"Where for the City dames to blaunch their cloaths, Some sober matron (so tradition says) On families' affairs intent, concern'd, At the dark hue of the then decent Ruff From marshy or from moorish barren grounds, Caused to be taken in, what now _Moorfields_, Shaded by trees and pleasant walks laid out, Is called, the name retaining to denote, From what they were, how Time can alter things. Here close adjoining, mournful to behold The dismal habitation stands alone." The following is the description of the building given by Smith in his "Ancient Topography of London":--"The principal entrance is from the north, of brick and freestone, adorned with four pilasters, a circular pediment, and entablature of the Corinthian Order. The King's arms are in the pediment, and those of Sir William Turner above the front centre window.... It certainly conveys ideas of grandeur. Indeed it was for many years the only building which looked like a palace[79] in London. Before the front there is a spacious paved court, bounded by a pair of massy iron gates, surmounted with the arms of the Hospital. These gates hang on two stone piers, composed of columns of the Ionic Order, on either side of which there is a small gate for common use. On the top of each pier was a recumbent figure, one of raving, the other of melancholy madness, carved by Caius Gabriel Cibber. The feeling of this sculptor was so acute, that it is said he would begin immediately to carve the subject from the block, without any previous model, or even fixing any points to guide him. I have often heard my father say that his master, Roubiliac, whenever city business called him thither, would always return by Bethlem, purposely to view these figures" (p. 32). Under an engraving of these figures, drawn by Stothard, are the lines:-- "Bethlemii ad portas se tollit dupla columna; Εἰκονα των εντoς χω λιθος εκτος εχει. Hic calvum ad dextram tristi caput ore reclinat, Vix illum ad lævam ferrea vinc'la tenent. Dissimilis furor est Statuis; sed utrumque laborem Et genium artificis laudat uterque furor." _Lustus Westmonasteriensis._ Pope, in the "Dunciad," thus spitefully refers to them in connection with the sculptor's son, Colley Cibber, the comedian:-- "Close to those walls where Folly holds her throne, And laughs to think Monro would take her down, Where o'er the gates by his famed father's hand Great Cibber's brazen,[80] brainless brothers stand." Nettled at being made the brother of two madmen, Cibber retaliated in a philippic upon Pope, which it is said (with what truth I know not) hastened his death.[81] It was entitled "A letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope, wherein the New Hero's Preferment to his Throne in the 'Dunciad' seems not to be accepted, and the Author of that Poem His more rightful claim to it is asserted.