just by the spur of the cliff, and peeping out to see over the shingle
ridge, is in any sense a hospital; but here is a convalescent who will
give us a very fair idea of the work that is being done; a tall fellow
who is but just recovering from acute rheumatism, and is now able to go
about slowly but with a cheery, hopeful look in his face. Presently, as
one comes near the front door, a lad, who having come from a hospital
where he has been attended for fractured ancle, has been sent here to
recover strength, is hobbling across a poultry-yard, where a grand
company of black Spanish, Polish, Cochin China, and other fowls are
assembled to be fed, and beneath a pent-house roof in this same yard, on
a bench, which would be well replaced by a more comfortable garden-seat
if the funds would allow, there is a sheltered and comfortable corner
for the afternoon indulgence of a whiff of tobacco. Twenty-five men and
twenty-four women are all the inmates, besides attendants, for whom
space can be found; and an inspection of the airy and scrupulously clean
dormitories, or rather bedrooms, on each side of the building, will show
that all the accommodation has been made available. It must be
remembered, however, that as the period of each inmate's stay is but a
month of twenty-eight days, fresh cases are constantly admitted during
all the summer months; so that though as late as at the end of March
only fourteen men and six women were distributed in the wards, the
average number admitted during the last official year has been 511 (an
increase of twenty-four over the year before), while the total number of
cases received since the opening of the institution amounts to nearly
5,000.
There are evidences that in this old house, with its long passages, and
little supplementary stairs leading to the bedrooms, economy has been
studied, and yet all that can be done to adapt the place to its purpose
has been effected. The sense of fresh air and cleanliness is the first
noticeable characteristic. There are no slovenly corners; in
sitting-rooms, corridors, or dormitories, whether the latter be little
rooms with only two or three beds, or either of the large apartments,
with their wide bay-windows looking forth upon the sea. Plainly and even
sparely furnished, they have an appearance of homelike comfort, and it
is pleasant to note that in the larger bright cheerful room devoted to
women patients there are evidences of feminine taste and womanly
belongings, even to the egg-cups holding little posies of wild flowers
and common garden blooms that deck the broad mantelshelf in front of the
toilet glasses. The same home-like influences are to be observed in
other departments, and though this old country house--of which the
institution holds only a short term as tenants--is not altogether suited
for the purpose to which it has been applied, the arrangements are not
without a certain pleasant departure from the too formal and mechanical
routine which is observed in some establishments to have a peculiarly
depressing influence on the sick.
The kitchen is like that of some good-sized farm-house, with brick
floor, an ample "dresser," and a big range, flanked with its pair of
ovens, and just now redolent of the steam of juicy South-down mutton and
fresh vegetables about to be served for the patients' dinners.
It is a property of the Seaford air to make even persons with delicate
appetites ready for three plain meals a day, with a meat supper to
follow, and the convalescents are no exception to the rule. Tea and
bread-and-butter for breakfast, bread-and-cheese and ale for the men,
and cake and ale for the women as a snack in the way of lunch, good
roast meat and vegetables for dinner, with occasional pies or puddings,
with another half-pint of ale; tea as usual; and a supper consisting of
a slice of meat, bread, and another draught of beer--this is the most
ordinary diet; but in many cases milk is substituted for ale, and there
is also a morning draught of milk, or rum-and-milk, a lunch or supper of
farinaceous food, and wine or special diet, according to the orders of
the house surgeon, who visits the patients daily, or as often as may be
required. Following the odour of the roast mutton, we see the male
patients preparing to sit down to dinner in a good-sized room, where, to
judge from the pleased and grateful faces of men and lads, they are
quite ready to do justice to the repast. Barely furnished, and with
table appointments of the plainest kind, the dining-room is not
indicative of luxury; but the sauce of hunger is not wanting, and as we
bow our leave-taking, there are signs that the money spent at this
Seaford Hospital is well represented by the wholesome but expensive
medicine of pure food and drink in ample quantities, prescribed under
conditions which build up the strength, and restore life to the
enfeebled frames of those to whom a month of such living must be an era
in their history.
The women's dining-room is, I am glad to see, more ornamental than that
of the men. The walls are bright with gay paper, containing large and
brilliantly coloured scenery, while the wide windows look seaward, and
fill the large room with cheerful light.
This is all the more essential as there is no other sitting-room for the
female patients, and the more convenient furniture, especially a low
wooden couch covered with a mattress, is adapted to the needs of those
who require indoor recreation as well as frequent rest. The men have a
separate sitting-room in the basement, not a very cheerful apartment,
but one which in the warm summer-time is cool, and adapted for the
after-dinner doze, or for reading a book when the weather is not quite
favourable for sitting out of doors.
There is, by the bye, a very decided need of entertaining and pleasant
books for the patients' library at Seaford, the few which are on the two
or three shelves being mostly old, and of a particularly dreary pattern.
It is obvious that, in an institution where, in order to meet the
constant needs of those who seek its aid, every shilling must be
carefully expended, only a small sum can be devoted to literature; but
it may only have to be made known that the convalescents really need a
few cheerful volumes to help them along the road from sickness to
health, and out of the abundance of some teeming library the goodwill
offering may be made.
It is time that we--that is to say, the kindly and judicious secretary,
Mr. Horace Green, the examining physician, Dr. Lomas, and the present
writer--should yield to the influences of the grand appetising climate
of this airy nook of the English coast, and after a short turn into the
poultry-yard, a glance at the deliberate cow, and a passing greeting to
the great black cat with collar and bell and a mew that is almost a deep
bass roar, and to the most exacting, ugly, and voracious pet dog it was
ever my lot to encounter--we accept the invitation to test the quality
of the Southdown mutton and other Seaford fare, with a following of that
delicately boiled rice and jam to which the healthy palate returns with
childlike appreciation.
On hospitable thoughts intent, the bright and active lady who is
superintendent matron of the hospital, has for the time adopted us into
her hungry family, and with the knowledge of the effects of the breeze
blowing over that high bluff, and curling the waves along the shingle
ridge, has set out a repast in her own pleasant parlour, where she does
the honours of the institution with a simple cheerful grace that speaks
favourably for the administration which she represents. But I should now
be writing in the past tense, for the larger building is completed. The
inmates will have a better appointed home.
In order to maintain the objects of the charity, and to ensure the
comfort of those for whom its provisions are intended, some
well-considered regulations have to be adopted and enforced; and the
most discouraging circumstances with which the committee and their
officers have to contend, are those which arise from the negligence of
subscribers nominating patients, or from the demands made on the charity
by those who constantly expect more benefits from the institution than
their contributions would represent even if they were paid three times
over.
It is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that people, anxious to secure for
their protégés the advantages of such means of recovery as are
represented by a temporary hospital where there has only been one death
in five years, should readily contribute their guinea for the sake of
gaining the privilege, even though they may add to that small
subscription the five shillings a week which is the sum required with
each patient. What has to be complained of, however, is that constant
attempts are made to introduce cases which are so far from being
convalescent, that they are still suffering from disease, and require
constant medical or surgical treatment. In order to do this, nominations
are frequently obtained from country subscribers, and it has required
the constant vigilance of the examining physician and the committee to
avoid the distressing necessity of obtaining for such patients admission
to other hospitals, or sending them back to their own homes, not only
without having received benefit from the institution, but perhaps
injured by the journey to and fro when they were in a weak and suffering
condition.
It should be remembered that the Seaford Hospital is not for the sick,
but for persons recovering from sickness,--those for whom the best
medicines are regular and ample meals, grand bracing air, sea-baths,
long hours of quiet and restorative sleep, and that general direction of
their daily progress towards complete recovery, which will often make
them strong and set them up completely, even in the twenty-eight days of
their sea-side sojourn.
To send patients who require the medical care and attendance which can
only be provided in a hospital for the special disorders from which they
suffer, or who are afflicted with incurable diseases, is unjust, both to
the poor creatures themselves and to the charity which cannot receive
them.
For consumptive patients, except in the early or threatening stage of
phthisis, Seaford is unsuitable, but a month at the hospital for
patients of consumptive tendency has been known to produce remarkably
beneficial results. It is in cases of recovery after rheumatism and
rheumatic fever, or when strength is required after painful or
exhausting surgical operations, in nervous depression, debility,
pleurisy, and recovery from accidents, that the fine air is found to be
wonderfully invigorating; for Seaford is high and dry, the subsoil being
sand resting on chalk, so that there is little surface evaporation,
while the shelter afforded by Beachy Head screens this little bay of the
coast from the east wind.
It is not to be wondered at that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Bishop of London, and the late Bishop of Winchester should have joined
many of the London clergy, and more than eighty of the most eminent
physicians and surgeons connected with metropolitan hospitals, to
recommend this charity as one especially deserving of public support.
Those who are ever so superficially acquainted with the homes and
difficulties of the poorer classes in London know that the period of
debility after sickness, when the general hospital has discharged the
patient, or when the parish doctor has taken his leave, is a terrible
time. Too weak to work, without means to buy even common nourishment at
the crisis when plentiful food is requisite, and stimulated to try to
labour when the heart has only just strength to beat, men and women are
ready to faint and to perish unless helping hands be held out to them.
Try to imagine some poor cabman or omnibus-driver, lying weak and
helpless after coming from a hospital; think of the domestic servant,
whose small savings have all been spent in the endeavour to get well
enough to take another place; of the poor little wistful, eager-eyed
errand-boy, scantily fed, and with shaking limbs, that will not carry
him fast enough about the streets. Try to realise what a boon it must be
to a letter-carrier, slowly recovering from the illness by which he has
been smitten down, or to the London waiter, worn and debilitated by long
hours of wearying attendance to his duties, to have a month of rest and,
re-invigoration at a place like this. In the table of inmates during the
last few years are to be found a host of domestic servants, mechanics
and apprentices, warehousemen and labourers, 36 housewives (there is
much significance in that word, if we think of the poor wife or mother
to be restored to her husband and children), 46 needlewomen, 19 clerks,
15 teachers (mark that) 41 school-children, 9 nurses, 1 policeman, 3
seamen and watermen, 1 letter-carrier, 4 errand-boys, 7 Scripture-readers,
and others of various occupations.
It is no wonder, I say, that the general hospitals should regard this
Convalescent Home at Seaford as a boon; but, unfortunately for the
charity, the appreciation which it receives from some of those wealthy
and magnificently-endowed institutions operates as a very serious drain
on its own limited resources, which are only supplied by voluntary
subscriptions, contributions, and legacies. Every subscriber of a guinea
annually, and every donor of ten guineas in one sum, has the privilege
of recommending one patient yearly, with an additional recommendation
for every additional subscription of one guinea, or donation of ten
guineas. The payment of five shillings a week by each patient admitted
is also required by the guarantee of a householder written on the
nomination paper, and the travelling expenses of the patient must also
be paid, the Brighton Railway Company most benevolently conveying
patients to the hospital by their quick morning train, in second-class
carriages at third-class fare.
Now it is quite obvious that the five shillings a week, though it
removes the institution from the position of an absolute charity, goes
but a very short distance in providing for the needs of the inmates, and
when the guinea contribution is added to it, there is still a very wide
margin to fill before much good can be effected. Let us see, then, what
is the effect of every subscription of a guinea representing a claim, as
in the case of the patients sent from the general hospitals.
The cost of those admirable medicines, food and drink, wine, milk, and
sea-baths, together with the expenses of administration, and the rental
will represent at least £4 8s. per head for each patient, and as Guy's,
Bartholomew's, St. Thomas's, and the London Hospitals, each subscribing
their ten guineas annually, demand their ten nominations in exchange,
the account stands thus:--
For each case, five shillings per week for four weeks, and one guinea
subscription = £2 1_s._, which, deducted from the actual cost (£4
8_s._), leaves £2 7_s._ to be paid out of the funds of the Seaford
Institution, which, on ten patients a year, represents £23 10_s._ as the
annual contribution of this poor little charity to each of the four
great charitable foundations of the metropolis.
But there is now an opportunity for acknowledging this obligation, and
for recognizing the useful career of this really admirable institution.
The lease of the present house has already expired, and the committee
have been obliged to give up possession. It is therefore necessary to
support the new hospital for those who need the aid that such a charity
alone can give, and the building has already been erected, only a few
yards further in the shelter of the bluff, where it has provided another
home. With a commendable anxiety to keep strictly within their probable
means, the committee have decided not to imitate a too frequent mode of
proceeding, by which a large and splendid edifice would saddle their
undertaking with a heavy debt, and perhaps cripple resources needed for
carrying on their actual work; but they have obtained from Mr. Grüning,
the architect, a plain building which will provide for their needs for
some time to come, and may be hereafter increased in accommodation by
additions that will improve, rather than detract from, its completeness.
A great establishment, with a hundred beds, laundries, drying-houses,
and hot and cold sea-baths on the premises, would cost £13,000; and as
the actually available funds in hand for building purposes were not more
than £5,000, with another probable £1,000 added by special donations
expected during the year, the committee, however reluctantly, folded up
the original plan, and estimated the cost of a plain unpretentious
building, calculated at first to receive thirty-three male and
thirty-three female patients, but capable of additions which will raise
its usefulness and completeness to the higher demand, whenever there are
funds sufficient to pay for them. The expenditure for the new hospital
was about £7000, and, should the anticipated donations be increased
fourfold, there will be no difficulty in crowning the work, by such
provisions as will include the full number of a hundred faint and
failing men and women within the retreat where they find rest and
healing.
_WITH THE LITTLE ONES._
Yes, and amidst the mystery of suffering and pain,--the beginning of
that discipline which commences very early, and continues, for many of
us, during a whole lifetime, at such intervals as may be necessary for
the consummation which we can only faintly discern when we begin to see
that which is invisible to the eyes of flesh and of human understanding,
and is revealed only to the higher reason--the essential perception
which is called faith.
I want you to come with me to that eastern district of the great city
which has for so long a time been associated with accounts of distress,
of precarious earnings, homes without food or fire, scanty clothing,
dilapidated houses, dire poverty and the diseases that come of cold and
starvation. The place that I shall take you to is quite close to the
Stepney Station of the North London Railway. The district is known as
Ratcliff; the streets down which we shall pass are strangely destitute
of any but small shops, where a front "parlour" window contains small
stocks of chandlery or of general cheap odds and ends. The doorways of
the houses are mostly open, and are occupied by women and children, of
so poor and neglected an appearance, that we need no longer wonder at
the constant demands made upon the institution which we are about to
visit. Just here the neighbourhood seems to have come to a dreary
termination at the brink of the river, and to be only kept from slipping
into the dark current by two or three big sheds and wharves, belonging
to mast, rope, and block-makers, or others connected with that shipping
interest the yards of which are, many of them, deserted, no longer
resounding to the noise of hammers. The black spars and yards of vessels
alongside seem almost to project into the roadway as we turn the corner
and stand in front of a building, scarcely to be distinguished from its
neighbours, except for the plain inscription on its front, "East London
Hospital for Children and Dispensary for Women," and for a rather more
recent appearance of having had the woodwork painted. But for this there
would be little more to attract attention than might be seen in any of
the sail-makers' dwellings, stores, and lofts in the district; and, in
fact, the place itself is--or rather was--a sail-maker's warehouse, with
trap-doors in the rough and foot-worn floors, steep and narrow stairs,
bulks and baulks of timber here and there in the heavy ceilings and
awkward corners, not easily turned to account in any other business.
Some of these inconveniences have been remedied, and the trap-doors as
well as the awkwardest of the corners and the bulks have been either
removed or adapted to present purposes, for the business is to provide a
home and careful nursing for sick children, and the long rooms of the
upper storeys are turned into wards, wherein stand rows of Lilliputian
iron bedsteads, or tiny cribs, where forty boys and girls, some of them
not only babes but sucklings, form the present contingent of the hundred
and sixty little ones who have been treated during the year. Not a very
desirable-looking residence you will say, but there are a good many
inmates after all; and the scrupulous cleanliness of the place, as seen
from the very passage, is an earnest of that plan of making the best of
things which has always been characteristic of this hospital at Ratcliff
Cross. Some eight or nine grownup folks, and from thirty to forty
children, make a bright, cheerful home (apart from the suffering and
death which are inseparable from such a place) in that old sail-maker's
warehouse, if brightness and cheerfulness are the accompaniments of good
and loving work, as I thoroughly believe they are.
It was during the terrible visitation of cholera, nearly twelve years
ago, that this work of mercy was initiated, and the manner of its
foundation has about it something so pathetic that it is fitting the
story should be known, especially as the earnest, hopeful effort with
which the enterprise began seems to have characterised it to the present
day. Among the medical men who went about in the neighbourhood of Poplar
and Ratcliff during the epidemic, was Mr. Heckford, a young surgeon,
who, having recently come from India, was attached to the London
Hospital, and who took a constant and active part in the professional
duties he had undertaken. In that arduous work, he, as well as others,
received valuable and indeed untiring aid from the ready skill and
thoughtful care of a few ladies, who, having qualified themselves as
nurses, devoted themselves to the labour of love amongst the poor. To
one of this charitable sisterhood, who had been his frequent helper in
the time of difficulty and danger, the young surgeon became attracted by
the force of a sympathy that continued after the plague was stayed in
the district to which they had given so much care, and when they had
time to think of themselves and of each other. They went away together a
quietly married couple; both having one special aim and object in
relation to the beneficent career upon which they had entered in
company. Knowing from hardly-earned experience the dire need of the
district, they at once began to consider what they could do to alleviate
the sufferings of the women and children, so many of whom were sick and
languishing, in hunger and pain, amidst conditions which forbade their
recovery. If only they could make a beginning, and do something towards
arresting the ravages of those diseases that wait on famine and lurk in
foul and fœtid alleys;--if they could establish a dispensary where
women--mothers too poor to pay a doctor--could have medicine and careful
encouragement; if they could find a place where, beginning with a small
family of say half a dozen, they might take a tiny group of infants to
their home, and so set up a centre of beneficent action, a protest
against the neglect, the indifference, and the preventable misery for
which that whole neighbourhood had so long had an evil distinction.