She replied: “A dream I had last night, troubleth me sore.” “What _was_ thy dream, Nell?” “Methought I was in the fields at Chelsea, and slowly and majestically there rose before mine eyes, a beautiful palace of a thousand chambers; and in and out thereat walked divers many old and worn-out soldier-men. Some had lost a leg, some an arm, others were blind of an eye, many bore piteous scars of old wounds in the wars, upon their wrinkled faces, and all of them were aged, and past service. But none of them looked ill-at-ease, and as they went out, and as they came in, the old men cried, ‘God bless King Charles!’ and I awoke, and was sore discomfitted, that it was only a dream!” “Cheer up, Nelly,” said the King. “Thy dream shall be fulfilled, mayhap, thou shalt yet see old soldiers come in, and go out, crying, ‘God bless King Charles!’ The monarch did violence to his infirmity, and kept his word.” No appeal seems to have been made to the public at large, as was the case with King James’s College; but while the voluntary contributions of the charitable were received with gratitude, the troops were, to a certain extent, burdened with the expenses of the asylum from which they were themselves to derive the sole benefit. From the pay given to these, a deduction was made of one shilling in the pound; which, being divided into three equal parts, was one to defray the expenses of the Paymaster’s office, one to the general use of the soldiers, and one to the accumulation of a fund, first, for the building, and ultimately for the maintenance of the hospital. By giving to this a retrospective effect, so as to include the whole of the year 1680, and strengthened by donations of £1,300 from Sir Stephen Fox, of £1,000 from Tobias Rustas, Esq., of £1,000 from Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of nearly £7,000 from the Secret Service Fund, the projectors of the establishment had at their disposal a sum of £17,012 14s. 7d. with which they determined to make a beginning. The edifice was consequently begun in the year 1682, but was not completed till 1690. King Charles II., attended by a great number of the principal nobility and gentry, laid the first stone of this magnificent structure on the 16th of February, 1682. The whole expense of the building is computed to have amounted to £150,000. * * * * * Sir Christopher Wren, to whose genius and abilities we owe the grandest edifices of which our metropolis can boast, gave the original design, and conducted the building to its completion. * * * * *