This hospital being, however, in an
incommodious situation, and becoming
both ruinous, and unable to receive and
entertain the great number of distracted
persons, whose friends sued for their ad-
mission, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen,
and Common Council, granted the Go-
vernors a piece of ground along the south
side of the lower quarters of Moorfields,
upon which the foundation of the pre-
sent hospital was laid in April 1675, and
notwithstanding its being the most mag-
nificent edifice of its kind in Europe,
was only fifteen months in erecting, as
appears by an inscription on its front.

This noble edifice is 540 feet in length,
and 40 feet in breadth, and is finely situ-
ated.  The middle and ends, which pro-
ject a little, are adorned with pilasters,
entablatures, foliages, and other orna-
ments, and rising above the rest of the
building, have each a flat roof with a
handsome balustrade of stone, in the cen-
ter of which is an elegant turret.  That

This building upon the whole shews
more the good intentions, than the good
taste of the founders of this charity, the
style of architecture being very improper
for an hospital for madmen.  Simplicity
and regularity was all that should have
been aimed at, and if there was a neces-
sity for pilasters, those of the Tuscan order
would have suited the design much bet-
ter than Corinthian; but without regard-
ing the application, the middle pavilion,
which is elegant, should have certainly
been larger and more principal.  The
entrance is grand, and the figures on the
piers, one representing raving, and the
other melancholy madness, are finely ex-
pressed, and do honour to their au-
thor Mr. Cibber, father of the late Poet
Laureat.  Since the first erecting of this
edifice, two wings have been added, in
order to contain a number of incurables.
And before this fabric is a handsome wall
680 feet in length, which, like the struc-
ture itself, is built with brick and stone.
It incloses a range of gardens neatly a-
dorned with walks of broad stone, grass