Page:Introductory lecture delivered at the Middlesex Hospital, October 1st, 1877 (IA b22447258).pdf/5

5 occasions, his name over the doorway of one of the wards silently testifies to the closeness of his association with the hospital.

A west wing was completed in 1776, and the houses which had been in progress in Berner’s Street were finished. At the request of some of the inhabitants a row of trees was planted in the court in front of the Hospital, but these have long since disappeared.

Ten years later we learn that the funds at the disposal of the Governors were in such a satisfactory condition that an east wing was added, and the building began to assume it present form.

It is exactly 100 years since the condition of the ground in the rear of the Hospital came before the notice of the weekly Board. Till then it had been waste uncultivated ground. It was, therefore, wisely decided to crop it with vegetables for the use of the patients.

The fine poplars, which are such a feature in the present garden, were planted a few years later.

But this plot of ground, which the matron at one time stated could not be made to yield even a profitable crop of vegetables, was soon to be put to a better use and a nobler purpose. This theatre, in which we are now met, reminds us of something more enduring, which has been planted here since, and that purpose I need not tell you is the same to-day which filled the hearts and minds of those who first met here more than forty years ago.

We find in 1834 that two of the largest parishes in the metropolis had grown up around the