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THE SEA. 



Amongst its many interesting pictures is a very large Gainsborough, representing the Trinity 

 Board of that day. This picture, by the way, is upwards of twenty feet in length, and, if 

 merit go by measurement, is necessarily a very great picture. The Board of Trinity House has 

 control of the beaconage and pilotage of the United Kingdom. The Corporation existed fully 

 one hundred years before its original charter, which was granted in 1514, and was at that early 

 date known simply as the " Shipmen and Mariners of England " a voluntary and influential 



TRINITY HOUSE, LONDON. 



association of some standing, and at that time protected maritime interests and gave substantial 

 relief to the aged and indigent of the seafaring community. 



Henry VIII. was the first king who granted it a Royal Charter, in 1514, in recognition 

 of its well-tried merit. In this charter it is described as the " Guild or Fraternity of the most 

 glorious and undividable Trinity of St. Clement." The Charter of James I. and all subsequent 

 charters are granted to "The Master, Wardens, and Assistants of the Guild, Fraternity, or 

 Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity of St. Clement, in the parish of 

 Deptford, in the county of Kent." The motto of the Corporation is Trinitaa in imitate. 

 The Elder Brethren of Trinity House are not always exempt from undertaking stern and 

 unpleasant duties afloat, as was instanced in that terrible time of trial the mutiny of the Nore, 

 in 1799, when they destroyed or removed every beacon and buoy that could guide the mutinous 



