gradually, in the neighbourhood of seven o'clock, peace descends on
this corner of Notting Hill once more.

The place is sheer Lilliputia: for everything is on a reduced scale.
Scores of little beds round the walls, with little pillows and little
coverlets; scores of little chairs; a long table so low that it seems
to be the footstool of a giant's wife, with little benches beside
it for their little meals. In the centre of the room are two little
pounds, with railings so close together as not to be crawled through,
where the more adventurous ones can be kept out of mischief in the
company of woolly toys; and outside is a loggia place with little
cradles for the babies who want more air to sleep in.

Such is the Stoneleigh Street Crêche, and in order to realise what
admirable and desirable functions it fulfils--principally by voluntary
aid, for the capitation fee of half-a-crown a week is, of course,
quite insufficient to maintain it--one has only to imagine what the
lot of these helpless little creatures would be if they were left in
their motherless homes. Not only would they be far less happy but far
less healthy; and it is upon healthy babies that England's future must
be founded. If any reader of _Punch_, then, should be in doubt as to
what to do with a little surplus money, let the little requirements
of these little people be remembered. The address to which donations
should be sent is: The Secretary, Notting Hill Day Nursery, Stoneleigh
Street, Notting Hill, W.

* * * * *

INTERESTING EXAMPLE OF LONGEVITY?