The roaring pell-mell of the principal thoroughfares of London is
curiously contrasted with the calm seclusion which is often found at
no great distance in certain lanes, courts, and passages, and the
effect is not a little heightened when in these by-places we light
upon some old building speaking of antique institutions or bygone
habits of society. We lately had this idea brought strikingly before
us on plunging abruptly out of Fleet Street into Crane Court, in
search of the establishment known as the Scottish Hospital. We were
all at once transferred into a quiet narrow street, as it might be
called, full of printing and lithographic offices, tall, dark, and
rusty, while closing up the further end stood a dingy building of
narrow front, presenting an ornamental porch. A few minutes served to
introduce us to a moderate-sized hall, having a long table in the
centre, and an arm-chair at the upper end, while several old portraits
graced the walls. It was not without a mental elevation of feeling, as
well as some surprise, that we learned that this was a hall in which
Newton had spent many an evening. It was, to be quite explicit, the
meeting-place of the Royal Society from 1710 till 1782, and,
consequently, during not much less than twenty years of the latter
life of the illustrious author of the _Principia_, who, as an
office-bearer in the institution, must have often taken an eminent
place here. We were not, however, immediately in quest of the
antiquities of the Royal Society. Our object was to form some
acquaintance with the valuable institution which has succeeded to it
in the possession of this house.
We must advert to a peculiarity of our Scottish countrymen, which can
be set down only on the credit side of their character--their sympathy
with each other when they meet as wanderers in foreign countries.
Scotland is just a small enough country to cause a certain unity of
feeling amongst the people. Wherever they are, they feel that Scotsmen
should stand, as their proverb has it, _shoulder to shoulder_. The
more distant the clime in which they meet, they remember with the more
intensity their common land of mountain and flood, their historical
and poetical associations, the various national institutions which
ages have endeared to them; and the more disposed are they to take an
interest in each other's welfare. This is a feeling in which time and
modern innovations work no change, and it is one of old-standing.
When James VI. acceded to the throne of Elizabeth, he was followed
southward by some of his favourite nobles, and there was of course an
end put to that exclusive system of the late monarch which had kept
down the number of Scotsmen in London, to what must now appear the
astonishingly small one of fifty-eight. Perhaps some exaggerations
have been indulged in with regard to the host of traders and craftsmen
who went southward in the train of King James, but there can be no
doubt, that it was considerable in point of numbers. But where wealth
is sought for, there also, by an inevitable law of nature, is poverty.
The better class of Scotchmen settled in London, soon found their
feelings of compassion excited in behalf of a set of miserable
fellow-countrymen who had failed to obtain employment or fix
themselves in a mercantile position, and for whom the stated charities
of the country were not available. Hence seems to have arisen, so
early as 1613, the necessity for some system of mutual charity among
the natives of Scotland in London. So far as can be ascertained, it
was a handful of journeymen or hired artisans, who in that year
associated to aid each other, and prevent themselves from becoming
burdensome to strangers--an interesting fact, as evincing in a remote
period the predominance of that spirit of independence for which the
modern Scottish peasantry has been famed, and which even yet survives
in some degree of vigour, notwithstanding the fatally counteractive
influence of poor-laws. The funds contributed by these worthy men were
put into a box, and kept there--for in those days there were no banks
to take a fruitful charge of money--and at certain periods the
contributors would meet, and see what they could spare for the relief
of such poor fellow-countrymen as had in the interval applied to them.
We have still a faint living image of this simple plan in the _boxes_
belonging to certain trades in our Scottish towns, or rather the
survivance of the phrase, for the money, we must presume, is now
everywhere relegated to the keeping of the banks. The institution in
those days was known as the SCOTTISH BOX, just as a money-dealing
company came to be called a bank, from the table (_banco_) which it
employed in transacting its business. From a very early period in its
history, it seems to have taken the form of what is now called a
Friendly Society, each person contributing an entrance-fee of 5s., and
6d. per quarter thereafter, so as to be entitled to certain benefits
in the event of poverty or sickness. Small sums were also lent to the
poorer members, without interest, and burial expenses were paid. We
find from the records that, in 1638, when the company was twenty in
number, and met in Lamb's Conduit Street, it allowed 20s. for a
certain class of those of its members who had died of the plague, and
30s. for others. The whole affair, however, was then on a limited
scale--the quarterly disbursements in 1661 amounting only to L.9, 4s.
Nevertheless, upwards of 300 poor Scotsmen, swept off by the
pestilence of 1665-6, were buried at the expense of the Box, while
numbers more were nourished during their sickness, without subjecting
the parishes in which they resided to the smallest expense. We have
not the slightest doubt, that not one of these people felt the
bitterness of a dependence on alms. If not actually entitled to relief
in consideration of previous payments of their own, they would feel
that they were beholden only to their kindly countrymen. It would be
like the members of a family helping each other. Humiliation could
have been felt only, if they had had to accept of alms from those
amongst whom they sojourned as strangers. Such is the way, at least,
in which we read the character of our countrymen.
In the year 1665, the Box was exalted into the character of a
corporation by a royal charter, the expenses attendant on which were
disbursed by gentlemen named Kinnear, Allen, Ewing, Donaldson, &c.
When they met at the Cross Keys in 'Coven Garden,' they found their
receipts to be L.116, 8s. 5d. The character of the times is seen in
one of their regulations, which imposed a fine of 2s. 6d. for every
oath used in the course of their quarterly business. The institution
was now becoming venerable, and, as usual, members began to exhibit
their affection for it by presents. The Mr Kinnear just mentioned,
conferred upon it an elegant silver cup. James Donaldson presented an
ivory mallet or hammer, to be used by the chairman in calling order.
Among the contributors, we find the name of Gilbert Burnet (afterwards
Bishop) as giving L.1 half-yearly. They had an hospital erected in
Blackfriars Street; but experience soon proved that confinement to a
charity workhouse was altogether uncongenial to the feelings and
habits of the Scottish poor, and they speedily returned to the plan of
assisting them by small outdoor pensions, which has ever since been
adhered to. In those days, no effort was made to secure permanency by
a sunk fund. They distributed each quarter-day all that had been
collected during the preceding interval. The consequence of this not
very Scotsman-like proceeding was that, in one of those periods of
decay which are apt to befall all charitable institutions, the
Scottish Hospital was threatened with extinction; and this would
undoubtedly have been its fate, but for the efforts of a few patriotic
Scotsmen who came to its aid.
Through the help of these gentlemen, a new charter was obtained
(1775), putting the institution upon a new and more liberal footing,
and at the same time providing for the establishment of a permanent
fund. Since then, through the virtue of the national spirit,
considerable sums have been obtained from the wealthier Scotch living
in London, and by the bequests of charitable individuals of the
nation; so that the hospital now distributes about L.2200 per annum,
chiefly in L.10 pensions to old people.[1] At the same time, a special
bequest of large amount (L.76,495) from William Kinloch, Esq., a
native of Kincardineshire, who had realised a fortune in India, allows
of a further distribution through the same channel of about L.1800,
most of it in pensions of L.4 to disabled soldiers and sailors. Thus
many hundreds of the Scotch poor of the metropolis may be said to be
kept by their fellow-countrymen from falling upon the parochial funds,
on which they would have a claim--a fact, we humbly think, on which
the nation at large may justifiably feel some little pride. As part of
the means of collecting this money, there is a festival twice a year,
usually presided over by some Scottish nobleman, and attended by a
great number of gentlemen connected with Scotland by birth or
otherwise. A committee of governors meets on the second Wednesday of
every month, to distribute the benefactions to the regular pensioners
and casual applicants; and, in accordance with the national habits of
feeling, this ceremony is always prefaced by divine service in the
chapel, according to the simple practice of the Presbyterian Church.
Since 1782, these transactions, as well as the general concerns of the
institution, have taken place in the old building in Crane Court,
where also the secretary has a permanent residence.
Such, then, is the institution which has succeeded to the possession
of the dusky hall in which the Royal Society at one time assembled. It
was with a mingled interest that we looked round it, reflecting on the
presence of such men as Newton and Bradley of old, and on the many
worthy deeds which had since been done in it by men of a different
stamp, but surely not unworthy to be mentioned in the same sentence. A
portrait of Queen Mary by Zucchero, and one of the Duke of Lauderdale
by Lely--though felt as reminiscences of Scotland--were scarcely
fitted of themselves to ornament the walls; but this, of course, is as
the accidents of gifts and bequests might determine. We felt it to be
more right and fitting, that the secretary should be our old friend
Major Adair, the son of that Dr Adair who accompanied Robert Burns on
his visit to Glendevon in 1787. He is one of those men of activity,
method, and detail, joined to unfailing good-humour, who are
invaluable to such an institution. He is also, as might be expected,
entirely a Scotsman, and evidently regards the hospital with feelings
akin to veneration. Nor could we refrain from sympathising in his
views, when we thought of the honourable national principle from which
the institution took its rise, and by which it continues to be
supported, as well as the practical good which it must be continually
achieving. To quote his own words: 'From a view of the numbers
relieved, it is evident, that while this institution is a real
blessing to the aged, the helpless, the diseased, and the unemployed
poor of Scotland, resident in London, Westminster, and the
neighbourhood, extending to a circle of ten miles radius from the hall
of the corporation, it is of incalculable benefit to the community at
large, who, by means of this charity, are spared the pain of beholding
so great an addition, as otherwise there would be, of our destitute
fellow-creatures seeking their wretched pittance in the streets,
liable to be taken up as vagrants and sent to the house of correction,
and probably subjected to greater evils and disgrace.' The major has a
pet scheme for extending the usefulness of the institution. It implies
that individuals should make foundations of from L.300 to L.400 each,
in order to produce pensions of L.10 a year; these to be in the care
and dispensation of the hospital, and each to bear for ever the name
of its founder; thus permanently connecting his memory with the
institution, and insuring that once a year, at least, some humble
fellow-countryman shall have occasion to rejoice that such a person as
he once existed. The idea involves the gratification of a fine natural
feeling, and we sincerely hope that it will be realised. And why,
since we have said so much, should we hesitate to add the more general
wish, that the Scottish Hospital may continue to enjoy an undiminished
measure of the patronage of our countrymen? May it flourish for ever!