162 Swindon and its Neighbourhood—No. 2. 
absolutely nothing to occupy them, the lounger has a strong ten- 
dency towards the beer and spirit shops, and I believe a principal 
difficulty at Greenwich was—and at Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers 
still is—to keep the old fellows within the bounds of propriety. At 
the same time it must be admitted that to many of them who have 
no fortune, no friends, and perhaps no home left, such a hospital may 
be a welcome and comfortable refuge. 
The scheme lately proposed for doing away with the Charterhouse 
as an asylum has been for the present defeated, chiefly on the ground 
that it is an interesting feature of Old London and presents a 
tolerably perfect specimen of a nobleman’s house of the period. 
But whatever change may be made as to the actual building and 
the site, Sutton’s Charity will certainly be continued under different 
arrangement. The school has been already removed into the country, 
and the site was sold: on the pretence, I believe, of its being un- 
healthy. This, I from experience, can vouch to be utter nonsense, 
and a further proof of it is that the site was bought by the Merchant 
Taylors, who instantly removed their school to the spot. 
I have been induced to dwell at some length upon the history 
and present condition of the Charterhouse in London, first, because 
it is the history of one of the largest as well as most permanent 
landlords in North Wilts: and next, because, having been educated 
at the school there, I have a vivid and affectionate remembrance of 
the old place and all its associations. But I was not on the foun- 
dation, and am therefore under no obligation to the rent-payers in 
Eleombe, Wroughton, and the other estates in this neighbourhood. 
Brapen Forest. 
Turning northwards, in the direction of the Excursion, you have 
before you, as far as you can see, and farther, a large tract of land 
formerly called Braden Forest. It was anciently ten times larger 
than the part called Braden now. You must understand that in 
early days by a forest was meant not merely a continuous tract 
of woody country, but a district placed by the authority of the 
Crown under the severe forest law. Within the prescribed limits, 
any number of miles long, and any broad, the larger game—the 
