A SUNDAY SCHOOL, in connection with the Church, was established in Paddington, during the last century; but it was not till the beginning of this, that any public means of instruction existed for the children of the poor on week days. Lysons, in his second Edition, tells us that “A charity school for thirty boys and thirty girls was established in this parish in 1802;” and that it was “supported by voluntary contributions, and the collections at an annual charity sermon.” This public day-school for poor children was one of the first established in the outskirts of London; and the school room was built on that land which is said to have been given by Bishop Compton. But this building was but small; for it held only one hundred children; and in 1816, it was discovered that there were 1508 children under twelve years of age, living on the south side of the canal only; and it was supposed that four hundred of these were between seven and twelve years old. The curate of the parish and other influential inhabitants, seeing this great field open for profitable cultivation, got up a Committee, to devise ways and means to effect so desirable an object. This Committee reported to the vestry, in March, 1818, that “the Bishop of London, as the most extensive proprietor as well as the patron of the church, &c.” had been consulted on the propriety of establishing a school for three hundred children; which they calculated might be supported for £175 per annum, while the expense of building the school room, was estimated at £650; and they further reported to the vestry, that the bishop expressed “his hearty good wishes for its success.” But as “hearty good wishes” did not build or endow the school, it was not built till some years after this time; and then, not by the bishop, or his lay lessees. As we have already seen, the proceeds of the sale of waste lands were devoted to this purpose; Denis Chirac’s legacy, which, with interest, now amounted to £170 3_s._ 10_d._, and a donation of £130 from Baron Maseres, one of his executors, being added; and in 1828, the vestry resolved to devote two-thirds of the proceeds of the copyhold estate to the support of this school. When the Act of 1838, relative to the freehold estates, was obtained, a re-arrangement of these funds was made; and three-fifths of the whole estates, freehold as well as leasehold, were appropriated “towards the support of the _Paddington_ Parochial National and Infant Schools.” The new school rooms were built in 1822 on Paddington Green, or rather on a part of the site of the “town pool;” and in 1831, other school rooms, in connection with that system which is called National, were built at Bayswater. In 1840 the parochial school-rooms of St. John’s district were erected in Tichbourn Row; and the new schools, built at the back of Stanley Street, and St. Mary’s Hospital, in the district of All Saints, were opened in February, 1852.