Note 53 — HOGARTH ILLUSTRATED.
Reading edition
With each infant was then sent some little memorial by which it might be known at a future day. The following lines were written by an unfortunate widow, and pinned to the breast of a child who was received into the hospital:
"Go, gentle babe, thy future life be spent In virtuous purity and calm content; Life's sunshine bless thee, and no anxious care Sit on thy brow, and draw the falling tear; Thy country's grateful servant may'st thou prove, And all thy life be happiness and love."
Some fifteen or sixteen years ago, a person of respectable appearance went to the hospital, and requested to see the chapel, great room, etc. He then desired to speak with the treasurer, to whom he presented a ten-pound bank note, expressing a wish that it might be recorded as a small but grateful memorial from the first orphan who was apprenticed by the charity. He added, "I was that orphan, and in consequence of the education I here received, have had the power of acquiring an independence with integrity and honour."