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GREENWICH HOSPITAL.

WELL do I remember the time when I first went to Greenwich. Many springs and summers, autumns and winters, have passed by since then; yet hardly do I think that I have spent a happier day than that on which I first saw Greenwich Hospital.

There was a blue and bright sky over my head when I reached the river-side near London Bridge. The quay was crowded, for three steam-boats were about to set off; one to Greenwich, another to Gravesend, and a third to Margate. Oh, what hurrying and bustling work it was!

The steam was hissing very loud when I seated myself on board the Greenwich steam-boat. Away we went ; but there were so many ships and boats in the river, that I thought we should hardly get through them. The first thing I noticed, was a board, which had these words printed on it: "No person allowed on the paddle box. Tickets to be given up on leaving the vessel." So I determined not to go near the paddle box, and to take great care of the ticket which I had in my waistcoat pocket.

I looked about me as we passed down the river; for I had never before seen the Custom House, nor the Tower of London, nor the Hospital Ship, nor the Isle of Dogs, nor any of the other objects which were then No. 84. DEC. 1844.

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pointed out to me. The music played, the steam hissed, the paddle wheels splashed about the foaming water, the company appeared happy; and, as for me, I could have clapped my hands for joy.

We saw on the water, pleasure boats, and barges, and vessels laden with coals, and merchant ships, and some large vessels that carried guns. Every now and then a steamboat passed us as it came up the river, skimming by us as swiftly as if it were alive, and the people on board waved their hats and their handkerchiefs to us. My hat was a new one, and I was very near losing it; for, in waving it about carelessly, I struck it against another boy, a fellow passenger, and it fell on the deck: when it was once again safe on my head, I determined to wave it no more.

At last we came in front of Greenwich Hospital. I had never seen such a palace of a place before. The cupolas, and the wings, and the pillars, and the terraces, were amazingly fine, and the Observatory on the hill behind them, made the whole place a complete picture. "Oh! oh!" said I, "if I once find my way into the park, I will be sure to mount up that hill."

It was well for me that I had a good friend with me, to show me the different places; or, most likely, I should have run about without any method, and perhaps not

As it was, I saw

have seen half of them. all. He told me that William and Mary founded Greenwich Hospital, for the use of three hundred aged and maimed seamen ; but that it had been so much enlarged, that there were then between two and three thousand old seamen in the place. He said, too, that Sir Christopher Wren was the designer of the building, though he saw only one wing of it completed.

It would never do for me to tell you all that I saw at Greenwich; for what with the park, and the observatory, and the chapel, and the great hall filled with paintings, and the schools for the boys and girls of seamen, and other things, I should never finish my account in a reasonable time. The splendid building is in five parts: King Charles's, is one; Queen Ann's, another; King William's, a third; Queen Mary's, a fourth; and the Asylum, or Royal Hospital Schools, a fifth. But the old sailors! They are the lions of the place, after all.

I saw the old men at their dinner. Such a sight is not to be seen in any other place;' for what with their grey hairs, bald heads, wrinkled brows, wooden legs, and blue coats with great pockets and large buttons, they formed such a picture, that I would gladly have gone twenty miles to see it, rather than have been disappointed. In the park there was one of these old