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Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

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LON<br />

and was repaired in 1828 at an additional cost of £700.<br />

The Primitive Wesleyan Methodist chapel, in the same<br />

street, was originally a store, which was used by Wesley<br />

on his visit to this city in 1763: his congregation built<br />

the Wesleyan Methodist chapel in 1783, but on the sepa-<br />

ration taking place the Primitive Methodists returned<br />

to their former place of worship; part of the building is<br />

still let for a store, and the chapel is used as a Sunday<br />

school between the intervals of divine service, for which<br />

the dean pays a rent of £20. The old Wesleyan Me-<br />

thodist chapel was vacated on the completion of a new<br />

chapel built in 1835, at an estimated expense of £1100,<br />

raised by subscription, towards which the Irish Society<br />

contributed £100; the ground floor is used as a vestry-<br />

room and a school-room for 300 children. There are<br />

also places of worship for Presbyterians in connection<br />

with the Seceding Synod, a plain building erected in<br />

1783, at an expense of £450; for Covenanters, built in<br />

1810 at a like expense; and for Independents, built<br />

in 1824 at an expense of £500.<br />

The Diocesan school, or Foyle College, was origin-<br />

ally founded within the walls as a free grammar school<br />

in the reign of Jas. I., and was rebuilt on its present<br />

site to the north of the city in 1814, chiefly through<br />

the exertions of Bishop Knox, who gave £1000 to-<br />

wards the expense, which amounted to £13,714. 13. 6.,<br />

and was further defrayed by donations from the<br />

Irish Society and London Companies, sale of stock, and<br />

grand jury presentments. It is a simple but hand-<br />

some edifice of stone, consisting of a centre and two wings,<br />

and pleasantly situated on the bank of the river: it is suf-<br />

ficiently capacious to accommodate 80 boarders; there are<br />

at present about 30 boarders and as many day-scholars,<br />

exclusive of 20 who are free; the day pupils not free pay<br />

£4. 4. per annum for mercantile, and £7. 7. per annum<br />

for classical instruction. The school has no endowment,<br />

but the Irish Society, the bishop, and the clergy of the<br />

diocese subscribe annually to the amount of about £200;<br />

this, with the emoluments arising from the boarders and<br />

the day scholars who are not free, constitutes the income<br />

of the master: the bishop and the dean and chapter are<br />

trustees. The school has deservedly been held in great<br />

estimation owing to the high literary acquirements of<br />

the masters. Attached to the institution is an excel-<br />

lent library of works on divinity, collected by Bishop<br />

Hopkins, and purchased and presented to it by his suc-<br />

cessor, Bishop King, which has also been augmented by<br />

a donation of £100 from James Alexander, Esq., of<br />

London; it is open to the clergy of the diocese at all<br />

times. The parish school originated in an act of the<br />

28th of Hen. VIII, confirmed by one of the 7th of Wm.<br />

III.: the present building, situated without the walls,<br />

was erected in 1812 through the liberal contributions of<br />

Bishop Knox and the trustees of Erasmus Smith’s charity,<br />

the latter of whom allow annually £30 for the boys’ and<br />

£15 for the girls’ school; and, in addition, the girls’<br />

school is aided by annual grants of £40 and £10 late<br />

currency from the Irish Society and the Bishop of Derry<br />

respectively: there are about 108 boys and 97 girls,<br />

who, except 20 of the boys who are free scholars, pay one<br />

penny each weekly. In connection with the Presbyterian<br />

meeting-house is a school established in 1820, in lieu of<br />

a blue-coat school which had existed upwards of a cen-<br />

tury, in which there are at present about 100 boys and<br />

96 girls, who pay one penny each weekly; the boys’<br />

VOL. II.—305<br />

LON<br />

school is further supported by a subscription of £10<br />

per annum from the congregation, and an annual grant<br />

of £20 by the Irish Society; and the girls’ school by<br />

subscriptions among the ladies, aided by £10 per ann.<br />

late currency from the Irish Society: the school-rooms<br />

were built and enlarged by subscription at an expense of<br />

£450. St. Columb’s school, founded in 1813 under the<br />

auspices of the Roman Catholic bishop and clergy, but<br />

for some time suspended from a difference which arose<br />

between the prelate and one of his curates, was finally<br />

established in 1825: the building, iucluding the erec-<br />

tion of a lofty enclosure, cost nearly £1000. It is in<br />

connection with the National Board of Education, who<br />

grant £30 per annum for its support, which is further<br />

aided by £10 per annum from the Irish Society, and an<br />

annual collection in the Roman Catholic chapel amount-<br />

ing to £30; 143 boys and 166 girls are instructed. The<br />

London Ladies’ Society school, in Fountain-street, was<br />

established in 1822; attached to it is a small library<br />

for the use of the poor. Gwyn’s Charitable Institution<br />

was founded by Mr. John Gwyn, a merchant of the<br />

city, who died in 1829, and endowed by him with a be-<br />

quest of £41,757, producing at present £1882 per ann.,<br />

for boarding, clothing, and educating as many poor boys<br />

as the funds may admit of. This excellent school, which<br />

is under the management of 21 trustees, was opened<br />

on the 1st of April, 1833, in a hired house formerly the<br />

city hotel: the trustees have purchased 10 statute acres<br />

of ground at the rear of the infirmary, where it is in con-<br />

templation to erect premises capable of accommodating<br />

200 pupils, at an estimated expense of £6000: there are<br />

at present 81 boys in the school. A Sunday School<br />

Union was formed in 1832, by which the liberties have<br />

been divided into six districts, each under the superin-<br />

tendence of one or two members; the number of schools<br />

in the parish at present in connection with the union is<br />

16, attended by 162 teachers, and the number of pupils<br />

on the books is 1726.<br />

The lunatic asylum for the counties of Londonderry,<br />

Donegal, and Tyrone, situated on rising ground to the<br />

north of the city, was commenced in June 1827, and<br />

opened in 1829; the entire expense, including the pur-<br />

chase of the site and furniture, amounted to £25,678.2.4.,<br />

advanced by Government, and to be repaid by the three<br />

counties by instalments. The. façade fronting the river<br />

consists of a centre with pavilions, from which extend<br />

wings with airing-sheds, terminating in angular pavi-<br />

lions, all of Dungiven sandstone; above the centre rises<br />

a turret, of which the upper part forms an octagonal<br />

cupola; in the rear are several commodious airing-yards,<br />

separated by ranges of brick building, including the do-<br />

mestic offices and workshops: the entire length of the<br />

front is 364 feet; the depth of the building, with the<br />

airing-yards, 190 feet; and the height to the eave, 25<br />

feet. The grounds comprise eight acres, including a plot<br />

in front ornamentally planted, and a good garden The<br />

asylum was originally intended for 104 patients, but<br />

has been enlarged so as to admit 150: it is still too<br />

small, from the cells being partially occupied by incur-<br />

ables, persons afflicted with epilepsy, and idiots. The<br />

average annual expenditure for the last three years<br />

ending 1835 was £2554. 3.6.: the average number<br />

of patients discharged recovered in each year was 42;<br />

discharged relieved, 6; and incurable, 4; and the ave-<br />

rage number of deaths was 17 in each year: the num-<br />

2 R

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