A NEW COTTAGE HOSPITAL FOR LYTHAM.

LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE.

Yesterday week, the foundation stone of a New Cottage Hospital for Lytham was laid by Miss Constantia Wood.^1. The hospital is being built at the sole expense of Col. Clifton, of Lytham. A silver trowel, with an inscription commemorative of the event, was presented to Miss Wood by Mr. T. Fair. Miss Wood having laid the stone in the usual way, and deposited papers and coins in the cavity, declared the stone “well and duly laid." There were amongst those present—Col. Clifton and Mrs. Clifton, Mr. T. Fair, and a number of other ladies and gentlemen.

The building will be 79 feet 3 inches long across the main front, and 56 feet 4 inches from back to front in the centre position. The hospital consists of a centre structure and two wings. The centre will have two stories and the wings will have one storey. The height of the central portion of the point of the gables is 26 feet.

The building is to be constructed of cobble stones, with red brick coins at the corners, with plain dressings, which will give it a very ornamental appearance. The main entrance is by a door something in the early English style. The lower part of the building will be used for domestic purposes and the out-patients, and the two wings for in-patients. In front of the two wings there will be two verandahs, extending across these parts of the frontage.

The ground-floor of the building will contain, in the right entrance, hall, house-keeper's sitting-room, bed-room, and the ward for women; on the left, the out-patients' room, lavatory, bath-room, and ward for men; in the rear are the back entrance; the surgery, kitchen, scullery, wash-house, mortuary, &c.

The first floor of the central block consists of two wards, one for men and the other for women, with attendants' bed-rooms, &c. The building will be heated by open fire‑places, and every arrangement has been made for proper ventilation.

As we have previously intimated, the building will be erected at the sole expense of Col. Clifton, and it is to be hoped that, when the building is completed, the generosity shown by the above gentleman in the erection of it will lead others to contribute according to their means for the support of that noble institution.

1. There is an error in the original newspaper article which gives the name "Constantina Wood". This was Lady Eleanor Cecily Clifton's neice, Constantia Eleanor Wood (1851-1940).