The New Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the County of Essex,

Extract

At the Baiter sessions of the year 1846, fifteen justices of this county were appointed a committee, to superintend the erecting or providing of an asylum for the pauper lunatics, in terms of the Act 8th and 9th Victoria, Cap. 126. And at a meeting held on the 80th of August, 1847, the committee directed their clerk to advertise for a site for the asylum, according to the rules of the Commissioners in Lunacy. They finally selected the ground on which the asylum has been erected—eighty-six acres of the Brentwood Hall estate, the same having been purchased for the sum of £8000. After obtaining the sanction of the Court of Quarter Sessions, the committee proceeded to take farther steps in the execution of their commission, and at a meeting held on the 25th October, 1848, they resolved to select a certain number of architects, not exceeding ten, who should be invited to send in plans for the asylum, and that the sum of £100 should be awarded to the second best plan, and £50 to the third best. The committee having availed themselves of the advice and assistance of the county surveyor, and also of a medical gentleman connected with asylums, and having taken their opinion on the comparative merits of the respective plans, resolved on accepting the plan of Mr. H. E. Kendall, Junr., of 83 Brunswick: Square, London, as the best offered to them; which, after having been altered and amended to the satisfaction of the Commissioners, was submitted to the January session, 1850, for the approbation of the Court.