CHELSEA, a very large and populous village, two miles from London, pleasantly situated on the banks of the Thames almost opposite to Battersea. Here is the physic garden belonging to the company of Apothecaries of London, a particular account of which the reader may find in the article relating to that company. Sir Robert Walpole, the late Earl of Orford, had here for some time a house adorned with a noble collection of pictures, which was afterwards removed to Houghton-hall in Norfolk, and is now thought the finest collection in England[3]. There are several other private buildings worthy of the observation of the curious. I. At this place is the house and fine gardens that belonged to the late Earl of Ranelagh. See RANELAGH GARDENS. Salter’s coffee house here is well known, being much frequented on account of the great number of natural curiosities to be seen there. Footnote 3: See an account lately published, entitled ÆDES WALPOLIANÆ. CHELSEA _Hospital_, a noble edifice erected for the invalids in the land servive. The original building on this spot was a college founded by Dr. Sutkliff, Dean of Exeter, in the reign of King James I. for the study of Polemic divinity, and was endowed in order to support a Provost and Fellows, for the instruction of youth in that branch of learning. The King, who laid the first stone, gave many of the materials, and promoted the work by a large sum of money, and the clergy were very liberal upon the same occasion; but the sum settled upon the foundation by Dr. Sutkliff being far unequal to the end proposed, the rest was left to private contributions; and these coming in slowly, the work was stopped before it was finished, and therefore soon fell to ruin. At length the ground on which the old college was erected, becoming escheated to the crown, Charles II. began to erect the present hospital, which was carried on by James II. and completed by William and Mary.