Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British IslesTuke, Daniel Hack
History
Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles
Tuke, Daniel Hack
Mental health laws -- Great Britain; Mental illness -- Great Britain; Mentally ill -- Care; Psychiatric hospitals -- Great Britain
"Of small houndes hadde she, that she fedde
With roasted flesh, and milk and wastel brede."
The derivation of the word, according to Douce's "Illustrations of
Shakespeare," is from gasteau, now _gâteau_, anciently written gastel,
and, in the Picard dialect, ouastel or watel, a cake.
I would here draw attention to the site of St. Martin's Lane, and the
adjoining district. At the southwest corner of St. Martin's Lane, in the
angle formed by it and Charing Cross, was situated a religious (?)
house, of the foundation of which I can discover nothing. The point of
interest to us in connection with it is this: that at a very early
period lunatics were confined there. Stow, in his "Survey of London,"
etc., written in 1598, says, under "The Citie of Westminster," "From
thence is now a continuall new building of diuers fayre houses euen up
to the Earle of Bedford's house lately builded nigh to Iuy Bridge, and
so on the north side, to a lane that turneth to the parish church of S.
Martin's in the Field, in the liberty of Westminster. Then had ye an
house, wherein some time were distraught and lunatike people, of what
antiquity founded, or by whom, I have not read, neither of the
suppression; but it was said that some time a king of England, not
liking such a kind of people to remaine so neare his pallace, caused
them to be removed further off to Bethlem without Bishopsgate of London,
and to that Hospitall the said house by Charing Crosse doth yeth
remaine."[60]
I have spent considerable time in endeavouring to discover who this king
was, but without success. If we assume that this was the first time that
Bethlem received lunatics within its walls, we must refer the event to a
date prior to 1403, because we know, as I have pointed out, that there
were mad people in Bethlem at that date. One statement is that the
sovereign was Henry IV., and that is not improbable, but it may have
been Richard II. Whoever the king was, he appears to have been rather
fastidious, considering the proximity is not very close between Charing
Cross and any of the Royal Palaces. Possibly, as the Royal "Mewse" was
at Charing Cross, his Majesty, whenever he visited his falcons, which
were "mewed" or confined here--long before the same place was used for
stables--may have been disturbed by the sounds he heard.[61] It is
interesting in this connection to learn that Chaucer was clerk of the
Charing Cross Mews. On the site of the Mews stands now the National
Gallery, and the house for lunatics must have been situated in Trafalgar
Square, about where Havelock's equestrian statue stands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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