46 GREAT TIM- GREAT DISTILLERY. ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS. ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS. etchings given by Doctor Ducarel, to have had great merit. THE great timber-yards, beneath which these antiquities were found, are very well worthy of a visit. One would fear that the forests of Norway and the Baltic would be exhausted, to supply the want of our overgrown capital, were we not assured, that the resources will successively be increasing equal to the demand of succeeding ages. In this parish are the vast distilleries, till of late the property of Sir Joseph Mawbey. There are seldom less than two thousand hogs constantly grunting at this place: which are kept entirely on the grains. I lament to see the maxim of private vices being public benefits so strongly exemplified in the produce of the duty on this Stygian liquor. From July 5th, 1785, to July 5th, 1786, it yielded 450,000l.* And I have been told of a single distiller who contributed to that sum 54,000l. To the south are St. George's Fields, now the wonder of foreigners approaching our capital, through avenues of lamps, and by a road of magnificent breadth and goodness. A foreign ambassador, who happened to make his entry at night, For the year ending January 12th, 1812, the duty on British spirits amounted to 1,713,7311. 5s. 8d.; that on sweets and mead, to 23,760l. 10s. 3d. ED. PUBLIC CHARITIES. imagining that these illuminations* were in honor of his arrival, modestly observed, they were more than he could have expected. On this spot have been found remains of tessellated pavements, coins, and an urn full of bones,† possibly the site of a summer camp of the Romans; as the place was too wet for a residentiary station. The neighboring marsh of Lambeth was in the last century overflowed with water: but St. George's Fields might, owing to their distance from the river, admit of a temporary encampment. 47 STER LYING ON approaching St. George's Fields from West- WESTMINminster-bridge are two charities of uncommon IN HOSPITAL. delicacy and utility. The first is the Westminster Lying-in Hospital. This is not instituted merely for the honest matron, who can depose her burthen with the consciousness of lawful love, but also for the unhappy wretches whom some villain, in the unguarded moment, hath seduced, and then left a prey to desertion of friends, poverty, want, and guilt. Least such " may be driven to de"spair by such complicated misery, and be "tempted to destroy themselves, and murder "their infants," here was founded, in 1765, * Written before the shameful adulteration of the oil has almost given to this once glorious splendor, as well as that of most of our streets, little better than a "darkness visible." + Gale's Itin. Anton. 65. See the account of the institution. 48 ASYLUM, OR PUBLIC CHARITIES. this humane preventative The Westminster New Lying-in Hospital. To obviate all objection to its being an encouragement to vice, no one is taken in a second time: but this most excellent charity is open to the worthy distressed matron as often as necessity requires. None are rejected who have friends to recommend them. And of both descriptions upwards of four thousand have experienced its salutary effects. FARTHER on is another institution of a most REFUGE. heavenly nature, calculated to save from perdition of soul and body, the brighter part of the creation: such on whom Providence hath bestowed angelic faces and elegant forms, designed as blessings to mankind, but too often debased to the vilest uses. The hazard that these innocents constantly are liable to, from a thousand temptations, from poverty, from death of parents, from the diabolical procuress, and often from the stupendous wickedness of parents themselves, who have been known to sell their beauteous girls for the purpose of prostitution, induced a worthy band to found, in the year 1758, the Asylum, or House of Refuge. Long may it flourish, and eternal be the reward of those into whose minds so amiable a conception may have entered! FOR the salvation of those unhappy beings who had the ill fortune to lose the benefits of this divine institution, at a small distance is |