The Grocers' Company have almshouses and a Free Grammar School at
Oundle in Northamptonshire, founded by Sir William Laxton in 1556,
upon which they have expended vast sums of money. The Drapers
administer the Mile End Almshouses and school founded in 1728 by
Francis Bancroft, Sir John Jolles's almshouses at Tottenham, founded
in 1618, and very many others. They have two hundred in the
neighbourhood of London alone, and many others in different parts of
the country. Near where I am writing is Lucas's Hospital at Wokingham,
founded by Henry Lucas in 1663, which he placed in the charge of the
company. It is a beautiful Carolian house with a central portion and
two wings, graceful and pleasing in every detail. The chapel is
situated in one wing and the master's house in the other, and there
are sets of rooms for twelve poor men chosen from the parishes in the
neighbourhood. The Fishmongers have the management of three important
hospitals. At Bray, in Berkshire, famous for its notable vicar, there
stands the ancient Jesus Hospital, founded in 1616 under the will of
William Goddard, who directed that there should be built rooms with
chimneys in the said hospital, fit and convenient for forty poor
people to dwell and inhabit it, and that there should be one chapel or
place convenient to serve Almighty God in for ever with public and
divine prayers and other exercises of religion, and also one kitchen
and bakehouse common to all the people of the said hospital. Jesus
Hospital is a quadrangular building, containing forty almshouses
surrounding a court which is divided into gardens, one of which is
attached to each house. It has a pleasing entrance through a gabled
brick porch which has over the Tudor-shaped doorway a statue of the
founder and mullioned latticed windows. The old people live happy and
contented lives, and find in the eventide of their existence a
cheerful home in peaceful and beautiful surroundings. The Fishmongers
also have almshouses at Harrietsham, in Kent, founded by Mark Quested,