294 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



and the rest of the poor of the parish exceedingly indi- 

 gent." In spite of these sentiments, he is believed to 

 have had a hand in the Mile End Almshouses, which 

 were founded by Captain Henry Mudd of Ratcliffe, 

 Captain Sandes or Sanders, and Captain Maples. The 

 two last are remembered by statues still standing in the 

 little formal gardens. Maples, who appears in the dress 

 of a naval officer of the period, left a fortune for the use 

 of the guild in diamonds, collected in India, where he 

 was an early pioneer, and where he died in 1680. A 

 similar endowment in Hull is described in a poem in 

 1662 : — 



" It is a comely built, well-ordered place, 

 But that which most of all the house doth grace 

 Are rooms for widowes, who are old and poore, 

 And have been wives to mariners before." 



Certainly Trinity Hospital, Mile End, is comely and 

 well ordered. The pensioners take a pride in keeping 

 every nook and corner scrupulously clean. Everything 

 is, in fact, in "ship-shape" order. The grass is neatly 

 mown, the trees on either side well trimmed and clipped. 

 Outside each little house a few plants are carefully 

 tended, the pots arranged with precision, and every 

 flower looked after with pride. It is indeed a peaceful 

 place for these old people to pass their declining years 

 in, and the sight makes the regret for St. Katharine's and 

 the other vanished charitable buildings all the more keen. 

 The site of another benevolent institution near is 

 fulfilling a useful and delightful task, although the 

 old houses attached to it have disappeared. It was 

 a row of almshouses founded by a member of the 

 Brewers' Company, named Baker, about 150 years ago, 



