3-021-651 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Prince of Wales at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, [London], 1868. 'In the evening his Royal Highness [the future King Edward VII] occupied the chair at the annual festival, which was held in the great hall of the hospital, according to custom. The guests were about 240 in number; and the Prince was supported right and left by Prince Christian, Viscount Hamilton, Lord Henry Lennox, Lord Alfred Hervey, the Bishop of Oxford, General Knollys, the treasurer of the hospital, Archdeacon Hale, and Mr. Arthur Helps. The company included several of the aldermen of London, who are governors of the hospital, and many others of the governing body, with the physicians and surgeons of the institution. The Prince was escorted to his seat in the banqueting-hall amid the cheers of the company. The dinner being over, his Royal Highness...gave the toast of the evening, "Prosperity to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and health and ease to the poor patients." This hospital, he said, was one of the largest and most ancient of the metropolitan hospitals, having been founded in 1103 by Rahere, minstrel to Henry I., afterwards prior of the monastery of St. Bartholomew the Great'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.