here are now seventy-five, and an additional fifty at the
convalescent home at Broadstairs, where a branch was established in 1875.
The establishment is without any endowment, and is entirely dependent on
voluntary subscriptions. From time to time the building has been added to
and adapted, so that there is little left to tell that it was once an old
house. Only the thickness of the walls between the wards and the
old-fashioned contrivances of some of the windows betray the fact that
the building is not modern. Children are received at any age up to
sixteen; some are mere babies. Across Tite Street, exactly opposite, is a
building containing six beds for paying patients in connection with the
Victoria Hospital.

Paradise Walk, a very dirty, narrow little passage, runs parallel to Tite
Street. In it is a theatre built by the poet Shelley, and now closed. At
one time private theatricals were held here, but when money was taken at
the door, even though it was in behalf of a charity, the performances
were suppressed. Paradise Row opens into Dilke Street, behind the
pseudo-ancient block of houses on the Embankment. Some of these are
extremely fine. Shelley House is said to have been designed by Lady
Shelley. Wentworth House is the last before Swan Walk, in which the name
of the Swan Tavern is kept alive. This tavern was well known as a resort
by all the gay and thoughtless men who visited Chelsea in the seventeenth
century. It is mentioned by Pepys and Dibdin, and is described as
standing close to the water's edge and having overhanging wooden
balconies. In 1715 Thomas Doggett, a comedian, instituted a yearly
festival, in which the great feature was a race by watermen on the river
from "the old Swan near London Bridge to the White Swan at Chelsea." The
prize was a coat, in every pocket of which was a guinea, and also a
badge. This race is still rowed annually, Doggett's Coat and Badge being
a well-known river institution.

Adjoining Swan Walk is the Apothecaries' Garden, the oldest garden of its
kind in London. Sir Hans Sloane, whose name is revered in Chelsea and
perpetuated in one of the principal streets, is so intimately associated
with this garden that it is necessary at this point to give a short
account of him. Sir Hans Sloane was born in Ireland, 1660. He began his
career undistinguished by any title and without any special advantages.
Very early he evinced an ardent love of natural history, and he came over
while s