twenty,
met in Lamb's Conduit Street. In this year upwards of 300 poor Scotsmen,
swept off by the great plague of 1665-66, were buried at the expense of
the 'box,' while numbers more were nourished during their sickness,
without subjecting the parishes in which they resided to the smallest
expense.

"In the year 1665 the 'box' was exalted into the character of a
corporation by a royal charter, the expenses attendant on which were
disbursed by gentlemen who, when they met at the 'Cross Keys,' in Covent
Garden, found their receipts to be L116 8s. 5d. The character of the
times is seen in one of their regulations, which imposed a fine of 2s.
6d. for every oath used in the course of their quarterly business.

"Presents now flocked in. One of the corporation gave a silver cup;
another, an ivory mallet or hammer for the chairman; and among the
contributors we find Gilbert Burnet, afterwards bishop, giving L1
half-yearly. In no very Scotsman-like spirit the governors distributed
each quarter-day all that had been collected during the preceding
interval. But in 1775 a permanent fund was established. The hospital now
distributes about L2,200 a year, chiefly in L10 pensions to old people;
and the princely bequest of L76,495 by Mr. W. Kinloch, who had realised
a fortune in India, allows of L1,800 being given in pensions of L4 to
disabled soldiers and sailors.

"All this is highly honourable to those connected, by birth or
otherwise, with Scotland. The monthly meetings of the society are
preceded by divine service in the chapel, which is in the rear of the
house in Crane Court. Twice a year is held a festival, at which large
sums are collected. On St. Andrew's Day, 1863, Viscount Palmerston
presided, with the brilliant result of the addition of L1,200 to the
hospital fund."

Appended to the account of the society already quoted we find the
following remarkable "note by an Englishman":--

"It is not one of the least curious particulars in the history of the
Scottish Hospital that it substantiates by documentary evidence the fact
that Scotsmen who have gone to England occasionally find their way back
to their own country. It appears from the books of the corporation that
in the year ending 30th November, 1850, the sum of L30 16s. 6d. was
spent in passages from London to Leith; and there is actually a
corresponding society in Edinburgh to receive the _revenants_ and pass
them on to their respective districts."

In Crane Court