In the midst of this court is a good brass statue of King Edward VI. by Mr. Scheemakers, and behind him is placed upon a kind of small pedestal his crown laid upon a cushion. This statue is surrounded with iron rails, and stands upon a lofty stone pedestal, upon which is the following inscription in capitals:
This statue
Of King Edward the Sixth,
A most excellent Prince,
Of exemplary Piety and Wisdom
above his years;
The glory and ornament of his age,
and most munificent founder
Of this hospital,
Was erected at the expence
Of Charles Joyce, Esquire,
in the year mdccxxxvii.
On the opposite face of the pedestal is the same inscription in Latin.
In the middle of the east side of this court is a spacious passage into the next, the structure above being supported by rows of columns. The buildings in the third court are older than the others, and are entirely surrounded with a colonade, above which they are adorned with a kind of long slender Ionic pilasters, with very small capitals. In the centre is a stone statue of Robert Clayton, Esq; dressed in his robes as Lord Mayor, surrounded with iron rails, upon the west side of the pedestal is his arms in relievo, and on the south side the following inscription:
To Sir Robert Clayton, knight, born in Northamptonshire, Citizen and Lord Mayor of London, president of this hospital, and vice president of the new work-house, and a bountiful benefactor to it; a just magistrate, and brave defender of the liberty and religion of his country. Who (besides many other instances of his charity to the poor) built the girls ward in Christ’s hospital, gave first toward the rebuilding of this house 600l. and left by his last will 2300l. to the poor of it. This statue was erected in his life time by the governors, An. Dom. mdcci. as a monument of their esteem of so much worth; and to preserve his memory after death, was by them beautified Anno Dom. mdccxiv.
By this noble charity many hundred thousand of the poor have since its foundation received relief, and been cured of the various disorders to which human nature is subject; and though the estates at first belonging to this foundation were ruined, yet by the liberal munificence of the citizens since that time, the annual disbursements have of late amounted to near 8000l. The house contains nineteen wards, and 474 beds, which are constantly kept filled, and they have always a considerable number of out-patients.
The number of governors in this and the other city hospitals are unlimited, and therefore uncertain. They chuse their own officers and servants, both men and women: these are a president, a treasurer, an hospitaller or chaplain, four physicians, three surgeons, an apothecary, a clerk, a steward, a matron, a brewer and butcher, a cook, assistant and servant, an assistant clerk in the compting house, two porters, four beadles, nineteen sisters, nineteen nurses, nineteen watch-women, a chapel clerk and sexton, and one watchman.
St. Thomas’s lane, Drury lane.*
Thomas’s rents, Fore street, Limehouse.
St. Thomas’s Southwark, on the north side of St. Thomas’s street was erected for the use of the above hospital, from which it is denominated; but the number of houses and inhabitants having greatly increased in the precinct of that hospital, it was judged necessary to make the church parochial for the use of the inhabitants, and to erect a chapel in the hospital for the use of the patients. This church is therefore neither a rectory, vicarage, nor donative, but a sort of impropriation in the gift of the hospital.