68 
THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
I have heard several persons desire to possess, and this I resolved 
to endeavour to supply. Before entering on my task, I sought to 
conquer the impressions I had imbibed, to forget all the assertions 
I had heard, and so to prepare my mind that I might impartially, 
nay, even with a friendly eye, survey what did exist, and faith- 
fully report what I saw. After some delay, being, as I thought, 
fitted for the duty, I found my way to the north of London, and 
the following is the substance of my report, which, as the grounds 
upon which it is based are as familiar to most of your readers as to 
myself, prudence would withhold me from exaggerating, even were 
I capable of any disposition to misstate. 
The edifice is situated in a part of Camden Town, called College 
Street, though, save on the one side occupied by the long dead 
front of the Institution, the ground is not yet built upon. The 
building has no pretence to architectural beauty. It is low and 
blank — plain even to bareness. It might be a warehouse, a bar- 
rack, or a mews. It certainly could not be associated with those 
artistic designs which in this country inform the spectator that he 
is looking upon the seats of science. 
The chief entrance is under an archway guarded by folding 
gates. The gates, if thrown open, would afford a convenient 
entry for horses ; but, for some reason which is not to be learnt by 
simple inquiry, they are kept continually closed, and the only 
passage allowed is through a wicket or door cut from the substance 
of one of them. Through that door a careful horseman may with 
difficult)^ guide a quiet animal ; but no mounted groom, however 
ingenious, could possibly lead a second horse, and in the majority 
of instances I should imagine the knees of the rider would be ex- 
posed to injury. 
Whether this way of entrance has been productive of accident I 
am not able to say ; but I cannot hesitate in asserting it to be such 
as no private practitioner could suffer to lead to his establishment, 
and such as, with the better accommodation at their command, the 
most ignorant blindness or grossest negligence alone could induce 
the managers of the Saint Pancras Institution to retain. 
Having passed the wicket, the visitor stands under the arch- 
way, and perceives two small rooms, entered by glass doors, lying 
to his right and to his left. One of these is the counting-house, 
where sits a clerk of a very respectable appearance. The other 
room, a closet about ten feet long and six broad, is the private 
consulting room of the “ Professors” and the Library of the “ Col- 
lege” conjoined. A small bookcase contains a few volumes, the 
paucity and antiquity of whose contents are calculated to excite 
surprise. Of such works as “The Horse” the Library of the 
Royal Veterinary College boasts only the earliest or oldest edition, 
