Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/416

 342 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i»s. vi. NOV. 3,1900. regret, and it is difficult to understand how any educated gentleman, connected with the hospital or not, can look with equanimity upon any action calculated to bring such a calamity upon his good name, upon the town, and upon the poor, for whom the hospital was built. No educated man could possibly be acquainted with the founder's transactions with regard to the hospital, and view the building and its contents without feeling some- thing approaching awe when crossing the threshold of the room, the sanctum where Whitgift spent many days, or the bedroom in which he so often slept. Why, each old door, table, box. speaks, although speechless, and dares him in the name of the founder, in the namo of all that is sacred in a wish of a dead man (for the carrying out of which he made ample provision), to misapply, remove, or destroy the building or any part thereof. This monument of Archbishop Whitgift's generosity was begun in 1596, and finished in 1599. It was originally intended for not less than thirty, and as many more as possible under forty, in his own words, "Bretheren and Sisteres," the age being restricted to "Ix. yeares at leaste." Those eligible are placed under three heads: first, "those who have served in the hows- holde of the Archbyshopp of Canterbury " ; second, "those of the Parishes of Croydon and Lambethe" ; third, those " within the Countye of Kent whereof the parsonage is appropriate unto the Archiepiscopall see of Canterbury." It will thus be seen that a very large number are indirectly interested in the hospital and the archbishop's bequest, if they have not a vested interest therein. It would not be too much to ask or expect that those able and willing in the districts named should use whatever influence is possible to stay and prevent the demolition or misap- propriation of the building or its rights and liberties. At present how far the intentions and strict injunctions of the founder have been carried out or diverted from the channels in which it was his clear wish they should flow, has been recently (in a local paper) referred to in no uncertain manner by the present warden, who, it would appear, is qualified to speak on the subject. If what has been said be in part or wholly correct, unfortunately it would not be anything new in the history of charities, bequests, <fec., made by the well-disposed centuries past, and administered by "boards," "committees,"and " directors," composed too often of gentlemen perfectly qualified to administer, but pre- ferring to hand over the actual control to paid servants, who in turn are often super- vised by clerks of Charity Commissioners. The buildjng is of the Elizabethan style of architecture, and is in the form of a quad- rangle. On entering from High Street, and looking up to the tiled roof, an entire and intact chimney of the period can be seen. The chapel, or, to be more correct, the orator}-, forms the south-east angle, and is, internally, severely plain. The seats are of chestnut, and have unmistakably been well used. There are eight frames hung round the oratory, one the portrait of the founder, and another the portrait of a lady, said to be Jane Bradbury, a benefactress ; a frame with a representation of the " Tables of Stone " and the Ten Commandments, another with the Commandments alone ; on the left of the window a large one with the initials J. W. on the top, followed by the various mottoes the archbishop at one time or another proposed to place above the entrance to the hospital. Another frame is headed " To the happie memorie of ye most reverend father in God," &c., with eight stanzas in praise of the founder. There is also a frame which contains an elegy in Latin verse. The remain- ing one is a representation of Holbein's ' Dance of Death,' but is very indistinct. ALFRED CHARLES JONAS. SOME INTERMENTS IN THE CHURCH- YARD OF ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER. IT will, I take it, be readily conceded that the churchyard of a large and important parish like St. Margaret's, attached as it is to an ancient church round which many hallowed memories of the past most tena- ciously cling, must be of very great interest. I am afraid to suggest how many thousand parishioners and others have found here their last resting-place—gentle and simple, rich and poor side by side, all at peace at last. The churchyard as we now see it is perhaps, all things considered, an improvement upon what it was less than twenty years ago. It is neat and trim enough, _if rather bare - looking ; but pre- viously it had become a very "slough of despond" — uneven, full of holes, and in bad weather a positive source of danger to pedestrians, as it was badly kept and ill lighted, no two of the hundreds of flat stones being on one level. Yet withal there was then, and there is still, much to interest. In fact, very many stories could be recounted of the good old Westminsters who lie within this little God's acre, but just
 * '/'" be continued.)