London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Nor Christ’s Hospital, with its annual income of £50,000; nor the
Foundling Hospital, with its 500 children; nor Alleyn’s magnificent gift
of Dulwich; nor the Bethlehem Hospital, with its income of nearly £30,000
a year; nor the Magdalene. But we must say a few words about the
Hospitals; of the more than 500 Charitable Institutions of the
metropolis, one quarter consists of general medical hospitals, medical
charities for special purposes, dispensaries, &c. In 1859, in
Bartholomew’s, I find there were patients admitted, cured, and
discharged, 5,865 in, 86,480 out; in St. Thomas’s 4,114 in, 44,744 out;
the Charing Cross Hospital has, I believe, on an average 1,000
inpatients, 17,000 out. Guy’s, with its annual income of £30,000, has an
entire average of in and outpatients of 50,000. But we stop, the list is
not exhausted, but we fear the patience of the reader is.
CHAPTER VIII.
PEDESTRIANISM.
I am a great advocate of Pedestrianism, and take it to be a very honest
way of getting through the world. If you ride in a carriage you may be
upset; if you throw your leg across a horse’s back you may meet with the
fate of Sir Robert Peel; and as to getting into a railway carriage, the
fearful consequences of that require for their description a more
vigorous pen than mine. I like to see a good walker; how delightful his
appetite, how firm his muscle, how healthy his cheek, how splendid his
condition. Has he a care, he walks it off; is ruin staring him in the
face, only let him have a couple of hour’s walk, and he is in a condition
to meet the great enemy of mankind himself. Has his friend betrayed
him—are his hopes of fame, of wealth, of power blighted?—is his love’s
young dream rudely broken? Let him away from the circles of men out on
the green turf, with the blue sky of heaven above, and in a very little
while the agony is over, and “Richard’s himself again.” Were it only for
the sake of the active exercise it inculcates and requires I would
say—Long live the Rifle Corps movement. The other day a gallant little
band in my own immediate neighbourhood set out for an evening’s march.
They were in capital spirits; they were dressed in their Sunday best;
they had a band playing at their head; a miscellaneous crowd, chiefly
juvenile, with a few occasional females behind, brought up the rear. A
deputy of the London Corporation and his brother formed part of the
devoted troop. Gaily and amidst cheers they marched from the bosoms of
their families, leaving “their girls behind them.” On they went, up-hill
and down-hill, many a mile, amidst Hornsey’s pleasant green lanes, till
at length the London deputy turned pale, and intimated—while his limbs
appeared to sink beneath him, and his whole body was bathed in sweat—that
he could stand it no longer. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was
weak. A halt was ordered—beer was sought for for the London deputy, and
with considerable difficulty they got the martial hero home. Had that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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