520 
LON 
of the fituation of William Norris, and of a drawing which 
they procured to he made of him in his irons; he was vi- 
fited by MefTrs. Horne Sumner, lord Robert Seymour, 
William Smith, G. Bennett, R.j. Lambton, Thos. Thomp- 
fon, and other members of the houfe of commons; and 
the committee at their lad vifit obferved that the whole 
of the irons had been removed from Norris’s body, and 
that the length of chain from his neck, which was only 
twelve inches, had been doubled, fo that the man can now 
move the extent of two feet from the wall! and for this 
indulgence he expreffes himfelf very thankful. 
The committee conclude this document by dating, that, 
they have been forcibly imprefied by contrading thefe 
practices with the general economy of the “Friends’ Re¬ 
treat,” near York; where neither chains nor corporal pu- 
nifliment are tolerated on any pretext; where the conve¬ 
niences provided, within doors and without, are fuitable 
to patients in any dation of life; and where every appear¬ 
ance is avoided that can afflift the mind by painful recol¬ 
lections; and where regulation and control are governed 
by the experienced efficacy of the important principle— 
that whatever tends to promote the happinefs of the pa¬ 
tient increafes his defire to redrain himfelf.—A very at¬ 
tractive account has lately been publifhed at Paris of this 
Retreat at York, which dtferves to becomethe model of our 
lunatic afylurns. But the French have advanced a ftep 
beyond us in the ciifcipline of infanity. M. Salgues, in a 
recent work, informs us, that at the lunatic hof'pital of 
Charenton near Paris, the experiment has been tried with 
admirable fuccefs of inducing the lunatic patients to att 
plays together for their common amufement. This exer¬ 
tion of the memory to get a part by heart cures one caufe 
of abfenceof mind ; and this exertion of felf-command to 
aflume the character impofed cures another caufe of dif- 
order.—For a full account of the various modes of cure 
employed in England and on the continent, we beg to 
refer to our article Insanity, vol. xi. p. 110-130. and we 
earnedly entreat every lover of humanity to perufe a De¬ 
scription of the Retreat, near York, for Infane Perfons of 
the Society of Friends, by Samuel Take; York, 1813. 
The next objeft is the Afylum ; as to which, fee the 
article Lambeth, vol. xii, p. ioz. The part which is on 
the welt of Southwark having been pretty fully deferibed 
under the above-mentioned head, we mud refer our readers 
to it, in order to complete that part of the lurvey. 
The road which leads towards the north, from the Obe- 
lifk to Blackfriars-bridge, is broad and airy. On the left 
fide we find the Surry Theatre, formerly called the Circus, 
at which time equeltrian feats were the principal Source 
of amufement. This fort of entertainment having, like 
other things, fallen into diferedit, or rather a kind of 
lethargy from which it may rife again with new vigour 
and activity a few years hence; Mr. Ellilton undertook 
the management of the place; and, under the name of 
S( Surry Theatre,” made it, in imitation of the inferior 
playhoufes on the Parilian Boulevards, a fecondary fource 
of dramatic mirth.—Here feveral of the principal plays of 
our belt authors have been accommodated to the regulations 
under which thefe forts of minor theatres are Subjected ; 
and the additional exhibition of rope-dancing and grand 
pantomimes has contributed to obtain in general a pretty 
numerous audience. We mult lament, however, that at 
the fecond-price hour, a fwarm of thofe gawdy flies who 
flutter about HighlersMane, (now called Friar-ltreet,) Ar¬ 
tillery and Gun ftreets, and particularly the noted Dover- 
flreet, fnould infeft the pit, boxes, galleries, and lobbies, 
of the houfe. Their noife, their bare-faced impudence, 
the grofs and difguftful dialed they ufe, area great draw¬ 
back upon the relpectability of this theatre. 
Farther up towards the bridge we find Chrift-church, 
which was anciently a dependence of St. Saviour’s, or Sc. 
Mary Overy’s, parilli, and was founded in 1627, in pur¬ 
suance of the will of John Marflial, gent, of the borough 
of Southwark,, who deviled the fum of Seven hundred 
pounds towards erecting a church, and endowed it with 
D O N. 
fixty pounds per annum for the maintenance of a trnnifc 
ter. With this fum, and others collected by the truffees 
under the will, a church was built; and the inhabitants 
of the diltrift applied to parliament, in the year 1676, for 
an a< 5 V to make it a diltincl parilli from St. Saviour’s, 
which being granted, it has been ever fince independent 
thereof. In the year 1737, the foundations of the old 
church having become very ruinous, a new application 
was made to parliament; and the prefent edifice was 
erected at the expenfe of the parilhioners. It is a regu¬ 
lar well-conftrufted building, confifling of a plain body, 
enlightened by two ranges of windows, with a Square 
tower and a turret. This church is a redtory, the patro¬ 
nage of which is at prelent in thirteen perfons, the repre¬ 
sentatives of the founder. The church yard is planted 
with trees, and prefents a pleafing afpect to the road. 
On the eall fide is Temple Place, a well-built row' of 
Iioufes fo called, molfly inhabited by gentlemen and ladies 
under the name of rulers, as this (pot has the good for¬ 
tune of being within the extenfive precindts of the King’s- 
Bench prifon. 
Oppofite to the road called the New Cut, leading to the 
Marfh-gate, where a mill, by its daily turning, Seems gently 
to infinuate how many have looked at its circumvolutions 
and are no more ; and ftands as a fad index of the life of 
man, whofe courfe is merely a circle which he runs more 
or lefs according to the order of Providence—Oppolite to 
this road we find a well-built edifice, called Surry Chapel, 
which owes its origin and its Support to the Rev. Mr. 
Rowland Hill and the congregation which follows his re¬ 
ligious tenets. The hiltory of Rowland Hill is pretty 
well known. Belonging to a refpedtable family at Hawk- 
flone in Shropfliire, his expulfion from the univerfity of 
Oxford in 1768, together with five other ltudents, for af- 
fembling to pray and preach at prohibited lcafons and in 
unauthorifed places, excited no inconliderable (bare of 
popular attention. Mr. Hill afterwards became a mem¬ 
ber of St. John’s college at Cambridge. Whether the mo¬ 
tives which have induced Mr. Hill to peril It in his fecef- 
fion from the elfablilhment were perfectly confcientious, 
or whether, on the other hand, he was at all decided by 
the affectation of (ingularity and the ambition of noto¬ 
riety, are queltions which muff reft with himfelf. He was 
once found, by the late Cornelius Winter, in the fituation 
of “a diltrefled gentleman;” and was then conlidered as 
Suffering for the caufe that he efpoufed. 
Mr. Hill’s dilcourfes are incoherent in arrangement, 
whimfical in illultration, commonly colloquial in lan¬ 
guage, and abounding in llrange flights of fancy, and apt 
but humorous Itories. He abfolutely labours for his 
metaphors : and, in his zeal to lower himfelf to what he 
conceives to be the aptitude or capability of his audi¬ 
ence, he fometimes miltakes vulgarity for fimplicity. 
Yet he has the happy knack, if fuch it is, of immediately 
arrefting the contemplation of the commonalty, and ob¬ 
taining their attention. Naturally eccentric, he is un¬ 
equalled in the excitation of religious merriment. Per¬ 
haps he is the only living preacher (and this he has done) 
who could make the people Smile during a funeral fer- 
mon. His (lories are uniformly amuling: his jokes are 
jokes of the heart. Proper things, however, in proper 
places. Is it now too late to diliuade Mr. Hill from ex¬ 
travagantly purfuing a lyftem of preaching, of which the 
beneficial efiedts are fo extremely doubtful ? Cannot he 
be familiar, without being funny; or, mult illultration be 
necelfarily irreverential ? What gratification can he find 
in being conlidereu as the great head of ltory-telling 
and damping preachers; of evangelical eccentrics; of 
mountebank pulpiteers? His example has wrought in¬ 
calculable ill. It is not eafy to fay how many an S. S. or 
M G. we owe to him; men who, either as to goodnefs 
or talents, are not worthy of being aflociated with Mr. 
Hill, even as the hewers of wood and drawers of water to 
the temple of our religion. 
While it is incumbent on u$ not to conceal the defedts 
1 of 
