British Lying-in Hospital (The) was instituted in 1749. The committee have preserved an account of those who have died here. In the first ten years of the institution, one woman died in forty-two; in the fifth ten years, one in 288; in the sixth ten years, only one in 216.
Source: England and Wales Delineated by Thomas Dugdale assisted by William Burnett; published by Tallis & Co., Green Arbour Court, Old Bailey, 1835.
As dawn approaches the sentry at the London barrack gate counts the moments to the hour of relief. This is probably his last spell of “sentry-go,” and he has nothing more to do but to stand at arms with the rest of the guard when reveille sounds, and to clean himself decently against dismounting guard.
It has been a tedious and trying time, marching to and fro on his short beat for two hours out of every six, lounging in the guard-room in idle talk with his comrades, always prompt to answer the startling summons, ” Guard turn out! ” whether for inspection, or to pay a proper compliment to some passing superior officer. But this tour of guard will not return for a week or so ; for ” six nights in bed,” as the saying goes, is about the average of the London Guardsman’s escape from ” sentry-go,” whether at Chelsea, St. George’s, or Wellington Barracks, or at the Palaces or the Tower.