Dining Hall, Asylum

The asylum was an orphanage for "friendless and deserted girls whose parents cannot be found." The text that accompanies this plate praises the "chaste and matron-like simplicity of the building," but the picture is actually more about the well dressed visitors than the girls who sit at the tables. The visitors’ faces are meant to show the happiness that "irradiates the countenance when the heart is glowing with benevolence, animated with the exercise of an important duty, and gratified by the conviction that their virtuous endeavours are crowned with success."