Loy Soldiers

and Sailors.

By I'raxcres I Low.

THE ROVATL MILITARY ASVLUM,

AHERE are various causes which combine to make the King's-road, Chelsea, one of the least agreeable thorough- tares of the Metreyolis. Tfrom the w@sthetic point of vicw also 1t can hardly be considered satistactory. An endless succession of omnibuses, unin- viting barrows, and squalid shops are the principal characteristics of the road, which 1s yet interesting to the stranger by reason of certain unique featurces inseparably associated with it. Tommy Atkins in his military splendours 1s a common enough and not mvariably pleasing spectacle, but those fine fellows the Chelsea pensioners, with thenr gallant bearing, scarred faces, and maimed limbs, somehow arrest the atten- tion of the most careless obsciver, and send his mind back to the roar of cannon and the smoke and slaughter of the battlefield, where so many of these heroes sounded the death-knell of their vigorous manhood. Not less interesting than the veterans whe have gained their laurcls and laid down their arms, are the little bright-faced, red-coated lads standing on the threshold of the fight,

£X s A .

79

T

who belong to the Royal Military Asylum; an‘t whose decorum and ex- cellent behaviour in the strect are not the least result of their training and discipline within the walls of the big brick building, founded by the Duke of York during the long Napoleonic wars for the numerous orphaned children of soldiers. "T'he Institution is now supported by Government, and feeds, clothes, and cducates every year 220 bovs between the ages ot nine and fourteen, the sons or orphans of non-commissioned officers of good character. At fourteen the majority ol the boys go into the regular army, chiefly into the Artillery and Engineers, cither as collar-makers, smiths, clerks, or drummers. Owing to the splendid effi- ciency of the school band a large propor- tion enter the army band at once, and amongst the names of distinguished band- masters who have been boys in the school arc thosc of T.azarus and Thomnas.

A record 15 kept of every lad who has passcd through the school, and at the beginning of this year therc were serving m the army 10 commissioned olficers, 21 schoolmasters, 12 bandmasters, and 47 band sergeants, besides many others hold- ing the grade of sergeant-major, master gunners,.and so forth. In addition, out of 1,368 of the boys who have entered the service, only one has turned out badly, L