The House of Industry.
This handsome brick building, situated on the opposite side of the river to the Quarry, was erected in 1765, as a Foundling Hospital, at an expence of £12,000. Numbers of children were sent here from London, and placed out at nurse during their infancy with the neighbouring cottagers, under the superintendance of the surrounding gentry. When arrived at a proper age, they were brought into this house and employed in various branches of a woollen manufactory, and afterwards apprenticed to various individuals. About 1774, however, the governors finding their funds inadequate to the support of the charity, the house was shut up; and a few years after was rented by government, who in the American war used it as a place of confinement for Dutch prisoners.
In 1784, an act of parliament was obtained to incorporate the five parishes of Shrewsbury and Meole Brace, as far as related to their poor, and to erect a general House of Industry. The governors of the Foundling Charity were glad of an opportunity to dispose of their erection at a considerably reduced rate, and the building was accordingly purchased, together with about twenty acres of land, for about £5,500, and it was opened for the reception of paupers in December in that year. For a short period they were employed in the fabrication of woollen cloths, but this being found injurious to the pecuniary resources of the house, it was discontinued, and at present their employment chiefly consists in manufacturing the various articles of their clothing. They breakfast, dine, and sup in the dining hall, a very long room, the men, women, boys and girls, being each placed at separate tables. Divine service is performed twice each Sunday, in a neat chapel parallel with the hall. There is also an infirmary, where the sick and infirm are lodged in proper wards, and attended to by nurses and the apothecary belonging to the house. The whole is under the management of twelve directors, chosen from persons assessed in the associated parishes at £15. or possessed of property to the amount of £30. per ann. who appoint a governor and matron, to superintend the domestic economy of the establishment.
Mr. Nield, the worthy disciple of the philanthropic Howard, remarks of this place, which he visited in 1807, “This House of Industry is certainly a house of plenty, for the books every where, bear record of good living, and the famous beef slaughtered here. The average number in the house is 340; the children delicate and pampered, from being accustomed to abundance and variety of provisions, and comfortable rooms, very dissimilar to the hardy peasant, and therefore ill calculated to rear up useful assistances in the employments of agriculture, or to make useful servants in this agricultural county. They would prefer a race of hardy lads, inured from their infancy to combat weather and temporary want; whose nerves are strong by early exertions, and their understandings furnished with some knowledge of rural life.”—Mr. Nield’s extensive observation and experience, qualified him to judge of the most proper aliment and employment of this class of persons, far better than most of the directors and governors of similar institutions can reasonably be expected to do; and as indulgence and plenty cannot be supposed to be the portion of the children of the poor in their progress through life, we may indulge a hope that the directors will speedily devise some plan for the initiation of their young dependants into habits of judicious labour and healthy abstinence.
Along the north front of the house is a beautiful gravel walk, from whence the town is seen to great advantage. On the right, the Abbey-foregate, with its two venerable churches, various manufactories, Lord Hill’s Column, and a great extent of fertile land, are seen backed by the Wrekin, Haughmond Hill, &c. In front, the river Severn flowing close underneath, the beautiful verdure of the quarry, and the town, present themselves; whilst on the left are descried a large portion of this extremely fertile county, together with the distant Montgomeryshire and Denbighshire hills. This extensive prospect over the neighbouring country, with the endless variety of scenes that present themselves to the spectator are finely described in the following lines:
Ever charming, ever new,
When will the landscape tire the view?
The fountain’s fall, the river’s flow,
The wooded vallies warm and low;
The windy summits wild and high
Roughly rushing on the sky!
The pleasing seat, the ruin’d tow’r,
The naked rock, the shady bow’r
The town and village dome and farm
Each give each a double charm,
As pearls upon an Ethiop’s arm.Dyer.
It was from this house, that the benevolent but eccentric Mr. Day, deluded by the fascinating eloquence Rosseau, selected two girls on whom to try an experiment on female education, in which he proposed to unite the delicacy of a modern female, with the bold simplicity of a Spartan virgin, which should despise the frivolity and dissipation of the present corrupted age.
Having obtained the object of his wishes, he repaired with them to France, taking no English servant, in order that they might receive no ideas but those which he chose to instil. After spending about eight months in France, he placed the one in a respectable situation in London, and with his favourite actually proceeded some years in the execution of his project; but experience and mature reflection at length convinced him, that his theory of education was impractible, and he renounced all hope of moulding his protegee after the model his fancy had formed. He therefore placed her in a boarding school at Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire; and after completing her education, she resided some years in Birmingham, and subsequently at Newport, in this county: and by her amiable deportment secured a large circle of friends. Mr. Day frequently corresponded with her parentally. In her 26th year she married Mr. Bicknell, a gentleman who accompanied Mr. D. to Shrewsbury, at the commencement of this singular experiment.
Salop Infirmary.
This noble asylum, situated in St. Mary’s Churchyard, was formed in the memorable year 1745, for the accommodation and relief of the diseased and indigent poor. The munificence with which this excellent institution has been supported by the inhabitants of the county at large, has enabled its conductors to proceed upon the most liberal principles. Admission is given to the diseased from whatever quarter they may come, provided they are recommended by a subscriber; but in case of sudden accident, this recommendation is dispensed with.