Negotiations were soon undertaken with regard to St Thomas's Hospital: the citizens wished to obtain the lands of the hospital for the relief of the poor. In February 1552 some of their number were appointed to "travaile" with the king for this purpose, and it was finally agreed that the citizens should pay £2461. 2_s._ 6_d._ for property worth about £160 a year, while the king should grant an endowment in addition of about an equal amount. Thus St Thomas's Hospital was refounded under municipal management[62]. [62] Supplement to _Memoranda relating to the Royal Hospitals_, p. 7. At the same time it was reported that St Bartholomew's Hospital had fallen into decay; the buildings were therefore repaired and the endowments increased. Christ's Hospital, the present Blue Coat School, was also founded for fatherless children, on the land of the Grey Friars formerly granted by Henry VIII. In order to raise the necessary funds the inhabitants of London were called to their parish churches and there were addressed in eloquent orations from the Lord Mayor, Sir Richard Dobbs, and the Aldermen and other "grave citizens." They were told how much better it would be to take the beggars from the streets and provide for them in hospitals, and were asked how much they would contribute weekly towards their relief. Books were drawn up of the sums promised and delivered by the Mayor to the King's Commissioners, in order that the king might do his part, and the whole be placed upon a satisfactory basis[63]. At the same time Ridley had endeavoured to help the citizens to obtain the royal palace of Bridewell, in order that a new kind of hospital might be founded, not for the impotent, but for the training, correction and relief of the able-bodied. He tried to interest Cecil in his object, and his letter to him is a curious specimen of the style of a charity letter of the time. "Good Mr Cecil," he writes, "I must be a suitor unto you in our good Master Christ's cause; I beseech you be good to him. The matter is, Sir, alas! he hath lain too long abroad (as you do know) without lodging, in the streets of London, both hungry, naked and cold. Now, thanks be to Almighty God! the citizens are willing to refresh him, and to give him both meat, drink, cloathing and firing: but alas! Sir, they lack lodging for him. For in some one house, I dare say, they are fain to lodge three families under one roof. Sir, there is a wide, large, empty house of the King's Majesty's, called Bridewell, that would wonderfully well serve to lodge Christ in, if he might find such good friends in the court to procure in his cause.... Sir, I have promised my brethren the citizens to move you, because I do take you for one that feareth God, and would that Christ should lie no more abroad in the streets[64]." [63] Stow's _Survey_, edited Thoms, p. 140. [64] Ridley's _Life of Bishop Ridley_, p. 377.