The house stood in a garden in which there were tall trees (with rooks in them), making cool green shade and shutting out all other houses; whilst within doors the soft carpets and general feeling of quiet and order gave a sense of peace. The contrast on turning into that garden from the "New Road" was striking. Quiet, indeed, was one of the chief boons which the Sanatorium could offer.

Charles Dickens, one of its earliest supporters, speaks forcibly of this contrast in a speech made in behalf of the Institution. He speaks of the noise of crowded streets and busy thoroughfares

as

"That never-ceasing restlessness, that incessant tread of feet wearing the rough stones smooth and glossy." "Is it not a wonder," he says, "is it not a wonder, how the dwellers in narrow ways can bear it? Think of a sick man in such a place as St Martin's Court, listening to the footsteps, and in the midst of pain and weariness obliged, despite himself (as though it were a task he must perform), to detect the child's step from the man's; the slipshod beggar from the hooded exquisite ;

1 Now Marylebone Road.

the lounging from the busy. Think of the hum and noise always present to his senses, and of the stream of life that will not stop, pouring on, on, on, through all his restless dreams, as if he were condemned to lie dead, but conscious, in a noisy churchyard, and had no hope of rest for centuries to come.'

After some time it was found that a building specially constructed, which should contain many small separate rooms, would be more suitable and less expensive than Devonshire House. To erect this it was necessary to raise a building fund. By this time the Institution was supported by a powerful list of patrons, with Prince Albert at their head; many large banking-houses and City firms had subscribed to it for the sake of their clerks and others; and more than a hundred members of the medical profession had visited it, and had signed a statement expressing their belief in the need of such an establishment, adding that the Sanatorium had supplied this need most satisfactorily, though on a small scale.

Charles Dickens then lived nearly opposite to Devonshire House, and when the building fund was opened, he and several other literary men

and artists came forward and gave for its benefit the first of those amateur performances which they repeated at a later period. They acted Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour," at St James's Theatre, on November 15, 1845, both audience and actors being brilliant. Charles Dickens, Douglas Jerrold, John Foster, Mark Lemon, Frank Stone, and others took part. I remember seeing them, as I peeped down from a side-box.

The Sanatorium did not, from a money point of view, succeed; but it was, nevertheless, the forerunner of all those "Home Hospitals" and "Nursing Homes" which have since proved so great a boon to the public. So that in this, also, my grandfather was a pioneer.

As the name of Dickens has been mentioned, it may be interesting to refer here to some of the letters which show the early and keen interest he felt in the removal of the evils with which my grandfather was contending, and his readiness to give his aid to the cause of the poor. Here is the first letter, alluding both to the Sanatorium and to the Children's Employment Commission:

I am seath obliged to

You for your kind hole auch

inclosure of today.

I had

the Sanatomime famo

phlet, and have been greatly pleassch with it The reasons.

for such an Institution and the advantages likely to uset from it, could not have ken mork

forcibly
read it Furie with extreme

slopently put. I have

tisfaction.

You have given me hudly

less pleasure to scuding me

the Instructions of

che chiediens'

imployment commission, which siem tome whare keen devised in a most

to

worthy spirit, and a comprehend point on which humanity anch

song

fore thong at comed

lag struts.

harr desired

The little book reaches

i

me my opportunel ; for donc ashley

sut me his speech

on

emoving the commission ong the day refore restinday, and I coned not forbear, in writing mini in aekenced smeat of its vcript, consing the resent system patul effects in keeping down then. images,

and its

sands upon Kousands of Lod's in

with wall my heart and soul.

It must be as gueat comfort and happiness brow whe mis trumental in bringing about so much goods. I am proud who umentered by outs who is pursuing such ends.

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