DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1213#0076
58 TALLIs's ILLUSTRATED LONDON,
day. These fields have long since disappeared; the days
of their vernal beauty are told, and their decline in rural
sports is thus lamented by James Smith:—
" Saint George's fields, are fields no more;
The trowel supersedes the plough ;
Swamps, huge and inundate of yore,
Are changed to civic villas now."
Even this description has ceased to be applicable. Perhaps
the following stanza, though less poetic, would be to-day a II
more faithful character of St. George's-fields:—
Thy " civic villas," witty Smith,
Have fled as well as woodland copse;
Where erst the water-lily bloomed,
Are planted rows of brokers' shops.
On the site of the Dog-and-Duck tea-gardens is the ;
School for the Indigent Blind. The entrance is from St. p
George's-circus, at the corner of the London and Lam- :
beth-roads. Over the noble gateway of this institution is >
the representation of a pelican feeding her young with
her own blood. The institution was first founded in 1799,
and the present building erected in 1808, and,subsequently
more than once enlarged. It affords accommodation to j
85 males and 89 females, who are here maintained and
instructed in basket-making, the manufacturing of mats, i
hearth-rugs, clothes-lines, &c. Some of them who mani- ,
fest taste, receive a musical education sufficient to qualify :
them to fill the profession of an organist. Those eligible
for admission to this charity must not be less than ten
years of age, nor exceed twenty-five, and they must be so j
utterly deprived of vision as to be unable to distinguish
light from darkness. The annual outlay for the main-
tenance and education of the indigent blind reaches ;
£8,000, a portion of which is obtained from investments, ,
from the sale of the work of the pupils, and from the
revenues of the school. The large garden attached to this
institution for the recreation of the inmates has'lately ;
been much curtailed, a part of it having been let for
day. These fields have long since disappeared; the days
of their vernal beauty are told, and their decline in rural
sports is thus lamented by James Smith:—
" Saint George's fields, are fields no more;
The trowel supersedes the plough ;
Swamps, huge and inundate of yore,
Are changed to civic villas now."
Even this description has ceased to be applicable. Perhaps
the following stanza, though less poetic, would be to-day a II
more faithful character of St. George's-fields:—
Thy " civic villas," witty Smith,
Have fled as well as woodland copse;
Where erst the water-lily bloomed,
Are planted rows of brokers' shops.
On the site of the Dog-and-Duck tea-gardens is the ;
School for the Indigent Blind. The entrance is from St. p
George's-circus, at the corner of the London and Lam- :
beth-roads. Over the noble gateway of this institution is >
the representation of a pelican feeding her young with
her own blood. The institution was first founded in 1799,
and the present building erected in 1808, and,subsequently
more than once enlarged. It affords accommodation to j
85 males and 89 females, who are here maintained and
instructed in basket-making, the manufacturing of mats, i
hearth-rugs, clothes-lines, &c. Some of them who mani- ,
fest taste, receive a musical education sufficient to qualify :
them to fill the profession of an organist. Those eligible
for admission to this charity must not be less than ten
years of age, nor exceed twenty-five, and they must be so j
utterly deprived of vision as to be unable to distinguish
light from darkness. The annual outlay for the main-
tenance and education of the indigent blind reaches ;
£8,000, a portion of which is obtained from investments, ,
from the sale of the work of the pupils, and from the
revenues of the school. The large garden attached to this
institution for the recreation of the inmates has'lately ;
been much curtailed, a part of it having been let for