EMMANUEL HOSPITAL WESTMINSTER

BY REV. W. J. LOFTIE. ILLUSTRATED BY HERBERT RAILTON.

Looking at Mr. Railton's sketches of Emmanuel Hospital is but a melancholy pleasure. Regret at the destruction ~~ the needless and wanton destruction ~~ of the old buildings leaves a feeling of pain, almost of indignation. We perceive that we have been robbed of part of our inheritance. Mr. Railton has done all he can to leave a memorial in black and white. For the colour we must how go to the "Harbour of Refuge,” by Frederick Walker. Great efforts were made; money which might, as it turns out, have been better spent, was subscribed, even a kind of arbitrator was appointed, with a view to saving the building, if not the institution. But the case was prejudged. Time, trouble, and money were alike wasted, for greed was lord of all. A few pounds might be obtained for the sale of the site ~~ a few pounds which, if any should be left when a contractor had been paid to clear away the old hospital, might be added to the charity, 'already so wealthy. Meanwhile we and our posterity are robbed. Such a place as this formed a national heirloom ~~ something which, though not very valuable in itself, cannot be replaced for any number of millions. In Westminster for some time past there has been a crusade going on against everything venerable ~~ everything picturesque. The school, with its date 1688, which stands at the other side of the street ~~ what the street is called we can only guess ~~ is surrounded with hoardings, and will soon disappear, and what used to be almost an oasis in the wilderness of miserable and magnificent architecture will have finally retired in favour of brown brick and commonplace vulgarity.

A last sad visit, paid during the winter, while something remained of the old almshouses, though much had been destroyed and removed, still left on the mind a strong sense of beauty ~~ in decay, it is true, but unquestionably of beauty such as is not to be found anywhere in the neighbouring Victoria Street. The almshouses were built at a very good period ~~ a period when architects gave their minds to making a small or poor building look dignified. Ornament, the only resource of the modern builder, will never do that; but Emmanuel Hospital, small as it was, showed everywhere design and forethought, and skill in using commonplace details so as to combine them into a picturesque whole. The wings contained the houses of the twenty inmates. In the centre, marked by a turret, was a chapel, reached by a flight of steps, over which was the only bit of ornament in the whole place, a pediment  carved with the founder's arms. The date of the building was plain from the most cursory glance. It was in the style which we hear much talked about nowadays, but which architects seldom really practise ~~ the style of the time of Queen Anne. The history of the Dacres "of the South," as they were called, is full of interest, yet extremely difficult to unravel. Some time toward the end of the reign of Henry VIII. crime and calamity overwhelmed the old Sussex family of Fienes of Herst-monceux. One of the family, Richard Fienes, married Joan, the daughter of Thomas Dacre, the eldest son of the Lord Dacre of that period ~~ namely, the middle of the fifteenth century. There was much litigation between the Fienes family and the heirs