The Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster : for the feeble-minded belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland fifty-third annual report.

  • Royal Albert Institution (Lancaster, England)
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster : for the feeble-minded belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland fifty-third annual report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Enlargement. Purchase of Farm. Appeal. Claims of Institution. Rusk in. Conclusion. patients are treated. The general health of the patients is good, and very few were confined to bed. They were well and tidily clothed, and we were glad to find that indoor shoes have now been provided for a number of the male patients, and that further supplies will be obtained shortly. The day-rooms and dormitories were bright and beautifully kept, and we consider that the additional furniture provided in the basement day-rooms has much improved their appearance and the patients’ comfort. The Committee are not losing sight of the need for an enlargement of the Institution when building becomes possible, in order that the scope of its work may be widened and its benefits extended to a much larger number of inmates, and the opportunity having occurred they have purchased an adjoining farm of 60 acres, increasing the area of the estate to nearly 280 acres. Meanwhile present difficulties must be faced and present needs met, so the Committee feel they are justified in appealing for continued and even increased support. The work in which they are engaged—work of such vital consequence to the welfare of the race—is not of a sensational kind, and there is danger that its claims may fail to attract the attention they would receive in happier times. Nevertheless the Institution steadily pursues its mission of mercy and succour. In one of his lectures, Ruskin says that “flowers only flourish rightly in the garden of some one who loves them.” And then he goes on : “ But there are fairer flowers than these—flowers that could bless you for having blessed them, and will love you for having loved them; flowers that have thoughts like yours, and lives like yours; and which, once saved, you save forever. Far among the moorlands and the rocks—far in the darkness of the terrible streets—these feeble florets are lying, with all their fresh leaves torn, and their stems broken : will you never go down to them, nor set them in order in their little fragrant beds, nor fence them in their trembling from the fierce wind ? ” This the Royal Albert Institution is trying to do for the feeble ones sheltered within its walls. The Committee close their Report with feelings of gratitude for past and present support, faith in the continuance of the generosity of their friends, and hopefulness for the immediate future and the brighter days to follow. RICHARD F. CAVENDISH, Chairman.