have anticipated. It was adverse to Mr. Gregson, and what was, in his mind, of greater moment, it was adverse to the pupils of the School.

In the face of these proceedings it is pleasing to note that two of, perhaps, as good names in art as Liverpool can boast,Samuel Austin, the well known water-colourist, celebrated as a perspective delineator, and Richard Ansdell, A.R.A., the distinguished painter of animals,-received their education at the Blue Coat Hospital. It will also be gratifying to all true lovers of education to learn that the art of drawing has now for some years been taught in the School; so that of Mr. Gregson may be said that he was a little in advance of his day.

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When resigning the Treasurership Mr. Gregson "boasts "that there cannot be found in any place so many good and "tractable children, and upon the whole so healthy, for so "low, confined and isolated a situation; but he hopes in his "time to see a building erected that will do honour to the "taste and feelings of the inhabitants." It is now just fifty years since utterance was given to these sentiments; yet the old School maintains its former site, and, judging from appearances, there is no immediate likelihood of a change. The medical officers of the Institution did, however, in 1840, urge in a report to the Trustees that the site was disadvantageous.

The successor of Mr. Gregson in the Treasurership for 1814, was Bryan Blundell, Esq., grandson to Bryan Blundell, the founder of the Institution. Bryan Blundell, the elder, was made Treasurer to the School in 1714, and one hundred years later his grandson, bearing the same name, filled the same position; proof, among many others, of the interest taken by Bryan Blundell's descendants, in the Institution with which his name is so intimately associated. The latter Mr. Blundell, who afterwards resided in the Isle of Man, died in 1844 and was buried in the family vault of the Blundells

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where also lay his distinguished grandfather-on the south side of St. Nicholas's Church in this town.

During the two following years the office was held by another of the Blundells-Henry Blundell Hollinshead, Esq., son of Jonathan Blundell and likewise grandson of the first Bryan Blundell. In the Board Room of the Institution is a portrait of Mr. Hollinshead, by Lonsdale and presented by his son, the late Richard B. B. Hollinshead Blundell Esq. Prior to the time of his taking office a Committee had been appointed to prepare plans for erecting a new school room. The buildings in School lane-part of which had been occupied at one time as a stocking manufactory and afterwards as a pin manufactory, and lay contiguous to the old School-were surveyed and a new School was erected on their site. When completed, in 1816, the cost of the erection was £7,332 8s. 10d. To defray the expense the Trustees were compelled to withdraw Corporation bonds to the amount of £5,000. The remaining sum was raised by a special subscription, the Corporation generously contributing £500. A very few years later the Trustees were obliged to alter and repair the older buildings forming the front of the Hospital, with the dining hall and chapel, which had become dilapidated.

As the Institution, by the withdrawal of £5,000 of its bonds, had lost £250 per annum of interest, and the warehouses in Hanover Street, by an unlucky combination of circumstances, were at the time untenanted, crippling still further their resources by some £400 per annum, the Trustees became anxious to provide the requisite means without trenching further on the permanent income of the Hospital. They were relieved of any difficulty upon that head by the munificent donation of £2,000 by one of their own number, the late John Harrocks Esq.; this was about the estimated cost of the repairs. The alteration was effected in 1821, at a total expense of £2,204. Consequent upon this last altera

tion we find that the drawing of the Hospital front, anterior to this date, differs in some slight particulars from that known to us at the present date.

When Mr. Hollinshead resigned in 1817, he was followed by James Bourne Esq. There were at this time only 220 children in the School. In 1798 the number of scholars was 327, having gradually increased during the previous 35 years from 200, which was the number in 1763. From the former period down to 1817 the number had been continually varying. When all the alterations, however, had been effected, the number again increased; at the close of 1823 there were 320 scholars, and 350 in 1827; from that time to the present 250 boys and 100 girls have been regularly maintained on the foundation. The whole cost is now about £6,000 per annum, towards which the Trustees have, however, a permanent income of not quite £2,000 a year. It is the sole endowment which we possess in Liverpool; yet it is only adequate to the maintenance of about one-third of the children-depending for the balance on the subscription list, which amounts at present to about £2,000; and on the precarious sum derivable from benefactions or legacies.

From the last report, issued during the past month, the Institution is represented to be in debt some £1,867. It speaks well, however, for the liberality of Liverpool, that in all former years, whenever this favourite Institution has really been pressed, the fact needed only to be known, to be met with a liberal and hearty response. The Trustees have thus been enabled, during many years, to maintain the same number on the foundation.

Reference has been made to the retirement of Mr. Robert Walker Bamford. This took place in May, 1819, when we find him addressing a letter to the Treasurer, stating that he had received from the Rev. Dr. Bell the offer of the chaplaincy of Sherburne Hospital. The Treasurer at the time was Richard

Dobson Esq., who continued in that office till his death, in 1835. Between Mr. Dobson, who entered on his office in 1819, and Mr. Bourne, who held it in 1817, the Rev. William Blundell had occupied it one year.

Mr. Forster succeeded Mr. Bamford, his brother-in-law, as master-Mrs. Forster becoming, matron in 1826, at which time Miss Halliwell was superannuated, having, during a period of thirty years, occupied various posts in the establishment to the satisfaction of those who had the superior rule of it.

During Mr. Dobson's period of office, a lending library was suggested for the School, and one was established in 1824. The District Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge made to it a first present, being a set of the Society's tracts. Among other donors was Mr. Grant, the Commissioner for enquiring into public charities, who presented a complete set of the Kildare Place Society's books. A letter accompanied it, dated 31st March, 1828, and addressed to the Worshipful the Mayor of Liverpool, in which he says

The pleasure which we received last week, from going over the Blue Coat Hospital, by the obliging attention of Mr. Blundell and Mr. Brown, makes me wish to add something to shew my obligation which the children had not already possessed. I have therefore obtained from the Kildare Place Society, Dublin, a complete set of the books published by them as a lending library, which is very much used in Ireland, and which I beg the Committee will do me the honour to accept for the use of the children in the Hospital. I know a great deal of care has been bestowed in the compilation of these works. I believe that nothing objectionable can be found in any of them. As I hear from Mr. Forster that you are likely to attend the Quarterly Meeting of the Governors to-morrow, I have great pleasure in addressing this letter to you.

These formed a goodly nucleus, so that now, from pur

chases as well as gifts, the Boy's Library contains upwards of 2,200 volumes. A sum of £50 was given in 1833 by the then mayor, the late Charles Horsfall, Esq., to purchase two globes for the School; any surplus money to be invested in books for the library. The idea afterwards suggested itself to have a library ticket engraved, to be given to such boys only whose superior merit gave them the privilege of using the library during school hours. The obverse represents a Blue Coat boy resting one hand upon a globe, and with the other pointing to the well-arranged books upon the library shelves. The reverse bears the following inscription-" As "this ticket will be the strongest certificate of good conduct which any boy can possess, he must constantly bear in mind, "that one single instance of misconduct or neglect of duty "whilst in the School will be the means of its immediate "forfeiture. No excuses will avail anything." A library for the girls was also subsequently formed.

In 1827 the Trustees appointed a deputation to wait on George Brown Esq., a name that necessarily enters largely in this paper, requesting him to sit for his portrait to be hung up in the Institution. To this request he sends the following reply

In compliance with the repeated request of yourself and several of the Trustees of the Blue Coat Hospital, that I should sit for my portrait, I have, though I confess reluctantly, acceded. I say reluctantly, not considering that I have in any manner merited the kindness and marked attention I have at all times experienced from yourself and the Trustees generally; yet, if feeling a lively interest, and endeavouring to fulfil a duty which gratitude has always pointed out, I may in some manner claim the kind attention you have shewn me; for, I can with truth aver, that, since the day I left the happy mansion, under the roof of which I passed my boyhood, until the present moment, I never lost the remembrance of the advantages I then received, to which in a great measure I owe all my success through life. I assure you I never