandes, with whom he v/as intimate, 
 did him a good turn, and was committed with an open letter from the 
 duke, at Brussels, to the King. We have the record of these various 
 journeys of Capt. Sandes and his ship.f His principal work subsequently 
 was that of naval organization, he appears with Pepys in the Guild's 
 Charter of re-incorporation, and was associated with Evelyn and Sir 
 Christopher Wren in 1695, in the Greenwich survey. It was the reversion 
 of his estate in Lincolnshire, that went to the maintenance of the Mile 
 End buildings. 
 
 JUST as the Hospital is the historical record book of so many worthy 
 and famous English citizens, so is it the repository of some of the niost 
 interesting specimens of 17th century art remaining in London; interesting, 
 primarily because of their setting, but, in addition to the actual buildings 
 
 * See letter of Nauticus (page 27). 
 t Pepys' diary. Braybrook's edition, vol. iv. 
 
PLATE 
 
21 
 
 and the statues, the specimens of stone carving, of lead work and of glass, 
 have all of them a charm and an individuality of their own. Of the 
 carved work I give illustration in pis. 3, 4, 6, pp. 6, 8, 14. The stone 
 ships on the ends of the gables, and the arms of Sir Richard Browne have 
 been already referred to ; and the beautiful little mediaeval coat of the 
 Trinity House, which is observable in various parts of the building, is 
 worth examination. So are the lead cisterns in between the houses, 
 which are exceedingly good of their kind. 
 
 MR. BARRETT has made a special study of the glass, which represents the glass. 
 a series of memorials to various Elder Brothers and Masters, but he 
 hazards the rather rash conclusion that it ought to be removed from the 
 chapel and carried off to the Trinity House on Tower Hill. Apart from 
 the risk and impracticability of removing valuable glass, the obviously right 
 thing to do with it is to leave it where it is. It is well placed, it is much 
 more applicable with its little lattice panes to the 17th century character 
 of the old College, than it could ever be to the rather frigid Adams' work 
 of the great house on Tower Hill, and the records of these simple seamen 
 of the i6th and 17th centuries, whom it commemorates, are more aptly 
 preserved in the Mile End College than in the Trinity House itself. The 
 former, as we have seen, preserves for us the true mediaeval spirit of the 
 old Guild, the latter rather suggests admirable organization and able 
 officials, with an exalted board of royal and distinguished Elder Brethren 
 who are too busy with the great things of the world to trouble them- 
 selves with the records and the intentions of the old mariners' Guild, 
 or what becomes of them. 
 
 AS I have not thought it necessary to go over the same ground as 
 Mr. Barrett, I have contented myself with making good the only defect in 
 his admirable investigation of the glass in the Chapel, and have given a 
 complete hand-coloured representation of the various lights in the two 
 windows (pis. 7 & 8, pp. 22 & 24) ; from which the names and merchants' 
 marks of the different Brethren may be more carefully studied. 
 
 TO those whom a slight description does not satisfy, I recommend a visit 
 of inspection. With the few historical data which this monograph may 
 supply, they will be able more fully to judge for themselves how far we 
 are justified in calling the Trinity College in Mile End an object lesson 
 in National History. 
 
22 
 
 CHAPTER V. THE EVIDENCE 
 OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. 
 
 IT remains now to discuss the authorship of the buildings : in doing this, 
 I shall confine my remarks only to the earlier portion of the work — that 
 of 1695, and which is noted on the plan as the stem of the T- 
 
 EVIDENCE. TO the architef!:, the first evidence must necessarily be internal, and the 
 many features which the Trinity Hospital has in common with the other 
 works of Wren, leave little doubt as to its authenticity. It is only 
 necessary to compare it with the work at Greenwich and Chelsea, or with the 
 designs of Pembroke or Emmanuel at Cambridge, to show this. The long 
 low pediment, which is a characteristic in the side wings of the Chelsea 
 Hospital, is developed as will be seen (pi. 3, p. 6) in the Mile End Hospital, 
 the treatment of the quoins and the modillions is another marked 
 feature that both buildings have in common, and the argument of 
 suitability to purpose is one that counts for much when the work of 
 Wren is in question. Just as in the Chelsea Hospital, and this is a point 
 that Fergusson in his entirely unsatisfactory critique of this building 
 misses sight of,* the whole design is instin£t with the element of soldier 
 . life, barracks, drill and regularity, so in the Trinity Hospital the designer 
 
 ' has understood that he is working for seamen, there is an air about it of 
 cabins and bunks. Perhaps the most noteworthy Wren feature, however, 
 is the treatment of the Chapel in its relation to the rest of the building. 
 Reference to Mr. Pennell's drawing [frontispiece), or to the bird's-eye view 
 .-, (pi. 2, pp. 4, 5) and still more to Gribelin's print, will show the severe 
 ' and simple handling of the central mass in its relation to the surrounding 
 brickwork. Not only in the Chelsea Hospital, but also in the designs 
 for Emmanuel College,! and in other Wren buildings do we find this 
 feature, and it is very marked in the work at Mile End. There is, 
 further, the evidence of the mouldings (pi. 5, p. 30), upon which Mr. Penrose 
 laid stress, in his remarks before the Charity Commissioners' enquiry, 
 though I am inclined to attach less weight to this, not only for reasons 
 which will dire6lly appear, but because it was customary at this period 
 (1695), to leave such work, especially in London buildings, very much in 
 the hands of the executant workmen, who, as we know in the case 
 of the Strongs, afted a great deal on their own responsibility, 
 receiving only general suggestions and the small scale drawings or sketches 
 from the revising or superintending architect. 
 
 LATERAL PASSING from the internal evidence, there is much to establish the 
 EVIDENCE, traditional assertion, that the work is by Wren,| and it is always fair to 
 accept tradition where internally confirmed, unless definitely proven false. 
 We know that he surveyed the Stepney Green estates, which bordered on 
 the hospital grounds, for the Wentworth family. We have proofs of a 
 
 * History of Architedure. 
 t See Willis & Clark's History of Cambridge. 
 JDiAionary of Architedure, letter W, 1853-87, Fol. . The buildings are given under thelist of his works 
 
?OUTH-E.\ST WINDOW OF CHAPEL 
 
 PLATE -y- 
 
 7\fo 11. 
 
 j\fo.iZ. 
 
 No.l. 
 
 DeCOP(ATION 8f HERE S»Mt 
 No 1 (jAnS RUDDAMi) 
 
 J\'0. 6. 
 
 JVo.3. 
 
 No. 15 CONTMNS AR^vS-Sf 
 
 or JoHN Haze-lwooo. a 
 Kepuica of no 10 Plate !5- 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 A: 
 
 f 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 (•) 
 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 \ 
 / 
 
 
 /6 
 
 -* 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 At /\ f\ N<.t INSCRIPTIONS 
 RECORDING THE REf^ovAL or- 
 
 THE GLASS f-ROf^ THE TRINITY 
 HALL ATOEIPrrORO IN 1786 
 
 AND ITS-BEING PLACED HEBE 
 IN 1793 • 
 
 NO: 16 CONTAINS -A LIST or 
 
 THE Elder Brethren- of 
 
 Trinit-t House 
 
 Elevation of \\inoow 
 
 ANO ;5'70 
 
 7^0. 17- 
 
 No. 10. 
 
 TVo. Z 
 
 [Tut OR.NAHCNT- IN THli • 
 
 Panel is - greatly pERisHto) 
 
 FoR-WO-EHCtPT 
 For. 
 
 NO IS 
 
 No- IS |L 
 
 .4_U 1- 
 
 Scales . 
 
 _i 4 1 1- 
 
 _4 Inches. 
 
 _£) iMCHtS- 
 
 1829 
 
23 
 
 very close intimacy with Evelyn through the Royal Society, and, what is 
 still more important, a direft communication between him and the Trinity 
 House officials. "We went" writes Evelyn in his diary on May 21st, 
 1695, "to survey Greenwich, Sir Robert Clayton, Sir Christopher Wren, 
 Mr. Travers (the King's surveyor), Capt. Sanders, and myself." This 
 passage is most noteworthy, for it is of the year when the Hospital was built, 
 and it brings the great architect in immediate conjundtion with the two men 
 who must inevitably have had the greatest voice in the planning and building 
 of the new foundation. Capt. Mudd, of Ratcliff, had, as we have seen, left 
 the money to build the Hospital, but Evelyn, by virtue of his authority in 
 architectural matters, his position in the corporation, together with his 
 father-in-law's previous benefa6tion ;* and Capt. Sanders, whose munificence 
 and later bequest completed and enriched the work, these two men must 
 have seen it through. When we search into what other possible authors 
 the building may have had, we find that there were two men who were 
 engaged in surveying for Evelyn at Deptford, and therefore probably for 
 the Trinity House at various times, Joel Gascoine and John Grove. Of 
 the former there are some interesting plans in the British Musuem. of the 
 Deptford docks,! but it would appear that Gascoine died in 1692, and I 
 find no evidence that Grove worked for Evelyn before 1700. Sir 
 Christopher Wren, it is to be observed, had also been specially employed 
 at an earlier date (1668), in the erection of the old Customs House, which 
 was destroyed by fire in 1719, and with the building of which the Trinity 
 Corporation was no doubt associated. We may also further put in 
 evidence the close connection between the Wentworth Estates which 
 Wren surveyed, and the Corporation, for as early as 1617, in a quarrel 
 between Lord Wentworth and his copyhold tenants, the Corporation had 
 been made joint Trustees with the Goldsmiths' Company, of a deed of 
 settlement between him and them.| 
 
 ON the other hand it may be urged that there is no documentary 
 evidence to prove that Wren built the Hospital, that if he had done so we 
 should have heard of it, and that there is no reference to it either in the 
 Parentalia or in Elmes' life of Wren. To the first of these objections I 
 do not attach much weight, for all the documents that might have proved 
 it, one way or the other, were destroyed by fire subsequently ; and for the 
 other objection I think I am able to account. 
 
 MY own view then is that the existing Hospital was designed probably by hospital 
 Evelyn himself, with the assistance, and under the immediate superinten- Jr^ation" 
 dence of Wren, that indeed it was their joint creation. All who have ^^j^^^^ 
 studied the conditions under which building operations were carried evelyn. 
 out in the later Stuart times, and the authority with regard to them 
 which Wren as Surveyor General held, will know that in the first place, 
 he was not in any way in the position of a modern architect towards 
 a work, but afted as a sort of County Council and regulator of taste 
 
 * See above page 14. 
 + Map Room British Museum. See also an interesting set of dock plans of 1698. 
 X Robinson's History of Hackney, edition 1842, page 372. 
 
24 
 
 to all buildings, and that in the second, the workshop or body of masons 
 or builders, who carried out work, were left much more autonomous, 
 and free to exercise their own individuality in details. When we add to 
 this the prominent part that the cultured amateur took in the inception 
 of work; for architecture under Charles II., especially after the Fire, became 
 the fashionable hobb}^, we know that it was quite possible for a fine 
 building to be put up of which some man of taste was, to begin with, 
 the designer. The omnipotent Surveyor General then set his imprimatur 
 upon the work and made possible alterations and additions, and it was 
 finally executed without what are nowadays called " Architedls' Drawings" 
 by a body of highly trained workmen, doubtless the London Masons' Com- 
 pany, of whom such men as the Strongs were members, and who wrought 
 in a full understanding of their work and with still much of the mediaeval 
 tradition. 
 
 THERE is about the Trinity Hospital, a certain cultured amateurishness 
 that gives it its peculiar charm, there is too that delight in garden archi- 
 tecture, which we know was Evelyn's particular hobby Both these points 
 rather reveal the true authorship, and when we add to this the strong 
 Wren characteristics which I dwelt upon at the beginning of this chapter, 
 the close intimacy between Wren and Evelyn, the faft that they had 
 worked together before in London building,* Evelyn's own position in the 
 Trinity Corporation, and the absence of all other evidence to the contrary, 
 the conclusion upon which I have ventured would not seem unfounded. 
 Furthermore Evelyn worked not for himself, but as a member of the Trinity 
 Corporation ; he was also only an amateur architedl, so he would neither 
 lay claim to the authorship of the building himself, nor be claimed 
 as the author by others ; while Wren, who as Surveyor General, would 
 in any case have had to pass the work, would, as it was only partly from 
 his hand, not claim it either ; this then accounts for it not being mentioned 
 in the Parentalia or Elmes' life of Wren. It is a vulgar affectation 
 now-a-days that unless a work of art can be labelled with a great name 
 it does not pass muster, since vulgar people cannot appreciate it for its 
 intrinsic beauty. I should be sorry to have laid myself open to the taunt 
 of encouraging such vulgarity, but the historical importance that accrues 
 to the Trinity Hospital as the joint creation of two such great Englishmen 
 as Sir Christopher Wren and John Evelyn, justifies the risk. 
 
 See Evelyn's letter to Sir Samuel Tuke (1666) on the coincidence of his and Wren's plans for London 
 
 re-building. (Wheatley's " Evelyn"). 
 
S0\TH'WE5T WINDOW OF CHAPEL • 
 
 inside: elevation -of- window- XoJ4<. 
 
 PLATE -B- 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER VI. THE PROTEST 
 AGAINST THE DESTRUCTION 
 OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 I HAVE now sought by description and illustration to explain what I 
 mean by the objeft lesson in National History, and so bring my task up 
 to the present day. 
 
 IT is, perhaps, a bitter reflection on this objeft lesson, that a Corporation AGAiitfs^T^ 
 of such great memories as the Trinity Guild should have grown so callous deItruc 
 and regardless of its past history and its moral responsibilities both 
 towards pious founders and to the general public, as to propose such a 
 scheme as was recently submitted to the Charity Commissioners. The 
 manner in which it was received, and the voices of those who spoke in 
 protest, in so far as they will also be regarded as having their share in 
 this little episode in National History, justify, I hope, the insertion of the 
 following letters. They are selected from among a great volume of 
 correspondence that appeared in the public press, and, as will be seen, not 
 with any bias, since they represent both sides. I am indebted also to the 
 Editors of The Times and The Daily Chronicle for their kind permission to 
 reprint some of them. When the Corporation shall have accomplished their 
 desire of sweeping away the last vestige of the old mediaeval collegium, and 
 the sacred Stuart memories, and sold what can be sold towards swelling 
 their list of out-pensions, these protests may remain on record. I give, at 
 the close of the chapter, what is I think, a sufficiently complete reference 
 to the various press notices, in them the full reports of the Charity Com- 
 missioners' Inquiry may be consulted. 
 
 THE following letters are only selections, but they are sufficient to show 
 the storm of indignation that was aroused by the scheme for the destruction 
 of the Hospital which was presented by the Trinity Corporation to the 
 Charity Commissioners. The net refle6lion on the whole inquiry was 
 that the Corporation had as little knowledge of what they were doing as 
 the public had of what they were about to lose. 
 
 Sir, — The thanks of all who respedl things that are lovely, precious and of good sir walter 
 repute, are due to the writer of the paper on the Trinity Ahnshouses in The Daily Chronicle "the daily 
 of Saturday last. He has said exaiftly what ought to be said, and that with no uncertain chronicle.' 
 note. It only remains to be seen whether he has spoken in time. 
 
 Meanwhile, it is well that your readers should know what else has been done. The 
 committee of the Essex House Crafts Guild have drawn up a remonstrance, or memo- 
 randum, which has been signed by Mr. Ashbee, the president, and by the committee, 
 and has been presented to the London County Council and to the Charity Commissioners. 
 It is hoped that this document will receive attention. 
 
 Your writer spoke strongly on the cruelty of turning these old people into the street. 
 He might have added that the original foundation of this house contemplated a college, 
 or place of common residence, for the companionship and solace far more necessary in 
 age than in youth. If, therefore, the present residents are separated and dispersed the 
 act seems to become nothing short of a breach of trust. 
 
 But we are told that the drains are defedlive ; that they have been condemned by 
 the London County Council ; that there are no funds to set them right ; and that, in 
 consequence, the place must be sold. This seems to make the destru(ftion of the place 
 a sad, but stern necessity. On further inquiry, however, it comes out that £^ for every 
 house will cover all the repairs necessary — about ;^i50 in all. This being the case, I 
 venture to ask you, Sir, if you will receive subscriptions from j'our readers in order to 
 
26 
 
 obtain this sum. If 3,000 will send is. each, if 1,000 will send 3s. each, the thing is done, 
 and the Trinity House would no longer have any excuse for desiring to destroj' what 
 ought to be their most precious possession. 
 
 Your writer spoke also of the love with which the nation reganls all sailors alike. 
 It is a feeling which ought to be fostered and encouraged in every possible way. How 
 better can it be encouraged than by the existence of this Haven of Rest in the very 
 heart of an industrial population ? I3ut consider for what class of sailors the house is 
 founded. There is not among all our people any class more respected than the officers 
 of the Mercantile Marine. There is no man, anywhere, more loyal, more true to his 
 trust, less self-seeking, more courageous than the British skipper. In every history of 
 wreck we know what to expect — we read the thing without surprise — we accept it as a 
 matter of fact, whether it be shipAvreck by fire, or b}^ tempest, or by rocks— the captain 
 is always the last to leave the vessel ; the captain goes down with the hands which have 
 not been able to escape. This college, the only place of the kind, is the one standing 
 testimony to the respect and the affection with which the nation regards this class. It 
 is more — it recalls to one generation after another, the work done by the men ■who made 
 the country in the years gone by ; they were the merchant men who carried the flag to 
 unknown shores and felt tlieir way over seas of which there were then no charts. We 
 cannot afford to forget the history of our merchant captains. In the inner court of the 
 House may be seen the merchant captain as he walked the deck 200 years ago, as 
 splendid in wig, ruffles, lace, and gold embroidery as a leaden effigy will allow. He was 
 set up here at the beginning of our East India trade. For 200 years he has looked on 
 while the captains have come and gone — the men who made the country rich — the men 
 without whom the great Company of Merchant Adventurers would have been powerl-'ss. 
 It is, indeed, a very sacred place. We cannot let it go. 
 
 Few, indeed, at the East-end, or anywhere else, are the monuments which appeal to 
 any sentiment of patriotism or duty, or self sacrifice. Once there was a venerable and 
 beautiful place called St. Katherine's-by-the-Tower — which was ruthlessly and needlessly 
 destroyed— that place might have been made to become for East London what the 
 Abbey church of St. Peter is for West London. Yet even its abolition was not so 
 mischievous, so destrucftive, as would be that of these almshouses. The virtues which it 
 recognises, the achievements which it rewards, the history which it commemorates, the 
 gratitude which it illustrates, the love of adventure which sent these men to sea; these 
 things do not grow on the kerb of the Whitechapel Road, nor are they cultivated in the 
 streets which branch off to north and south. Take away the Trinity Almshouses and 
 the memory of these things will perish. For the sake, then, of the young men who walk 
 up and down that boulevard, as well as for the sake of the captains themselves, we must 
 not let this college go. — 1 am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Saville Club, November 23. WALTER BESANT. 
 
 MgpWiLLiAM Sir, — Allow me to add my thanks also to you for your straightforward attack on the 
 "THE DAILY cant which assumes that a public body having the administration of charities has but 
 CHRONICLE." Qjjg mandate, to wit, the increase of its money at the expense of every other consideration. 
 
 As to the Trinity Almshouses, looking at the beauty and charm of the buildings and 
 their immediate surroundings, and the reproach they throw on us for the squalor of the 
 outside world of East London ; and looking also at the pleasure and decency of life 
 which they confer on the present inmates, I can think of nothing which {mutatis mutandis) 
 fits the case better than the lines of Omar Khayyam : — 
 
 I often wonder what the vintners buy 
 One half so precious as the goods they sell. 
 We must all recognise to the full my friend Mr. Ashbee's single-hearted and 
 indefatigable efforts on behalf of the London citizens ; and none, I am sure, are more 
 anxious to do so than our Society for the Prote^flion of Ancient Buildings ; but lest 
 anyone should think that we have been neglecting our duties, I may venture to tell you 
 that we have been doing our best to help him. 
 
 I enclose my subscription toward the sum of £150, which, as it seems, the Trinity 
 Brethren are too poor to find, and am, Sir, yours obediently, 
 
 Kelmscott House, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, Nov. 25. WILLIAM MORRIS. 
 
 CANON Sir, — Unless strong remonstrance is made at the public meeting of inquiry which 
 
 To^THE will be held at the Trinity House at 11 o'clock of next Wednesday, November 27, and 
 TIMES." unless good cause can be shown to the contrary, one of the most interesting and ancient 
 
 of the English guilds, the guild of " the Mariners of England," will lose its habitation ; 
 
 one of the cleanest books of record of a useful charity for the past 400 years will be 
 
PLATE -9 
 
27 
 
 closed; and by the will of the Trinity House Corporation and the Charity Commissioners 
 the fair haven of rest for ancient mariners in Mile End will be swept away. 
 
 There may, of course, be something to say for outdoor relief as opposed to indoor 
 charity. Almshouses for old people may perhaps with profit be removed from London 
 fogs to country air. Doubtless if, as we hear, a big brewer offers a big price for the site, 
 the charity may be the gainer in ^.s.d. The Skinners' Company would tell us so. But 
 we can ill afford to part with the few picfturesque associations with the past of our great 
 seamanship at this time of day. 
 
 The merchants of London owe too much to the historj' of the flag which was taken 
 from the Spaniards by Sir Francis Drake, which still hangs in the old hall of the 
 Brethren — of which Sir Francis himself was one — to be able lightly to let its memory 
 perish from their midst. " We are a nation yet," but we owe it largely to our strong 
 sea-arm that it is so. And every year that adds to the prose of London life the poetry 
 that remains to us is more dear. 
 
 H. D. RAWNSLEY, Hon. Sec. National Trust, i, Great College Street, Westminster. 
 
 Sir,— The Council of the Royal Institute of British Architecfts are desirous of p|-j^j^Qgjj 
 drawing public attention to an inquiry which is to be held by the Charity Commissioners p.r.i.b a. and 
 on Wednesday, the 27th inst., for the purpose of considering a scheme involving water- 
 alterations in the method of dispensing certain charities connecfted with the hospital or ^^^'^the'^' 
 college of the Trinity House Corporation in the Mile End Road. The council are times." 
 advised that one of the results of the said scheme will be the demolition of the buildings 
 in question. 
 
 We shall therefore be much obliged if you will allow us to point out that the buildings 
 referred to are believed to have been designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and that they 
 are among the most interesting examples of his work in London. They were erecfted in 
 the year 1695, and are thus contemporary with St. Paul's Cathedral. Robert Seymour, 
 in 1734, refers to them thus: — "This Trinity College or Hospital," he says, "is a 
 handsome strucfture of Brick and Stone, near Mile End, north of the high Road, with a 
 graceful entrance consisting of two Rows of building one storey high fronting each other, 
 the length whereof on both sides is paved with freestone ; in the middle a Grass Plot 
 enclosed with Pallisadoes, and set with young Fir Trees, and at the further end. 
 Northward, stands a very comely Chapel, with a Clock, ascending with divers steps." 
 This is an interesting description, but Seymour might have added that the buildings are 
 rich in stained glass, carving, wall panelling, and leadwork. It is indeed a monument of 
 unique architecTiural interest ; and when it is remembered that it stands on the borders of 
 crowded Whitechapel and that its quadrangle forms a breathing space of great value to 
 the districft, we venture to express a hope that the Trinity House Corporation will 
 exhibit sufficient public spirit to abandon any intention of demolishing the buildings, and 
 that so interesting a relic of the past may be preserved by them in its entirety. We have 
 the honour to be. Sir, your obedient servants, 
 
 F. C. PENROSE, President, R.I.B.A. 
 
 A. WATERHOUSE, Chairman of the Art Standing Committee, R.I.B.A. 
 The Royal Institute of British Architecfts, 9, Conduit Street, London, W., Nov. 23. 
 
 Dear Sir Henry Longley, — Although the state of my health forbids my attending lord 
 any public meeting, or taking part in any public discussion, I am extremely anxious that p.r.a. to ' 
 my absence from to-morrow's meeting should not be attributed to indifference on my longlei^^ 
 part to the grave matter before it. I feel, on the contrary, the keenest anxiety in regard 
 to it, and should deplore more deeply than I can say the destrucT:ion of the most 
 delightful and characfteristic group of buildings which is to-day menaced — a relic unique 
 in its artistic characfter, and unlike many relics, still in the full efficiency of its usefulness. 
 A relic, too, which surely the historic associations which are connedled with it, should 
 keep in the reverence of patriotic people. I should be grateful if you could make my 
 feelings, for what they may be worth, known to your meeting. 
 Believe me, dear Sir Henry, sincerely yours, FREDERIC LEIGHTON. 
 
 2, Holland Park Road, Kensington, W., November 26. 
 
 Sir, — In a ledlure delivered last night by Mr. Seymour Lucas, A.R.A., he stated that ^'^H?xhe^ 
 when preparing for his picfture " Peter the Great at Deptford," although he had been daily 
 able to find in the Print Room of the British Museum prints depiifting the costume of 
 various classes in the reign of William III., he had been unable anywhere to gel a 
 representation of a naval officer of that period until he fortunately discovered one in a 
 statue in the beautiful grounds of the Trinity Almshouses. — Yours, &c., 
 
 Crouch End, November 27. NAUTICUS. 
 
28 
 
 ocTAviA — ^ have watched with keen interest the course of the inquiry into the proposal 
 
 HILL TO to destroy Trinity Ahnshouses. It seems to me amazing that a building of such great 
 TIMES." architecftural value, situated in a distridl where any beauty or space is blessing, possessing 
 an historical interest calculated to call out national heroism and gratitude, should not be 
 considered clearly worth the cost of drainage. I wonder what America or France v/ould 
 think of us. In the richest city in the world, possessed of a building reported to be the 
 work of one of our greatest architecfls, a building which for 200 years has been associated 
 with our national history, are we going to allow one generation to actually destroy the 
 fabric for lack of money to drain it, and that when apparently there are funds left for its 
 maintenance ? 
 
 "Oh!" but the Trinity House appears to be answering, *' it is not only that we 
 grudge the cost of drains, but we could do much more with the proceeds of the sale of 
 the ground. We have been for some time asking possible future beneficiaries whether 
 they would like anything better than what was left for them." 
 
 Englishmen ! here is a gift of a collegium founded to provide this sort of home, it is 
 full, the residents implore not to be turned out, it is no case of an obsolete charity, and 
 yet it is proposed to abolish it because certain people say that they would prefer that 
 the money should be differently applied. Is this the principle on which our charities are 
 to be administered ? Is it faithful to the donor ? Is it encouraging to donors in time to 
 come ? If a donor leaves money for a training school for teachers, are our future 
 Charity Commissioners to ask if the teachers would prefer pensions? If some one 
 leaves a piece of land for an open space, are future Commissioners, while people are still 
 using and enjoying that open space, to say to them, " Would you prefer the money which 
 would be realized by selling it ? " Surely an almshouse built and founded in old days, 
 and still used and cared for by the residents, has a claim to the ground on which it 
 stands, and to money enough to redrain it, either from the funds left for its preservation, 
 or from that which would be gladly contributed by a public who care for these small 
 oases of beauty, for quiet, old-world life, and for air and light in an East End districft 
 inhabited by thousands, and with little left to cheer its monotony. — I am. Sir, your 
 obedient servant, 
 
 190, Marylebone Road, N.W., November 29. OCTAVIA HILL. 
 
 THE RIGHT Dear Sir, — In answer to the letter of your Guild, and to the resolution which I 
 GLADSTONE received from the Institute of Archite(5ts, I beg to say that I have for many years 
 
 M.p. TO MR.' been only a nominal member of the Trinity House Board, and consequently feel myselt 
 GODMAN disabled from any interposition. Nor do I know the merits of the case, which would 
 depend upon particulars not now within my cognisance. But so far as my private 
 sentiments go, I must say that I lament increasingly the barbarous work which has 
 been so ruthlessly carried on in London, and the desecration, unless in cases of stricft: 
 necessity, of many characfteristic buildings and ancient local features.-- 1 remain your 
 very faithful. W. E. GLADSTONE. 
 
 E. Godman, Esq. November 29, 1895, 
 
 Secretary to the Committee for the Survey of the Old Memorials of Greater London, 
 Essex House, Mile End Road, Bow, London, E. 
 
 THE DUKE My DEAR LoRD Meath, — Although as a mere matter of taste I sympathize with the 
 
 TO THE^'"'" desire to retain a building which relieves the hideous miles of brick in the east of 
 EARL OF London, I cannot without more detailed information on the facfts take any part in the 
 agitation against a scheme which the corporation has deliberately framed in the interests 
 of those whom it represents. 
 
 Your letter does not satisfy me that the case has been considered from the point of 
 view which must be that of the Elder Brethren, As one of the honorary members I 
 have from time to time to dispose of one of the pensions to aged master mariners, and it 
 has been my painful duty to select some one out of the numerous applications which 
 come to us. The cases are often so piteous and so far more numerous than can be 
 adequately dealt with that this duty of selection is a terrible revelation of sufferings in a 
 most deserving class of men, which cannot be met out of the funds at our disposal. Ir 
 the sale of a " home," however beautiful as a bit of architecture, would add materially 
 to those funds I should feel it to be an absolute duty to support it. It would be an 
 immense comfort to feel that a larger number of most afflicting cases could be met from 
 year to year ; and it is quite irrelevant to this consideration to argue that the home has 
 revenue enough for its support. Out pensions are in numerous cases far more desirable 
 than support in a home. Wives and daughters are thus enabled to Uve with poor and 
 aged husbands and parents, and are reheved somatimes from exhausting and yet 
 
 MEATH. 
 
PLATE 12. 
 
29 
 
 unavailing toil. Considerations connected with open spaces naturally attract your 
 attention who have taken such an honourable and benevolent part in securing these for 
 the poor of London, but this is no reason for sacrificing any considerable revenue for the 
 relief of those for whom the Trinity Corporation are bound to provide out of the property 
 which belongs to them. Those who desire the ground for other purposes of the 
 neigbourhood ought to try to enter the field as purchasers. It is liardly fair that men 
 whose profession is one of continual danger and exposure, and who are often reduced to 
 the greatest penury in old age and sickness, should be called upon to sacrifice for such 
 purpose their interest in the only charity which was specially intended to help them in 
 their extremity. I almost feel sure that if you had to look over the list of cases which 
 come before us only too often you would feel, as I do, the absolute duty of making the 
 very most of the inadequate funds at our disposal. — I am, my dear Lord Meath, Yours 
 very truly, ARGYLL. 
 Inverary, Argyllshire, December 3, 1895. 
 
 Sir, — Miss Odfavia Hill's letter on this subject published in your issue of yesterday, r^^^ard 
 though based, I do not doubt, upon the most generous motives, is an attempt to influence to "the 
 the judgment of the public upon this question by what 1 cannot but consider as most times." 
 misleading and unfair arguments. 
 
 I know nothing of the case of these almshouses beyond what I have read in your 
 paper, but I do know a good deal of the Charity Commissioners and of the law which 
 they administer. It is obvious that Miss Hill knows nothing of the latter, and I should 
 infer from her letter that she knows nothing of the former. 
 
 If the object of this charitable trust is to maintain " building of great architectural 
 value," or to provide the blessing of " beauty or space " in the district, or to " support 
 an historical interest calculated to call out national heroism and gratitude," I have no 
 doubt that the Charity Commissioners, like the other Englishmen to whom Miss Hill 
 appeals, will do their dut}- and see that the rights of the public to these undoubted 
 advantages are secured. But if, on the other hand, it should turn out that the object of 
 the founders was to benefit "decayed mariners" or any similar class, I fail to see why all 
 these other blessings should be provided at their expense, even if the law allowed it, 
 which it does not. 
 
 Surely, Sir, the persons who are so anxious to secure these advantages for the nation 
 or the district should undertake the responsibility of providing for them, and not attempt 
 to shift them to the shoulders of the poor decayed mariners. 
 
 Funds subject to a trust for training teachers could under no circumstances, as the 
 law now stands, be diverted to providing pensions for the same persons. — I am. Sir, your 
 obedient servant, BARNARD, 
 
 Raby Castle, Darlington, December 3. 
 
 Sir, — In the excellent letter of Miss Octavia Hill, which appears in your paper of mr. i. 
 to-day, it seems to be implied that there is a lack of funds to carry out such work as may anderson, 
 be found necessary in connexion with the sanitation of these buildings. It is well that it f-^^ b a. to 
 should be understood, once for all, that such is not the case. times." 
 
 In the inquiry held last week at the Trinity House by an Assistant Charity Com- 
 missioner the secretary to the Trinity Corporation stated that, " Apart from the funds 
 which were dealt with by the Public Accounts Committee, by Parliament, or by the 
 Charity Commissioners, the Trinity House had an income of something like ;j^;'8,ooo a 
 year," and it was shown that of this less than one-half is required to supplement the 
 special endowments by which the charity is maintained. It was further stated by the 
 Assistant Commissioner that " it might be taken from the evidence given that there was 
 ample money to keep up the almshouses." 
 
 This is conclusive. We have it on the best authority that there are ample funds 
 appHcable to the maintenance of the almshouses. It was further established at the 
 inquiry that the buildings are in a sound and substantial strudtural condition, and only 
 require some necessary sanitary improvements in order to bring them into conformity 
 with the scientific requirements of the day. 
 
 In view of these facts, and seeing that a comparatively trifling saving would be 
 effected were the scheme of the Trinity Corporation to be adopted, it is difficult to 
 conceive on what reasonable grounds the Charity Commissioners could sanction a 
 proposal which would involve the demolition of buildings which, from a practical p/int 
 of view, admirably fulfil their purpose, and from an aesthetic point of view constitute, in 
 the opinion of all who are capable of judging, a unique and beautiful example of late 17th 
 century work. — I am. Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 6, Stratton Street, W., December 2. J. MACVICAR ANDERSON. 
 
30 
 
 (from a correspondent.) 
 
 FROM*'TFfE Charity Commissioners inquiry recently held at the Trinity House had a much 
 
 TRINITY wider scope than the public seemed to reahze. In effect, the inquiry extended over the 
 poiNT^'oF administration of all the charitable trusts of the Trinity Corporation, and the almshouse 
 VIEW TO question was dealt with incidentally in due course. Any one who sat through the 
 TIMES." prolonged inquiry and carefully foUov/ed the points raised by the Commissioner could not 
 fail to have been impressed with the careful and conscientious manner in which the 
 various trusts are administered. But, in addition to the searching investigation of the 
 Charity Commissioners, the corporation has had to endure much criticism of its proposed 
 scheme for abandoning the almshouses at Mile End with a view to the extension of the 
 out-pension system. The silence of the Elder Brethren on this subjecl: has been 
 misunderstood, but the truth now appears to be that, their proposal having been formally 
 submitted to the Charity Commissioners for adjudication, they felt it would be hardly 
 right for them to appear in the public Press, arguing, defending, and passing judgment 
 on the case which they had submitted for the Commissioners' consideration and 
 judgment. Now that the inquiry is over and the heat of newspaper discussion is past, it 
 may be well to look a little more carefully into the case presented by the Elder Brethren. 
 
 But, in the first place, it is necessary to clear away the effecft of certain misstate- 
 ments. It has been asserted that the income of the corporation is ;^30o,ooo a year, and 
 on this statement many arguments have been founded and much literary indignation has 
 been expended. The statement is quite untrue, for the corporate income is in reality 
 only about £i'j,ooo per annum. It must here be explained that the corporation exists in 
 a dual capacity. It is the general lighthouse authority of England and Wales and coUetfts 
 light dues for keeping up the lighthouse system, but pays all the money so collected into 
 the Mercantile Marine Fund, over which the Board of Trade has entire control. Not 
 one penny of this income is applicable to the charitable purposes of the corporation ; it 
 is all spent on lighthouses and other maritime purposes, and the amount so collected 
 averages about ^"400,000 a year. In its second capacity the corporation is an ancient 
 guild or fraternity, possessing property of its own and charged with the administration 
 of numerous specific charitable trusts, and for these and other purposes of the corporation 
 the total income is, as I have said, about ^17,000 per annum. From the evidence given 
 before the Commissioner it appeared that between ^"8,000 and ^g,ooo of this income is 
 appropriated to specific charities, and of the remaining moiety, known as the general 
 funds of the corporation, an average of ^"4,000 per annum is devoted to the relief of 
 decayed master mariners and their widows, the balance being appropriated to the general 
 expenses of maintaining the corporation. 
 
 In the discussion in the newspapers a very strong point was made of the tempting 
 offer said to have been put forward by a brewery company to purchase the land upon 
 which the almshouses now stand. Flolding the views they do on the subject, it is very 
 probable that the Elder Brethren would have been glad to have received such an offer, but 
 on inquiry at the Trinity House it is positively asserted that there is no truth at all in 
 the statement. It is nothing but surmise on the part of those eager to find a telling 
 argument against the project. No offer whatever has been made directly or indireclly, 
 and the value of the site if realized has been only estimated according to the value of 
 land in the neighbourhood. 
 
 One other misapprehension has gathered some strength. It was assumed that the 
 defecffive drainage of the place was the chief facftor in determining the Elder Brethren to 
 enter upon their policy of disestablishment of the almshouses, and that £iS'^ would cover 
 the cost of repairs to the drains. As a matter of facT;, the tentative demand of the Mile 
 End Vestry was equal to an expenditure of £22^,, and this was to be followed by the 
 demand of the Bethnal Green Vestry for about £no ; then the surveyor of the corpora- 
 tion advised that the work could not stop there, but that all the old brick drains would 
 have to be renewed, w^hich would cost about £i,Soo, making a total of, say, £2,^00, 
 instead of the paltry £iSO upon which so much stress has been laid. 
 
 The main reasons which have induced the Brethren of Trinity House to propose the 
 change are that, being the custodians of this charity, for the benefit of decayed master 
 mariners and their widows, they wislied to extend the benefits as much as possible, 
 having hundreds of applicants on their lists ; that the almshouse system is costly and 
 allows only a limited number to be benefited, and many of the eligible candidates decline 
 to go to an almshouse, preferring to hve by the sea at their own homes in preference to 
 the breezy delights of the Mile End Road. Upon all this came the drainage projects, 
 with their uncertain liability as regards expense, and then the Elder Brethren propounded 
 their scheme. It is quite understood that the present inmates will not be allowed to 
 
31 
 
 suffer. All the talk about turning them out into the streets is absurd and deceptive. 
 Every consideration would be shown to the old people, some of whom it is known would 
 be glad to receive an enhanced pension and go to live with their friends by the sea. 
 Those who do not desire to leave the almshouses will in all probability be allov/ed to end 
 their days there, for the Elder Brethren would never force them out. But as the 
 almshouses became vacant they would not be refilled, and new out-pensioners would be 
 chosen from the list. The efTect of this change would in time be that the number of 
 persons benefited would be increased by probably 15 or 20 per cent. 
 
 What does the merchant service say to this ? This is a maritime charity, 
 intended for ancient mariners all over the country ; it is not specially a London institution, 
 and the Corporation of Trinity House, in trying to make it more beneficial for the class 
 for whom it is intended, have brought down upon themselves a storm of reproach. 
 From whom ? Not from master mariners and their widows, not from the shipping 
 interests of the country, but from archaeologists and antiquaries, who fear that the change 
 will involve the demolition of some interesting old buildings. The obvious answer is, 
 let the archaeologists and antiquaries buy the houses and keep them up ; the charity will 
 then be benefited by the enhanced value obtained on account of the antiquarian interest 
 of the houses, and all will be satisfied. Of the eligible applicants for the benefits of the 
 charity, not 5 per cent, desire almshouses, and there are several hundreds of such 
 applicants. 
 
 Sir, — In a letter which appeared in your columns yesterday it seems to be assumed qctavia 
 that I made an attack on the Charity Commissioners. I am sorry that this should be so. hill to 
 My letter was not so meant ; the Commissioners have not even pronounced on this times." 
 scheme. My letter was intended to protest against the prevalent tendency to change the 
 form of trusts too rcadil)', with too exclusive a view to money value, and by reason of the 
 votes of possible future beneficiaries. Westminster Abbey, or a park in a crowded 
 neighbourhood, might on this principle be swept away because the land they occupy 
 would realize a large price. 
 
 Nor certainly was I urging the preservation of works of architecftural value and 
 beauty and space for the benefit of others at the expense of beneficiaries. What I meant 
 to plead for was the fulfilment of the trust. I gather that it does not enjoin the giving of 
 charitable relief to the largest number of decayed mariners, but the provision for a 
 certain number of them in these houses. Are we to assume that there was no idea in the 
 mind of the founder beyond that of money grant to decayed mariners — that he cared 
 nothing for the dignified and somewhat stately little home, for the nearness to the river 
 where their old ships come and go, for the gathering together of men of one profession ? 
 If the old homes have become more dignified by age and historical association, if they 
 are a blessing to the neighbourhood and the nation, that appears an added reason for 
 preserving them ; but it seems to me to be done by the simple fulfilment of the trust. I 
 think trusts ought to be administered with perception of all these various values. 
 
 But the Duke of Argyll says there are numerous pitiful cases of decayed mariners 
 amongst whom it is hard to choose. To me this seems a reason for our generation 
 helping them in whatever way we consider best. Surely we are not so poverty-stricken 
 that we need to pull down old buildings and sell land given freely to us in times past to 
 provide for our poor. Why is all the cost of helping decayed mariners to be thrown on 
 this trust at the expense of changing the form of bequest ? — I am, Sir, your obedient 
 servant, OCTAVIA HILL. 
 
 190, Marylebone Road, N.W., December 7. 
 
 P.S. — I do not quite understand the last paragraph of Lord Barnard's letter. 
 Surely we have in our own day seen the transfer of large funds from eleemosynary 
 to educational purposes legally eflfecfted, and in such a way that the whole class of 
 beneficiaries is also changed. 
 
 Sir, — The letters from the Duke of Argyll and Lord Barnard in your issue ofMR. c. r. 
 December 6, following as they do upon the statement from tlie Trinity House point of "the 
 view, cannot be allowed to pass unanswered, for all three waive the main question at times." 
 issue. The point is not whether certain almshouses and whatever pertains to them shall 
 be sold, and the charity thereby increased with a greater number of out-pensions, but 
 whether a venerable body like the Trinity House is justified in the ej^es of the public in 
 turning its historic assets into cash for charity. 
 
 Nobody would deny for a moment that it would be unfair to burden a charity, and 
 so indirecftly the needy sea captains whom it is intended to benefit, with the maintenance 
 of an historical memorial, unless by express wish of the founders; but surely it may 
 
32 
 
 reasonably be expecfted that a wealthy corporation like the Trinity House should be 
 mindful of its trusts as well as its charities, and not plead the latter as an excuse for 
 shifting upon the public the responsibilities of the former. 
 
 A straightforward appeal on behalf of their old seamen's charity, with the Elder 
 Brethren heading the list, would, I am convinced, meet with instant and warm response 
 from all Englishmen, but the sale of an historic trust, to the great loss of the whole 
 community, can only merit condemnation. — Yours obediently, 
 
 Essex House, Bow, E., December 7. C. R. ASHBEE. 
 
 MB. POYN- Sir, — While the public mind is occupied with Sir Christopher Wren and the 
 
 TO "'the Trinity Almshouses, 1 shall be glad to be allowed to call attention in your columns to 
 TIMES." another work of this great architccft which, if not in such imminent danger of destru61:ion, 
 
 IS suffering much from neglecft, and, as will be seen further on, from worse than mere 
 
 negledf. 
 
 But first, with reference to the correspondence which has appeared on the subjedl: of 
 the almshouses, I should like to draw attention to a point which seems to have been 
 missed by those who urge their removal, and this is, that the Brethren of the Trinit}' 
 House, when they instituted the almshouses which are now proposed for demolition, 
 thought it worth while to go to the greatest architetft of the day for a building which 
 should be worthy of the chsrity which they were endowing, and in doing so no doubt 
 acfted in the simple spirit which has inspired the founders of so many glorious and noble 
 buildings in past ages, that they were working for the glory of God. 1 cannot help being 
 reujinded by the arguments brought forward hy some of your correspondents of a certain 
 box of ointment "which might have been sold for more than three hundred pence and 
 given to the poor." And, moreover, once launched over this ground, where are we to 
 stop ? There is another building of the same arcliitecT: covering a vast space of ground 
 in the most valuable part of tlie City ; extend the argument a little, and there is no 
 reason why St. Paul's itself should not be pulled down and the money derived from the 
 shops and warehouses erecfted in ils place devoted to charities. Then, no doubt, should 
 we see Lord Barnard's argument again produced — that it is for those who wish to save 
 St. Paul's to subscribe their money and not to deprive the deserving poor. The principle 
 is one to which any of our glorious monuments might be sacrificed, and will always 
 appear reasonable to those who are not touched by works of beauty and imagination. 
 -:f -ir * * 
 
 Mr. Poynter then proceeds to discuss the neglected state of Sir Christopher Wren's 
 banqueting house at Kensington Palace. 
 
 SIR ROBERT SiR, — There is a certain naivete about the concluding paragraph of your correspondent 
 HUNGER TO W.S.'s" letter in The Times of to-day. lie attended the recent inquiry of the Charity 
 TIMES." Commissioners on the first day, and, having heard the case of the Trinity Brothers, he 
 concluded that it is unanswerable, without taking the trouble to hear the other side 1 It 
 is perhaps a pity that the question should be rediscussed in the Press, for both sides 
 were fully heard by the Assistant Commissioner, and the Charity Commissioners have 
 now all the materials in their hands upon which to come to a decision upon the 
 application made to them. But, as the subject has been reopened, you will perhaps 
 allow me to offer a few remarks. 
 
 In the first place, it must be borne in mind that it is the Trinity Brothers and their 
 supporters who seek to disturb the present state of things. The alnish(nises are in 
 existence and are in good repair ; their inmates are singularly healthy, and devotedly 
 attached to their quarters. If"W.S."had attend^^.d throughout the inquiry he would 
 have found that the suggestion of any necessity for "an outlay of thousands" was 
 absolutely baseless. The almshouses are at the present moment " cheerful and healthy 
 homes." Further, there has never been the slightest difficulty in filling the cottages, and 
 the Trinity House have ample funds to maintain them. The Trinity Brothers, who 
 conducted their case with conspicuous fairness and moderation, substantially admitted 
 all these facts, and ultimately based their application wholly on the ground that by 
 selling the almshouses they could provide a greater number of pensions. 
 
 This brings me to the second consideration. Captain Henry Mudd, who founded 
 the charity, did not leave money for pensions. He gave a piece of land for almshouses. 
 The exaift words of his will, which probably many of your correspondents have not seen, 
 are as follows : — 
 
 " I give and bequeath unto the Master, Wardens, Brethren, and Assistants of the 
 Corporation of Trinity House, of Deptford Strond, in the Coy. of Kent, all that my poore 
 (piece) or parcell of land or ground with the appurtenances lying and being in Milend, in 
 
33 
 
 the parish of Stepney alias Stebunheath aforesaid, near the Road there, for and during 
 all my lease and term, to the end that the said corporation shall build almshouses thereon 
 for the use and habitation of some of their poor." 
 
 Now it is a question whether the Charity Commissioners have power wholly to 
 change the charadter of a charity of this kind, where there are means of maintaining it 
 in accordance with the donor's wishes. But, assuming that they have, it is certainly a 
 question whether they should exercise such a power when there are abundant reasons of 
 public policy why they should not do so, Parliament is open to the Trustees of the 
 charity, if the Commissioners decline to acft ; and Parliament seems to be the most fittmg 
 tribunal to effect a change of so radical a character. Parliament did not, however, think 
 fit to sanction the demolition of the Charterhouse in order to establish pensions, although 
 the arguments for a change were in that instance much stronger, as the Governors 
 pleaded insufficiency of funds. 
 
 May it not be reasonably argued that questions of this sort should be treated either 
 on narrow or on broad principles, and not upon some confused mixture of the two ? If 
 the original intention of the charity is to be maintained, the almshouses should not be 
 touched. If, on the other hand, considerations of general expediency are to prevail, then 
 it is difficult to see why the welfare of a whole neighbourhood, the interests of art, and 
 the preservation of a visible and inspiring memorial of the kindness of a bygone day are 
 not to be taken into account as well as the supposed interests of a particular class. Why 
 should a charity be recast when it is doing good work, and when to recast it in the way 
 proposed would inflict an irreparable injury upon the community at large ? 
 
 One word as to the alleged preference for pensions. Too much importance should 
 not be attached to a circular issued by the Governors of a charity in the midst of a 
 controversy in which they are known to be deeply interested. The vote of those in the 
 almshouses seems to possess a more real significance. Moreover, the Trinity Brothers 
 have already numerous pensions to bestow, so that to a large extent a choice is already 
 offered to applicants. And it should be borne in mind that there is no herding of men or 
 women, as so many individuals, in these almshouses. Men are accompanied by their 
 wives and daughters, and each little cottage is a home of family life. 
 
 Apologizing for the length to which this letter has run. — I am yours obediently, 
 Reform Club, December. 13. ROBERT HUNTER. 
 
 P.S. — There is another consideration which I have omitted to mention, but which I 
 cannot help thinking should have weight. The Trinity Brothers would not dream of 
 selling the almshouses, were it not that the site has greatly increased in value. This 
 increase is due to the growth of Mile End and the East End of London generally. The 
 additional value thus conferred upon the property of the charity by the existence of a 
 dense population at the East End should not be turned to account to their detriment, 
 through the agencies of public bodies, such as the Trinity House and the Charity 
 Commissioners. 
 
 WITH these letters, and especially Sir Robert Hunter's, my Monograph 
 on the Hospital may fitly close. The arguments for or against its des- 
 truction will probably weigh with each man according as he values a great 
 national memorial ; but a final reflection may be permitted. 
 
 IT is impossible to study the history of the Trinity Guild, without being 
 impressed by the wise and loyal regard which the Brethren have had 
 throughout English history for the wishes of the founders : it is impossible 
 not to recognise their sense of charity and the admirable way in which the 
 poorer Brethren have always been tended, and above all, the manner in 
 which, up to now, they have maintained their position as Trustees of national 
 greatness, and preserved the records of their own past history and human- 
 ity. It comes as a shock to our regard for so venerable and dignified a 
 body as the Corporation, that they should permit a little group of officials, 
 however well meaning, to propose a scheme for the destruction of so noble 
 a monument of their old time charity and patriotism. 
 
 THE END. 
 
34 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORKS 
 THAT REFER TO THE TRINITY 
 HOSPITAL OR ARE REFERRED TO 
 IN THIS MONOGRAPH. 
 
 Barrett. Tlie Trinity House of Deptford Strond. 1893. 
 Grace. Collection of Prints, &c. Print Room, B.M. 
 Dictionar}' of Architeifture. 5^^ Wren. Vol. VIL 1887. 
 Dock Plans, &c., in Map Room, B.M. See Deptford. 
 Evelyn's Diary and Correspondence. Wheatley's Edition. 
 Lyson's Environs of London. 
 Maitland's London. 
 
 Oliver (G.) History of tlie Trinity Guild of Sleaford. 
 
 Pepys' Diary. Wheatley 's Edition. 
 
 Pepys' Diary. Braybrook's Edition. 
 
 Robinson (VV.) History of Hackney. 
 
 Strype. Stowe's Chronicle. 
 
 Seymour (R.) Chronicle. 
 
 The Royal Charter, B M. See Deptford Strond. 
 
 Wren. Elmes' Memoires. 
 
 Wren. Parentalia. 
 
 Watson (W.) History of Wisbeach. 
 
 Waiford (Cornelms). Guilds. 
 
 Willis & Clark. History of Cambridge. 
 
 PRINCIPAL PRESS REFERENCES. 
 
 The Times. November 4, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29 ; December 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16, 1895 ! 
 May 27, 1896. 
 
 Daily Chronicle. November 23, 25, 27, 28, 29; December 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 1805. 
 
 Westminster Gazette. November 25, 27, 28, 29 ; December 7, 1895. 
 
 St. James' Gazette. November 29, 1895. 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette. November 27, 29, 1895. 
 
 Star. November 4, 9, 25, 27, 28, 1895. 
 
 Echo. November 16, 1895. 
 
 Daily Graphic. November 27, 28, 1895. 
 
 East London Observer. September 21 ; October 26; November 16, 23, 1895. 
 East London Advertiser. November 23, 1895. 
 London. November 21, 1895. 
 Church Times. December 13, 1895. 
 Weekly Dispatch. December 8, 1895. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Accounts Committee, Public 29 
 Adam's Work 21 
 Admiralty 7, 14, 15, 16 
 
 Allen, Sir Tho. 13 
 Allen, Mr. J. 6, 7, 8, 19, 30, 31, 34, 35 
 Almshouses at Deptford 14, 15 
 
 America 28 
 Anderson, Macvicar 29 
 Architects, Royal Institute of 27 
 Argyll, The Duke of 28, 31 
 
 Armada, Spanish 12 
 Ashbee, C. R. 25, 26, 32 
 
 Balfour, Max 18, ig, 20, 26, 28 
 
 Ballastage 14 
 Banqueting House at Kensington 
 
 Palace 32 
 
 Barnard, Lord 29, 31 
 
 Barrett, Mr. 8, 18, 21 
 
 Batten, Lady 16 
 
 Besant, Sir Walter 11, 25, 26 
 
 Bethnal Green Vestry 30 
 
 Blake, Admiral 13 
 
 Blower, Thomas 10 
 
 Board of Trade 30 
 
 Bombay 20 
 
 Boston, The Trinity Guild of 9, 10 
 
 Braganza, Catherine of 20 
 
 Braybrook, Lord 20 
 
 British Museum 8n 
 
 ,, ,, Map Room 23;; 
 
 ,, ,, Print Room 157?, 187; 
 
 Brown, Sir Richard 13, 14, 17, 18, 21 
 
 Brussels 20 
 
 Buoyage 14 
 
 Cambridge 22 
 Catherine of Braganza 20 
 Chapel of the Trinity Hospital 
 
 • 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 27 
 
 Charity Commissioners 
 
 5, II, 18, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33 
 Charles H. I3> 24 
 
 Charter of the Trinity House as 
 
 exemplified at different times 12 13, 15 
 Chelsea Hospital 22 
 Chess, Old Captains at 19 
 Chronicle, The Daily 6, 25, 26 
 
 Chronicles of London, Rob. Seymour 19 
 Church, Stepney 8 
 City Watch 12 
 Clayton, Sir Robert 23 
 Coat of Arms of Trinity House 21 
 Collegium 7, 28 
 
 Committee for the Survey of the Old 
 
 Memorials of Greater London 3, 28 
 Committee for Public Accounts 29 
 Company, Goldsmiths' 23 
 ,, Masons' 24 
 „ Skinners' 27 
 County Council, London 23, 25 
 
 Crace Collection in the British Museum 15 
 Craven, Earl of 13 
 
 Dartmouth, Lord 13 
 Deptford Hospital 11, 16 
 
 PAQI 
 15 
 
 18 
 
 23 
 
 22« 
 
 14 
 
 29, 30 
 27 
 
 20, 26 
 
 30. 33 
 12 
 
 32. 33 
 12, 13 
 23, 24 
 22 
 25, 28 
 23. 24 
 
 Deptford, Almeshouses at 
 
 The Old Hall of the 
 Trinity Guild 
 ,, Docks 
 DitTiionary of .'Vrchitecture 
 Disraeli, Isaac 
 
 Drainage of Trinity Hospital 25, 
 Drake, Sir Francis 
 
 East India Trade 
 
 ,, End of London 26, 28, 
 
 Effingham, Lord Howard of 
 Elder Brethren 21, 27, 29, 30, 31, 
 Elizabeth 
 
 Elmes, Memoires of Wren 
 Emmanuel College, Cambridge 
 Essex House 
 
 Evelyn, John 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 
 
 Fergusson (History of Architecfture) 22 
 Flagstaff in the Trinity Hospital i5 
 France 28 
 
 Gable Ends of the Trinity Hospital 16, 19 
 Garbutt, Matt. 4, 5, 6, 18 
 
 Gascoine, Joel 23 
 Gladstone, W. E. 28 
 Glass, Stained 22, 23, 24, 25 
 
 Godman, Ernest 
 
 6_, 14, 15, 19, 22, 23, 24. 25, 28, 34, 35 
 Goldsmiths' Compan)' 23 
 Governor's Room (view from) Frontispiece 
 Governor of Trinity Hospital 19 
 Grafton, Duke of 13 
 Grass Plot in Trinity Hospital 27 
 Green, Capt. William 15 
 Greenwich Hospital for Seamen 14, 22 
 ,, Survey 20, 23 
 
 Gribelin Print of the Hospital 18, 19, 22 
 Grove, John 23 
 Guilds, Maritime 8, 9, 16 
 
 Guild, Mariners' 8, 12, 16, 26 
 
 „ Hull 9, 10, II 
 
 ,, Newcastle 9 
 ,, Lynn 9 
 ,, Wisbeach 10 
 ,, Wyngale 10 
 ,, and School of Handicraft 25, 28 
 
 Hackney, Robinson's History of 237; 
 Hall of the Trinity Guild at Deptford 18 
 Handicraft, Guild and School of 25, 28 
 Henry VIII. 7, 8, 9 
 
 Hill, Miss 0(ftavia ii;;, 28, 29, 31 
 
 Hospital of the Trinity Guild at 
 
 Deptford 11,18 
 Howard of Effingham, Lord 12 
 Hull, The Trinity Guild of g, to, ii 
 
 Hunter, Sir Robert iin, 32, 33 
 
 India (East) Trade 26 
 Institute of British Arcliitedfs 27 
 
 James II. 7, 13, 14, 15, 20 
 
 John 9 
 
 Katherine-by-the-ToAver, Ch. of St. 26 
 Kayyam, Omar 26 
 
36 
 
 Kensington Palace, Banqueting 
 
 Chamber 32 
 Kerrington, Capt. Nicholas 15 
 
 Leighton, Lord 27 
 London (R. Seymour's Chronicle of) ig 
 
 ,, County Council 25 
 
 ,, Greater 28 
 
 ,, East End of 26, 28, 33 
 
 Longley, Sir Henry 27 
 
 Lucas, Mr. Sej-mour 28 
 
 Lynn, The Trinity Guild of 9 
 
 Madrasspatam (Capt. Maples of) 17, 20, 26 
 Map Kooni, British Museum 23M 
 Maples, Capt. 17, 20, 26 
 
 Marine, Mercantile g, 26 
 
 Mariners of England 8, 12, 16, 26 
 
 Maritime Guilds 8, 12, 16 
 
 Martin, Saint g 
 Masters of the Trinit}' Guild in early 
 
 times 21 
 Masons' Company of London 24 
 Meath, The Earl of 28 
 Mercantile Marine g, 26, 30 
 
 Merchant Adventurers 26 
 
 ,, Service 31 
 Mile End 33 
 
 ,, Waste 17 
 Vestry 30 
 
 ,, Road 31 
 Modillions 22 
 Morris, William 26 
 Mouldings 7, 22, 30, 31 
 
 Mudd, Capt. Henry, of Ratchfif 
 
 15. 23, 32 
 
 National Trust, The 27 
 " Nauticus '" 20M, 27 
 
 Navy, Origins of the English 7, 9, 12, 16 
 Navy Office 14 
 Nelson 14 
 Newcastle, The Trinity Guild of g, 10 
 Nichols, John Capt. 15 
 Omar Kayyam 26 
 Ormond, Duke of 14 
 Ossorie, Lord 14 
 Palisadoes 19, 27 
 
 Parclos at Wisbeach 10 
 ParentaUa 23, 24 
 
 Parliament 2g, 33 
 
 Patrimony, The Right of 14 
 Paul's, Cathedral of St. 27, 32 
 
 Pembroke College, Cambridge 22 
 Pennell, Joseph Frontispiece, 22 
 
 Penrose 22, 27 
 
 Pepys, Samuel 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 20« 
 Peter the Great 27 
 Pilotage 9, 14 
 
 Poynter, Mr. 32 
 Print Room, British Museum i8n 
 Protection of Ancient Buildings. 
 
 Society for 26 
 Public Accounts' Committee 29 
 Quoins 22 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ratcliff, Capt. Mudd of 1 5, 23 
 
 Rawnsley, Canon 27 
 Reading Room at Trinity Hospital ig 
 Richard II. 10 
 Robinson (History of Hackney) 23» 
 Royal Charter of the Trinity House, as 
 
 exemplified at different times 12, 13, 15 
 Royal Society 14, 23 
 
 ,, Institute of British Architecfls 27 
 
 Sandes, Capt. 18, 20, 23 
 
 Sayes' Court 15, 18 
 
 Seymour Chronicle of London ig, 27 
 
 Skinners' Company 27 
 
 Skipper, The British 26 
 
 Sleatord, The Trinity Guild of 9 
 
 Society, Royal 14, 23 
 Society for the protecflion of Ancient 
 
 Buildings 26 
 
 Spert, Sir Thomas 7, 8 
 
 St. Katherine's by the Tower 26 
 
 St. Peter's, Westminster 26, 31 
 
 St. Martin 9 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral 27, 32 
 
 Stepney ^ 33 
 
 ,, Church 8 
 
 ,, Fields ig 
 
 ,, Green 22 
 
 Stone Ships at Gables i6, 21 
 
 Strongs, The 22, 24 
 
 Stuarts 13, 15, 16, 23 
 Survey of the Old Memorials of 
 
 Greater London 3, 28 
 
 Surveyor-General 23, 24 
 
 Sylva 14 
 
 Taylor (the poet) 1 1 
 The Times 5, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 
 
 Tower of London 20 
 
 Hill 21 
 
 Trade, Board of 30 
 
 Travels, Mr. 23 
 
 Trusts 5 
 
 Trust, The National 27 
 
 Tuke, Sir Samuel 24« 
 
 Turner, Mr. Thackeray 18 
 
 Vanshpperken, Mr. 20 
 
 Walford (Guilds) gn 
 
 Watch of the City of London 12 
 
 Waterhouse, Alfred 27 
 
 Waste, Mile End 18, 19 
 
 Watson (History of Wisbeach) 10 
 
 Wentworth 22, 23 
 
 Westminster Abbey 26, 31 
 
 Wheatley (Edition of Evelyn) 24M 
 
 Whitechapel Road 26, 27 
 
 William HL 7. 27 
 
 Willis and Clark 22« 
 
 Wisbeach g, 10 
 
 „ The Trinity Guild of 10 
 Wren, Sir Christopher 
 
 7, 18, 22, 23, 24, 27, 32 
 
 Wyngale, The Trinity Guild of g, 10 
 York, The Duke of See James IL 
 
Tublications of the Guild School of 
 Handicraft^ or Works ijjued under its 
 a uf pices : 
 
 *THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE GUILD AND 
 SCHOOL OF HANDICRAFT, Vol. I. Edited by C. R. Ashbee ; 
 Preface by G. F. Watts, R.A. ; Ledures, Addresses, Recipes, by 
 Alma Tadema, R A., W. Holman Hunt, Henry Holiday, T. Stirling 
 Lee, E. P. Warren, Walter Crane, W. B. Richmond, A.R.A., &c. 
 Set of proofs on hand-made Japanese vellum, touched by 
 
 the Artists ■• ^° " 
 
 Richly bound in cow-hide, hand pressed, chased, coloured 
 
 and gilded from £2 2s. 1 0^5 5 o 
 
 ON SCULPTUR!::. L. Alma Tadema, R.A i o 
 
 AN ADDRESS ON THE OPENING OF THE 
 
 WHITECHAPEL PICTURE EXHIBITION. W. Holman Hunt i o 
 
 PARLOUR ARCHITECTURE. E. P. Warren ... i o 
 
 RECIPES AND NOTES. Walter Crane, &c. ... i o 
 
 ON GESSO. W. B. Richmond, A. R.A i o 
 
 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GUILD & SCHOOL 
 
 OF HANDICRAFT. C. R. Ashbee I O 
 
 THE IDEALS OF THE CRAFTSMAN. An Address 
 
 to the Craftsman Club ... ... ... ... ... ••• ■•• I O 
 
 DECORATIVE ART FROM A WORKSHOP POINT 
 
 OF VIEW. C. R. Ashbee I O 
 
 SOME ILLUSTRATIONS FOR A COURSE OF 
 
 LECTURES ON DESIGN IN ITS APPLICATION TO 
 FURNITURE. C. R, Ashbee I O 
 
 THE MANUAL OF THE GUILD AND SCHOOL 
 
 OF HANDICRAFT. Being a Guide to County Councils and 
 Technical Teachers ... ... ... ... ... . . ... I O 
 
 A MAP OF ITALY IN THE TIME OF DANTE, 
 
 with decorative wood-cuts, hand coloured. Ed. Mary Hensman. 
 
 Designed and executed by John Williams (pub. Nutt) 7 6 
 
 A TABLE OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF 
 
 THE RENAISSANCE. C. R. Ashbee i o 
 
 DITTO. Of the 17th Century i o 
 
 DITTO. Of the i8th Century 10 
 
 FROM WHITECHAPEL TO CAMELOT. C. R. 
 
 Ashbee. A Story ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2 6 
 
 CHAPTERS IN WORKSHOP RECONSTRUCTION 
 
 AND CITIZENSHIP. C. R. Ashbee 5 o 
 
 Large Paper Copies with Special Hand-coloured Blocks, 
 
 in White Japanese Vellum Covers (limited to 75 Copies) /i i o 
 
 BENVENUTO CELLINI'S TREATISES ON 
 
 METAL-WORK AND SCULPTURE. For the first time 
 translated into English (in preparation.) 
 
 THE REGISTER OF THE WATCH. Being an 
 abstradl of the survey of the old and interesting Monuments of 
 Greater London and Essex, within a radius of 20 miles from 
 Aldgate, and comprising the parishes of Aldgate, Whitechapel, 
 Bow, Bromley, Mile End, Leyton, Leytonstone, Stratford, Poplar, 
 Epping, &c. Prepared under the auspices of the Watch Committee and 
 edited by C. R. ASHBEE (in preparation.) 
 
 THE DING'S SONG BOOK. Printed for Mr. H. H. 
 
 GORE, of Bristol I O 
 
 THE REPORTS OF THE SCHOOL OF HANDI- 
 CRAFT from i«88 to 1895 bound up together 2 6 
 
 THE TRINITY HOSPITAL IN MILE END. 
 
 By C. R. Ashbee, With Illustrations by Members of the Watch 
 Committee ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ~ g 
 
 THE GUILD OF HANDICRAFT: Illustrations of 
 
 some of its works. A lithographic series ... ... ... ... j q 
 
 THE above may be had (post free) of the Secretary of the Publishing Department, 
 GUILD <£- SCHOOL OF HANDIC RAFT. Essex House, Mile End Road, London. 
 
 * Thii book is now out of print, but there are a few copies left which are sold for the benefit 
 the School, at the advanced price of £1 is. th; large paper, and 73. 6d. the ordinary copies. 
 
GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 
 
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