Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 2
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XLV: St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
Chapter XLV: St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
[extra_illustrations.2.359.3] was founded by Rayer, the jester or minstrel of Henry I. At the dissolution the fat, greedy hands of Henry VIII., that spared no gold that would melt, whether it was God's or man's, soon had a grip of it, but, for very shame, at the petition of Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor and father of the builder of the , he turned it over to the city. The king then, in , says Mr. Timbs,
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From a search made in the official records of the city, it appears that for more than yearsnamely, since --an alderman of London had always been elected president of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Until , whenever a vacancy occurred in the presidency of the royal hospitals (St. Bartholomew's, Bethlehem, , St. Thomas's, or Christ's Hospitals), it was customary to elect the Lord Mayor for the time being, or an alderman who had passed the chair. This rule was | |
p.360 | broken when the Duke of Cambridge was chosen president of , over the head of Alderman Sidney, the then Lord Mayor; and again, when Mr. Cubitt, then no longer an alderman, was elected president of St. Bartholomew's in preference to the then Lord Mayor. The question is, however, contested by the foundation-governors, or the corporation, and the donation-governors. |
The superintendent of the hospital was Thomas Vicary, serjeant-surgeon to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and of the earliest English writers on anatomy. The great Harvey, the physician of Charles I., and the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, was | |
| physician to the hospital for years, and here, in (James I.), he lectured upon his great discovery. | |
The executors of Whittington had repaired the hospital, in (Henry VI.), but it had to be taken down in , when the [extra_illustrations.2.360.1] was rebuilt by Gibbs, the ambitious architect of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and the stone laid . [extra_illustrations.2.361.1] , a mean structure (with the statue of Henry VIII. and the inscription, ), was built in . On the pediment of the hospital are figures-Lameness and | |
p.361 | Sickness. The cost of the work in was defrayed by public subscription, Dr. Radcliffe being generously prominent among the donors, and leaving a year for the improvement of the general diet, and a year to buy linen. |
The museums, theatres, and library of this noble charity are very large. A new surgery was added in . The lectures of the present day were established by the great Abernethy, who was elected assistant-surgeon in . | |
Sir Astley Cooper used to say, Some of his patients he would cut short with,
To a lady, complaining of low spirits, he would say, and to another, who said she felt a pain in holding her arm over her head, he replied, He sometimes, however, met with his match, and cutting a gentleman short day, the patient suddenly locked the door, slipped the key into his pocket, and protested he would be heard, which so pleased Abernethy that he not only complied | |
| with the patient's wishes, but complimented him on the resolute manner he adopted. | |
Abernethy made but little distinction between a poor and a rich patient, but was rather more attentive to the former; and, on occasion, gave great offence to a certain peer, by refusing to see him out of his turn. On entering his apartment, the nobleman, having indignantly asked Abernethy if he knew who he was, stated his rank, name, &c., when Abernethy, it is said, replied, with the most provoking , The Duke of Wellington having insisted on seeing him out of his usual hours, and abruptly entering his parlour day, was asked by the doctor how he got into the room. was the reply. said Abernethy, He is said to have given another proof of his independence, by refusing to attend George IV. until he had delivered his lecture at the hospital; in consequence of which he lost a Royal appointment. | |
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That eminent surgeon, Percival Pott, was also of the shining lights of St. Bartholomew's. The following is the story told of the celebrated fracture, which he afterwards learned to alleviate, and to which he gave his name:--In , while on a visit to a patient in , , he was thrown from his horse, and received a compound fracture of the leg. This event produced, perhaps, of the most extraordinary instances of coolness and prudence on record. Aware of the danger of rough and injudicious treatment, he would not suffer himself to be raised from the pavement, but sent a messenger for chairmen. When they arrived, he directed them to nail their poles to a door, which he had purchased in the interim, on which he was then carefully placed, and borne to his residence in , near . A consultation was immediately called, and amputation of the limb was resolved on; but, upon the suggestion of a humane friend, who soon after entered the room, a successful attempt to save the limb was made. This accident confined Mr. Pott to his house for several weeks, during which he conceived, and partly executed, his
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In the authorities founded a collegiate establishment for the resident pupils within the college walls: a spacious casualty room has also been added. In the grand staircase was painted gratuitously by Hogarth, whose heart always warmed to works of charity. The subjects are and There is also a picture of Rayer laying the stone of the hospital, and a sick man being carried on a bier by monks, which is the work of some other hand. Hogarth's pictures for which he was made life governor, was, as he tells us himself in his autobiographical sketch, his efforts in the grand style. | |
says the sturdy painter,
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says Mr. Timbs, in ,
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says the same writer,
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In the court-room is of the many supposed original portraits of Henry VIII. by the copiers of Holbein, who is venerated here-and in Mr. Froude's study--if nowhere else. | |
St. Bartholomew's contained in beds. About in-patients are admitted every year, besides out-patients. The average income of the hospital is , derived chiefly from rents and funded property. The number of governors exceeds . | |
Dr. Anthony Askew, of the past celebrities of St. Bartholomew's, a contemporary of Freke, was scarcely more famous in medicine than in letters. The friend of Dr. Mead, Hogarth, and other celebrities, he was a very notable personage in Georgian London, and, like Pitcairne and Freke, was a Fellow of the Royal Society. He employed Roubillac to produce the bust of Mead, which he presented to the , the price arranged being . In his delight at the goodness of the work, Askew sent the artist instead of , whereupon Roubillac grumbled that he was not paid enough, and sent in a bill to his employer for Askew contemptuously | |
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[extra_illustrations.2.363.3] paid the bill, even to the odd shillings, and sent the receipt to Hogarth. Dr. Pate, a physician of St. Bartholomew's of the same period, lived in , which, like Ely Place, was long a great place for doctors. Dr. Pitcairne, his colleague, lived in , till he moved into the treasurer's house, in St. Bartholomew's. He was buried in the hospital church. The posthumous sale of Dr. Askew's printed library, in , by Baker and Leigh, and which lasted days, was great literary auction of the time. There was a subsequent sale of the MSS. in , which also produced a great sum. | |
Among the modern physicians of St. Bartholomew's we must notice Dr. Baly (Queen's physician, killed in a fearful railway accident) and Dr. Jeaffreson, notable chiefly for his pleasant manners, his skill in whist, billiards, and shooting, and his extraordinary popularity. Wonderfully successful in practice, he was everybody's favourite; but, though a most enlightened man, he did nothing for science, either through literature or investigation. | |
Among the modern surgeons to be noticed are Sir William Lawrence, Bart.; Mr. Skey, C.B., who was famous for recommending stimulants and denouncing boat-racing, and other too violent sports; and Thomas Wormald, who died lately. Skey and Wormald were favourite pupils of [extra_illustrations.2.363.4] , and imitators of their great master's jocular manner and pungent speech. Tommy Wormald, or as the students called him, was Abernethy over again in voice, style, appearance, humour. was of his pithy written reports on a to an insurance company, whose directors insisted that he should write his reports instead of giving them verbally. He once astounded an apothecary, who was about to put him and certain physicians off with a single guinea fee, at a consultation on a rich man's case, by saying, Some years since, rich people of a mean sort would drive down to St. Bartholomew's, and get gratuitous advice, as out-patients. Tommy was determined to stop this abuse, and he did it by a series of outrageous assaults on the self-love of the offenders. Noticing a lady, dressed in silk, who had driven up to the hospital in a brougham, Tommy raised his rich, thunderous, sarcastic voice, and, to the inexpressible glee of a roomful of young students, addressed the lady thus:-- The lady did not come again. | |
A few remaining spots round still remain for us to notice, and foremost among these is , the great resort in the Middle Ages of country clothiers and London drapers. Strype describes the street as even in his day chiefly inhabited by drapers and mercers; and Hatton mentions it as in the form of a T, the right arm running to , the left to . | |
This latter lane, originally on the north side of the old priory, reaches from to , and in Strype's time was known for its brokers, its -hand linen, its upholstery, and its pawnbrokers. Congreve, always witty, makes Lady Wishfort, in his hope that of her admirers will day hang in tatters, like a pent-house or a gibbeted thief; and good-natured Tom Brown declares that when the impudent rag-sellers in and suddenly caught him by the arm and cried, he who feared the sight of a bailiff worse than the devil and all his works, was mortally scared. | |
In we part good friends with . R. B., in Strype, describes it as coming out of and falling into , and much inhabited by -hand booksellers. Howell, in his mentions finding the Poet-Laureate Skelton, skulking in ; and Garth, in his pleasant and graphic poem, says- And Swift, in of the best of his short poems (that on his own death), writes-
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At the end of the market stands Pie Corner, worthy of noteas the spot where the Great Fire, which began in , reached its limits: the [extra_illustrations.2.363.5] still marks the spot. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.2.359.3] St. Bartholomew's Hospital [extra_illustrations.2.360.1] great quadrangle [extra_illustrations.2.361.1] The gate towards Smithfield [extra_illustrations.2.363.1] JOhn Watts' inscription 1701 [extra_illustrations.2.363.2] New Library and Museum [extra_illustrations.2.363.3] Old Houses in Long Lane, West Smithfield [extra_illustrations.2.363.4] Abernethy [extra_illustrations.2.363.5] figure of a fat boy [extra_illustrations.2.363.6] Prince of Wales opening New Buildings-1879 [extra_illustrations.2.363.7] Prince and Princess of Wales-Advertisement |
