2-979-633 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Asylum for the Temporary Reception of Insane Soldiers, at Fort Pitt, Chatham, 1857. Patients 'labouring under insanity...are temporarily received, and, after a short but strict observation, are discharged - the quiet, industrious, and harmless to their friends or parishes, willing to receive them; the dangerous and helpless to Gun Hall Asylum...A corridor extends the whole length of the building for the use of the patients, who are thus enabled to take open-air exercise daily, regardless of the weather. The ramparts form a barrier to the rear of the Asylum; and in the front is a tastefully-arranged garden, railed off, in which the patients will be allowed to walk, and from which they will be able to see and converse with their convalescent comrades. The Asylum was ocompleted and opened for patients in the spring of last year; it is constructed for two officers and thirty-two men'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.