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Article THE COMPLETION OF ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. ← Page 2 of 2 Article A DAY AT THE EARLS WOOD ASYLUM, RED HILL, SURREY. Page 1 of 2 Article A DAY AT THE EARLS WOOD ASYLUM, RED HILL, SURREY. Page 1 of 2 Article A DAY AT THE EARLS WOOD ASYLUM, RED HILL, SURREY. Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Completion Of St. Paul's Cathedral.
may contribute something when the debt has been paid off our own Hall . By-the-bye , I have been told that the Grand Lodge is in possession of the trowel used in laying the foundation stone
of the cathedral . Apologising for occupying so much of your valuable space , I am , yours fraternally , Nov . 18 , 1871 . P . M .
A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.
A DAY AT THE EARLS WOOD ASYLUM , RED HILL , SURREY .
BY BRO . J . C . PARKINSON , P . M . 181 , P . Z . 259 . Idiocy cannot be defined . Weak organizations , mental and physical ; faculties unbalanced even when abnormally developed ; an incapacity for the every-day duties of life ; and a childishness
which instruction and tender guidance may modify but can never remove , are the characteristics of the idiots and imbeciles assembled at the Earlswood Asylum . But many ofthe weaknesses and defects of its inmates are shared in a
greater or less degree by the outside world , and one ofthe most startling conclusions to be drawn from a quiet day spent with these unfortunates , is the narrowness of the border-line between idiocy and what vain man calls sense . If tlie
most stupid of one ' s acquaintances and friends were selected on the one hand , and the most intelligent of the idiots picked out on the other , an astute jury would be puzzled to decide which were the most capable of taking care of themselves , which the least likely to be injurious to
the community . For our own part , we should have little hesitation , in many cases , in giving the palm to the idiots , for reasons which will be apparent to any one who visits the Earlswood Asylum on an off day , when the turmoil of galas and festivals is not , and when the ordinary routine of its home life can be observed . This
noble Institution is not sufficiently known . Travellers by the Brighton railway are attracted by the sight by a palatial building near Red Hill , and perhaps read its uses from an adjacent board . On certain red-letter days , the friends of and
subscribers to the Asylum make merry in its grounds , and the inmates rejoice over Punch and Judy or the fancy fair ; and from time to time it is visited by the representatives of the press , and accounts are published of what the idiots said
and did , and how they looked at a representation of private theatricals , or during an amateur concert got up for their amusement . But these occasions are purely exceptional , ancl the ordinary inner life of this remarkable place is as little known as that of a man who conceals a secret
pride , or ambition , or scorn , beneath a frivolous or jocular exterior , and the result is that scant justice is occasionally done to its remedial discipline , to its scrupulous internal economy , and to the broad spirit of charity in which its good is worked .
\ Vt * have recently spent an . entire day at Earlswood , making our visit without warning , and at a time when special preparation was out of the question , and a plain record of our experience may possibly help to remove some erroneous
theories respecting idiots . There is nothing unpleasant to be seen . Painful it must always be to behold those afflicted mentally or bodily ; but , after a close personal investigation , we have no hesitation in affirming that one-half the popular
traditions and beliefs concerning idiots are unfounded and unjust . Earlswood is a wonderful corrective to these , for it is an eminently happy place . The helpless gibbering wretch , loathsome to others , and a torment to himself ;
the scarcely human object , to be passed by with a shudder , and forgotten as speedily as possible ; the shrieks , and groans , and cries we associate with the idiot of the past , are none of them to be seen or heard . In their place is a happy , united family , proud of its occupations , attached
to its instructors and friends , harmonious in its relations , and quiet and peaceful in its life . You have to constantly ask which are inmates and which attendants , as you progress through the house and grounds . On inspecting the substantial block of workshops which have been built
A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.
and opened within the last few years , and in which various industrial occupations are in full progress , you are amazed at the intelligence and skill displayed . Mats and hearthrugs are being made in one department . Frames run down the centre of the room , in each of which an idiot is
busy . One deftly weaves cocoa-nut fibre into substantial matting ; another converts coloured wool into a gay appendage for the fire-place ; while , all round the room , figures are seated sorting , combing , or picking the material out of which these articles are made . A watchful
attendant and trade-teacher is instructing , and now and then gently admonishing ; and the lacklustre eyes brighten , and the heavy countenances grow less soulless , as kind words pass , and ques tions and answers are exchanged . A general air of mental weakness and stupidity is over them
all . They laugh consumedly at trifles , have little self-control , are obtuse in catching your meaning , and sometimes seem perversely obstinate in refusing to understand . But who has not suffered from these very deficiencies in his acquaintances outside ? The idiots , moreover , are in
certain respects better citizens than some stupid people we have read of . They do their work bravely , find no pleasure in afflicting pain , or in annoying each other , and are not without a sense of humour . For example , when a stout man of five-and-twenty leaves his mat-frame , to steal
behind you on tip-toe , and tickle with his fat forefinger the palm of the hand you hold behind your back , the other idiots laugh delightedly to see you rouse from your meditations with a jump ; while the perpetrator of the joke nods his broad good-humoured face , like a grotesque
Chinese monster , and grins at your surprise . Some of them babble incoherently , but all are harmless , and all full of enjoyment in their simple way . A very low average of intelligence , stimulated into usefulness and consequent happiness by circumstances judiciously arranged to meet
this end , is your verdict as you leave the matroom . The historical idiot is in one of the adjoining chambers , busy at work upon his handicraft . This man is a curiosity . Though utterly incapable of acting rationally , he has a prodigious memory , and can and does answer
recondite questions 111 history with extreme exactitude . He is delighted to attract notice , and favoured us with abstracts of the lives of Julius Ccesar , Henry VII ., Charles II ., and Queen Elizabeth , all given without hesitation , and with a
gabbling volubility which suggested a piece of rather clumsy mechanism just wound up and uttering sounds by steam . Learning that he had been busying himself with astronomy , we inquired after the planets Saturn and Jupiter , to be forthwith overwhelmed with a torrent of scientific
terms , and an intimate description of the rings of the one and the moons of the other . Tlie chief confusion perceptible in this idiot ' s answers was a tendency to describe Julius Cajsar as Jupiter , with facetious allusions to his moons , and to dwell upon the twenty-three wounds
inflicted on the planet , which caused his death , " as every one who ' s read Roman history knows . " This , we are assured , was fun . He knew that he was talking nonsense , and did it to see how far he could hoax his interlocutor ; but he could , if encouraged , have answered questions in history
by the hour , giving each name and date correctly , and without faltering once . Where is the line separating this idiot from the sane ? He is unfit for the daily business of life—so are many learned men ; he is incapable of taking care of himself , or of observing the simplest rules of prudence
and common sense—so have heen some of the most brilliant geniuses , so are thousands of the commonplace . It was curious to see the interest taken in his talk by the other inmates . They evidently looked up to and admired him as an ornament to society , but regretted , while they were diverted at , his want of ballast . We have
seen " agreeable rattles" and dining-out wits , known to be impecunious , regarded in precisely the same spirit by the substantial but dull people they have amused . There is no malice nor cunning in idiots . There are exceptional examples in which this rule has seemed to fall through , one or two of which we shall mention presently ; but a good temper which is incapable
A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.
of resentment , dull perceptions , combined with childish amusements and beliefs , are the characteristics brought out by the admirable discipline of Earlswood . There is great merriment as we go through the boot-making room . The row of boat cleaners in red flannel jackets and black
aprons , like Lord Shaftesbury s shoeblackbngade , are hard at it with brush and blacking pot . The menders , sewers , and welters , are all doing useful work , under the superintendence of the master tradesman ; and many a pluck at the coat tails , and constant offers to shake hands , and efforts
to provoke our smiles , testified to the supreme contentment of them all . The different trades carried on in this imposing block of buildings have each rooms set apart ; and inmates are drafted off according to any mechanical taste they may have developed . Basket-making , mattress-making ,
unpicking and renewing ; the tailor ' s shop , where the male dresses are made , being cut out by the master tailor and sewn by the idiots ; the laundry , where idiots are interspersed with attendants , and rendering yoemen ' s service in the carrying of linen and other useful tasks ; the carpenter ' s
shop , where furniture is being made , and where one inmate proudly shows us a row of invalid chairs he has manufactured himself , and another displays the treasures of a tool-chest he has just completed ; the school , where a spelling-lesson is being carried on , and where the letters forming
the word " magnificent are transposed mentally by idiots , and the other words to be made out of it written out at their bidding by the master standing at the black board with chalk in hand ; the lower schools , where writing is being slowly acquired , and where the formation of letters is
practised by aid of bits of wood constructed for the purpose , are all visited in turn . Everywhere there is good temper , and dimmed or partial intelligence . Bearded men talk like little children , while many of the children cannot talk at all . But it is impossible not to be struck with
the exceptionally developed faculties of many of those we see . One youth has the gift of mental arithmetic , and adds sums together , and multiplies three figures by three figures , giving the product with lightning rapidity . Another and older man is a humorist , whose bent is peculiar .
He cannot read , but , if given a newspaper , will pretent to read paragraphs from it which sound marvellously real . Out of the advertisement page of the Daily A ews he read three railway accidents , each with separate characteristics , and all with a specific number of lives lost , and a
closely particularized variety of injury to life and limb ; two fires , with some appreciative praise from " we " on the gallant conduct ofthe firemen ( names and numbers given ); some suicides , with the age , appearance , and disposition of the self murderers minutely described ; and a variety of
general intelligence of a less exciting kind ; Each imaginary paragraph was read off without a pause , and all sounded real enough , save when the burlesque element was introduced purposely , as when " the coroner ' s jury having considered tlie case very carefully found him guilty of an
interrogation . " This man had lost an eye , and there was something irresistibly comic in the way he fixed his solitary orb on those he read to . He was obviously poking fun , even when most obsequiously pretending to amuse . A patient with a genius for mechanics is , however , the most
singularly gifted ot the inmates . He has constructed a model of a man-of-war , and an allegorical vessel which was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1 S 62 , both exquisitely finished ; and he is now busy upon a carefully proportioned model of the Great Eastern . He worships
mechanical and scientific knowledge , as a simple incident served to show . It chanced that a gentleman , who was visiting the asylum at the same time as ourselves , had been engaged in the manufacture of the existing Atlantic cables , and it was very touching to see the reverential admiration with which this visitor was watched
by the idiot when the fact was told . Following him with his eyes whenever he moved , and addressing all his explanations to him exclusively , the poor fellow seemed like an intelligent savage , seeking to learn more of thc mysteries of science and civilization . This man is an admirable carpenter , and works so many hours a day for the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Completion Of St. Paul's Cathedral.
may contribute something when the debt has been paid off our own Hall . By-the-bye , I have been told that the Grand Lodge is in possession of the trowel used in laying the foundation stone
of the cathedral . Apologising for occupying so much of your valuable space , I am , yours fraternally , Nov . 18 , 1871 . P . M .
A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.
A DAY AT THE EARLS WOOD ASYLUM , RED HILL , SURREY .
BY BRO . J . C . PARKINSON , P . M . 181 , P . Z . 259 . Idiocy cannot be defined . Weak organizations , mental and physical ; faculties unbalanced even when abnormally developed ; an incapacity for the every-day duties of life ; and a childishness
which instruction and tender guidance may modify but can never remove , are the characteristics of the idiots and imbeciles assembled at the Earlswood Asylum . But many ofthe weaknesses and defects of its inmates are shared in a
greater or less degree by the outside world , and one ofthe most startling conclusions to be drawn from a quiet day spent with these unfortunates , is the narrowness of the border-line between idiocy and what vain man calls sense . If tlie
most stupid of one ' s acquaintances and friends were selected on the one hand , and the most intelligent of the idiots picked out on the other , an astute jury would be puzzled to decide which were the most capable of taking care of themselves , which the least likely to be injurious to
the community . For our own part , we should have little hesitation , in many cases , in giving the palm to the idiots , for reasons which will be apparent to any one who visits the Earlswood Asylum on an off day , when the turmoil of galas and festivals is not , and when the ordinary routine of its home life can be observed . This
noble Institution is not sufficiently known . Travellers by the Brighton railway are attracted by the sight by a palatial building near Red Hill , and perhaps read its uses from an adjacent board . On certain red-letter days , the friends of and
subscribers to the Asylum make merry in its grounds , and the inmates rejoice over Punch and Judy or the fancy fair ; and from time to time it is visited by the representatives of the press , and accounts are published of what the idiots said
and did , and how they looked at a representation of private theatricals , or during an amateur concert got up for their amusement . But these occasions are purely exceptional , ancl the ordinary inner life of this remarkable place is as little known as that of a man who conceals a secret
pride , or ambition , or scorn , beneath a frivolous or jocular exterior , and the result is that scant justice is occasionally done to its remedial discipline , to its scrupulous internal economy , and to the broad spirit of charity in which its good is worked .
\ Vt * have recently spent an . entire day at Earlswood , making our visit without warning , and at a time when special preparation was out of the question , and a plain record of our experience may possibly help to remove some erroneous
theories respecting idiots . There is nothing unpleasant to be seen . Painful it must always be to behold those afflicted mentally or bodily ; but , after a close personal investigation , we have no hesitation in affirming that one-half the popular
traditions and beliefs concerning idiots are unfounded and unjust . Earlswood is a wonderful corrective to these , for it is an eminently happy place . The helpless gibbering wretch , loathsome to others , and a torment to himself ;
the scarcely human object , to be passed by with a shudder , and forgotten as speedily as possible ; the shrieks , and groans , and cries we associate with the idiot of the past , are none of them to be seen or heard . In their place is a happy , united family , proud of its occupations , attached
to its instructors and friends , harmonious in its relations , and quiet and peaceful in its life . You have to constantly ask which are inmates and which attendants , as you progress through the house and grounds . On inspecting the substantial block of workshops which have been built
A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.
and opened within the last few years , and in which various industrial occupations are in full progress , you are amazed at the intelligence and skill displayed . Mats and hearthrugs are being made in one department . Frames run down the centre of the room , in each of which an idiot is
busy . One deftly weaves cocoa-nut fibre into substantial matting ; another converts coloured wool into a gay appendage for the fire-place ; while , all round the room , figures are seated sorting , combing , or picking the material out of which these articles are made . A watchful
attendant and trade-teacher is instructing , and now and then gently admonishing ; and the lacklustre eyes brighten , and the heavy countenances grow less soulless , as kind words pass , and ques tions and answers are exchanged . A general air of mental weakness and stupidity is over them
all . They laugh consumedly at trifles , have little self-control , are obtuse in catching your meaning , and sometimes seem perversely obstinate in refusing to understand . But who has not suffered from these very deficiencies in his acquaintances outside ? The idiots , moreover , are in
certain respects better citizens than some stupid people we have read of . They do their work bravely , find no pleasure in afflicting pain , or in annoying each other , and are not without a sense of humour . For example , when a stout man of five-and-twenty leaves his mat-frame , to steal
behind you on tip-toe , and tickle with his fat forefinger the palm of the hand you hold behind your back , the other idiots laugh delightedly to see you rouse from your meditations with a jump ; while the perpetrator of the joke nods his broad good-humoured face , like a grotesque
Chinese monster , and grins at your surprise . Some of them babble incoherently , but all are harmless , and all full of enjoyment in their simple way . A very low average of intelligence , stimulated into usefulness and consequent happiness by circumstances judiciously arranged to meet
this end , is your verdict as you leave the matroom . The historical idiot is in one of the adjoining chambers , busy at work upon his handicraft . This man is a curiosity . Though utterly incapable of acting rationally , he has a prodigious memory , and can and does answer
recondite questions 111 history with extreme exactitude . He is delighted to attract notice , and favoured us with abstracts of the lives of Julius Ccesar , Henry VII ., Charles II ., and Queen Elizabeth , all given without hesitation , and with a
gabbling volubility which suggested a piece of rather clumsy mechanism just wound up and uttering sounds by steam . Learning that he had been busying himself with astronomy , we inquired after the planets Saturn and Jupiter , to be forthwith overwhelmed with a torrent of scientific
terms , and an intimate description of the rings of the one and the moons of the other . Tlie chief confusion perceptible in this idiot ' s answers was a tendency to describe Julius Cajsar as Jupiter , with facetious allusions to his moons , and to dwell upon the twenty-three wounds
inflicted on the planet , which caused his death , " as every one who ' s read Roman history knows . " This , we are assured , was fun . He knew that he was talking nonsense , and did it to see how far he could hoax his interlocutor ; but he could , if encouraged , have answered questions in history
by the hour , giving each name and date correctly , and without faltering once . Where is the line separating this idiot from the sane ? He is unfit for the daily business of life—so are many learned men ; he is incapable of taking care of himself , or of observing the simplest rules of prudence
and common sense—so have heen some of the most brilliant geniuses , so are thousands of the commonplace . It was curious to see the interest taken in his talk by the other inmates . They evidently looked up to and admired him as an ornament to society , but regretted , while they were diverted at , his want of ballast . We have
seen " agreeable rattles" and dining-out wits , known to be impecunious , regarded in precisely the same spirit by the substantial but dull people they have amused . There is no malice nor cunning in idiots . There are exceptional examples in which this rule has seemed to fall through , one or two of which we shall mention presently ; but a good temper which is incapable
A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.
of resentment , dull perceptions , combined with childish amusements and beliefs , are the characteristics brought out by the admirable discipline of Earlswood . There is great merriment as we go through the boot-making room . The row of boat cleaners in red flannel jackets and black
aprons , like Lord Shaftesbury s shoeblackbngade , are hard at it with brush and blacking pot . The menders , sewers , and welters , are all doing useful work , under the superintendence of the master tradesman ; and many a pluck at the coat tails , and constant offers to shake hands , and efforts
to provoke our smiles , testified to the supreme contentment of them all . The different trades carried on in this imposing block of buildings have each rooms set apart ; and inmates are drafted off according to any mechanical taste they may have developed . Basket-making , mattress-making ,
unpicking and renewing ; the tailor ' s shop , where the male dresses are made , being cut out by the master tailor and sewn by the idiots ; the laundry , where idiots are interspersed with attendants , and rendering yoemen ' s service in the carrying of linen and other useful tasks ; the carpenter ' s
shop , where furniture is being made , and where one inmate proudly shows us a row of invalid chairs he has manufactured himself , and another displays the treasures of a tool-chest he has just completed ; the school , where a spelling-lesson is being carried on , and where the letters forming
the word " magnificent are transposed mentally by idiots , and the other words to be made out of it written out at their bidding by the master standing at the black board with chalk in hand ; the lower schools , where writing is being slowly acquired , and where the formation of letters is
practised by aid of bits of wood constructed for the purpose , are all visited in turn . Everywhere there is good temper , and dimmed or partial intelligence . Bearded men talk like little children , while many of the children cannot talk at all . But it is impossible not to be struck with
the exceptionally developed faculties of many of those we see . One youth has the gift of mental arithmetic , and adds sums together , and multiplies three figures by three figures , giving the product with lightning rapidity . Another and older man is a humorist , whose bent is peculiar .
He cannot read , but , if given a newspaper , will pretent to read paragraphs from it which sound marvellously real . Out of the advertisement page of the Daily A ews he read three railway accidents , each with separate characteristics , and all with a specific number of lives lost , and a
closely particularized variety of injury to life and limb ; two fires , with some appreciative praise from " we " on the gallant conduct ofthe firemen ( names and numbers given ); some suicides , with the age , appearance , and disposition of the self murderers minutely described ; and a variety of
general intelligence of a less exciting kind ; Each imaginary paragraph was read off without a pause , and all sounded real enough , save when the burlesque element was introduced purposely , as when " the coroner ' s jury having considered tlie case very carefully found him guilty of an
interrogation . " This man had lost an eye , and there was something irresistibly comic in the way he fixed his solitary orb on those he read to . He was obviously poking fun , even when most obsequiously pretending to amuse . A patient with a genius for mechanics is , however , the most
singularly gifted ot the inmates . He has constructed a model of a man-of-war , and an allegorical vessel which was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1 S 62 , both exquisitely finished ; and he is now busy upon a carefully proportioned model of the Great Eastern . He worships
mechanical and scientific knowledge , as a simple incident served to show . It chanced that a gentleman , who was visiting the asylum at the same time as ourselves , had been engaged in the manufacture of the existing Atlantic cables , and it was very touching to see the reverential admiration with which this visitor was watched
by the idiot when the fact was told . Following him with his eyes whenever he moved , and addressing all his explanations to him exclusively , the poor fellow seemed like an intelligent savage , seeking to learn more of thc mysteries of science and civilization . This man is an admirable carpenter , and works so many hours a day for the