I was very desirous to have ascertained the exact dimensions of these separate estates, now held for the benefit of the poor of this parish; but, unfortunately, on my application to the trustees I found they had held their half-yearly meeting. Lysons, writing in 1794 or 5, says, “A benefaction of five pounds per annum, given by Mrs. Margaret Robinson, for the purpose of apprenticing poor children has been lost.” This charity must not be mistaken for a donation of five pounds, which is recorded on the panels in front of the gallery of St. Mary’s Church. On the vestry minutes, I find two entries relative to the copyhold charity-estates; one in October, 1800, the other in May, 1821. From the first entry, I learn that each of the said premises therein described was held at a quit-rent of six-pence per annum. The piece of ground belonging to the alms’ houses is described as “a piece of ground, formerly waste, lying upon Paddington-green;” having 80-feet of frontage, and 90-feet of depth, which was increased by two other pieces; one “in front of the alms’ houses,” 13-feet 10-inches in breadth, by 70-feet long. The other on the east of the alms’ houses, 24-feet broad, by 113-feet 9-inches from north to south. If to this latter piece we add that which was to be given up by the Grand Junction Canal Company, (13-feet by 116 feet) we shall get at all that has been known of the alms’-house land during this century. But these minutes shew there were other pieces of copyhold formerly held in trust for the poor, which have “escheated” into the lord’s domain, or “merged” into other private hands. CHAPTER V. THE PADDINGTON ESTATE. THE policy which has raised the manor and rectory of Paddington to its present value {72}—three-quarters of a million sterling; which has effectually transferred, (so far as private Acts of Parliament can transfer,) two-thirds of the interest of this “small estate” into private hands; and which at the same time has kindly permitted the rate-payers of Paddington to saddle themselves with almost the entire “costs and charges” of those duties for which the whole of this estate was originally designed, may be said to have had some show of a _legalised_ beginning exactly a century ago.