One very great improvement took place some few years since. The Burial Ground was enclosed by a high dismal-looking old wall, which was pulled down, and a new one built, not more than three feet high, on which a neat iron-railing is placed, thus removing much vice and preventing many robberies, and rendering the road perfectly safe.
In the year 1793 a horrible murder was committed in a house fronting the North Court of the Royal Hospital. The victims were Mr. Silva and Mary Williams, his servant. It appears to have been perpetrated in the morning, between half-past eight and twelve o’clock.
George Saunders, at the inquest, stated that when the alarm was given he entered the house, and, on lifting up the servant, Mary Williams, there were signs of life, but she expired in two or three minutes. Mr. Silva was alive, but speechless, and died shortly afterwards. He found in a closet in the kitchen two iron chests, unlocked, and empty. In the front room, one pair of stairs, a bureau open, with the drawers out, and the papers in confusion, and on the floor a quantity of bedding, folded up.
Mr. North, surgeon, gave a fearful account of the wounds received, and the jury, after a lengthened investigation, found a verdict of wilful murder by persons unknown.
A nephew of Mr. Silva was taken up on suspicion, and examined at Bow Street. He shewed, by respectable evidence, that he was at home when the murder was committed, and was discharged. This person, however, afterwards committed suicide, and he was buried in the highway at Chelsea, leaving great doubts of his innocency of the crime.
Royal Military Asylum.
On the site of the Royal Military Asylum stood a capital mansion, the residence for many years of the Cadogan family, and afterwards the property of Sir Walter Farquhar, Bart., of whom it was purchased for the purpose of erecting the present Institution.
The Royal Military Asylum for the children of soldiers of the regular army is situated near the Royal Hospital, on the north east. It was built by Mr. Copland, from the designs of Mr. Sanders. On the 19th of June, 1801, the first stone of this structure was laid by the Duke of York, accompanied by many general officers, and a considerable number of the nobility. The motives which gave rise to the establishment, and the principles upon which it is founded, are alike honourable to the present enlightened age, and congenial with the soundest maxims of policy, humanity, and benevolence. “The necessity of such an Institution will appear obvious,” says Mr. Faulkner, “when we consider the helpless and forlorn condition of many among these orphan objects of commiseration, who in this comfortable asylum are clothed, have good wholesome food, acquire a decent education, are taught the principles of Christianity, and, finally, are made useful in whatever course of life they may be enabled to adopt.”
The ground in front of this spacious building is laid out in grass plots and gravel walks, and planted with trees. The edifice forms three sides of a quadrangle; it is built of brick, with an elegant stone balustrade in the centre of the western front, which is ornamented with a noble portico of the Doric order, consisting of four columns, which support a large and well-proportioned pediment. On the frieze is the following inscription:—“The Royal Military Asylum for the Children of Soldiers of the Regular Army.” Over it are the Imperial arms. The north and south wings are joined to the principal front by a colonade, which forms a good shelter for the boys in wet weather.
The vestibule is in the centre of the grand front. On the left and right are the dining halls, 80 ft. long and 30 ft. wide. Over these are the schoolrooms, of the same dimensions. The committee-room is over the vestibule.