_From A. Austin_, _Esq._, _Office of Works_, _&c._, _to the Vestry Clerk_. 3537. Office of Works, &c. 23rd August, 1860. Sir, I am directed by the First Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Works, &c., to acquaint you, for the information of the Vestry of the Parish of Chelsea, that he has given instructions for the closing of Chelsea Hospital Grounds at the same hours as the gates in Battersea Park, as requested in their Memorial which accompanied your letter to this Board, dated the 2nd instant, upon the understanding that some slight modification of the rule may be adopted if any practical inconvenience to the authorities of the Hospital should be found to result from the proposed alteration. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, ALFRED AUSTIN, Secretary. Chas. Lahee, Esq. APPENDIX No. 24. THAMES EMBANKMENT. _To the Right Honorable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled_. The Petition of the Vestry of the Parish of Chelsea in the County of Middlesex, SHEWETH, That there is now pending before your Honorable House a Bill entitled “A Bill to continue the Duties on Coal and Wine by the Corporation of London.” That the provisions of the said Bill appear to your petitioners to be pre-eminently calculated to accomplish a great object—viz., the Embankment of the River Thames, and to provide a low level north sewer within the same. That the inhabitants of the kingdom, and particularly of the metropolis, are greatly interested in the accomplishment of these measures. That unless this Bill is passed into a law there will be no means of embanking the Thames, except by an increase of taxation of the inhabitants of the metropolis, who are already so heavily taxed by the Main Drainage Rate, and the Sewers and other rates under the various acts of parliament recently passed for public improvements, and for sanitary purposes, that they are unable to bear any additional burthen. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray your Honorable House that the said Bill may pass into law. And your petitioners will pray, &c. CHAS. LAHEE, Vestry Clerk. Given under the common seal of the said Vestry, this thirteenth day of April, 1861. APPENDIX No. 25. HORSE RIDE IN KENSINGTON GARDENS. _To the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty_. The Memorial of the Vestry of the Parish of Chelsea in the County of Middlesex, HUMBLY SHEWETH,