THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
273 
stables of Charlton House : there it bends to the left and runs in a S.W. 
direction along another fine old lane to the park gate in Marlborough Lane, 
and so on to the Shooters'-Hill-Road, the ancient Watling Street, which it 
followed to London. 
The Duke of York's Cottages which we have mentioned were built in 
replacement of a number of mud huts which had been run-up by soldiers 
who did not like Barrack quarters. An old inhabitant of the neighbourhood 
states that he well remembers these mud huts, that they reached far up the 
Common, that there were “ several hundreds of them/' the soldiers when 
ordered on foreign service making them over to new comers; but “at 
last, the Government growing ashamed of them, had them all pulled 
down and the present huts built in their stead." Be it observed, the new 
buildings are still always popularly called “the Huts." 
Reverting to the Survey of 1773, it will be noticed that the foot road 
to Charlton passes along a narrow lane called “ Love Lane," and is then 
continued by a field-path to Mr Bowater's farm. Love Lane is still trace¬ 
able : opening at one extremity into Green's End, terminated at the other 
by a gate near St John's Church. The “farm" occupies the corner of 
Mount Pleasant Park, and is now represented by the Telegraph Office in 
Artillery Place. Artillery Place itself lies along the line of the old field- 
path to Charlton. Another footway cuts this at right angles, leading from 
the old church to “ Cholick Lane " and the Common. The “ Plot approved 
by the Surgeon-General" is where the Hospital was afterwards erected, but 
the “ new road made to the Barracks" does not quite accord with the 
present road, which is more to the north {a to b) . The letters c, d, e,f 
indicate pretty nearly the site of the present Royal Artillery Barracks. 
These letters, a to are all that have been added to this map. The original 
plan is five times the size of the copy here given. I must add that neither 
this nor the Survey of 1778 register very accurately with the Ordnance 
Maps of our own day. 
The R.A. Hospital named above was completed in 1780. “ April 8, 1780. 
The new Hospital opened on Monday last on Woolwich Common for the 
reception of patients is calculated to hold 200 beds."—(Old newspaper). 
About 1806 a second hospital was added, “to accomodate 700 men."— 
(Brayley, Hist, of Kent, p. 537). So that the “new Hospital" of the 
preceding paragraph became “ the Old." 
Turning now to the map of 1778, extracted from the Survey of Kent in 
25 sheets, by Andrews and Drury, we find many curious points for con¬ 
sideration. “ Mount Pleasant" is conspicuous; now replaced, as we have 
seen, by the Royal Marine Hospital. “Naw Cross" is to the south, a 
mis-spelling perhaps for New Cross, but I have not been able to discover 
anything relating to this locality beyond the patent fact that it must have 
been included in the present Barrack Eield. 
To the west is the “ Hanging Wood," a noted place for robberies in the 
“ good old times." Every one acquainted with the fine, aged trees in the 
grounds of the Royal Military Repository, the oaks, thorns and birches that 
there abound, will readily recognise this spot as a striking memorial of the 
original wood. The boundaries, as set forth in the map and carefully 
traced on the spot, may be stated as follows :—Beginning at the toll-gate on 
the Greenwich Road, we pursue that road eastward to within about a 
