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PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND IMPKOVEMENTS. 257
furniture purchased were 12 candlesticks and four pairs of snuffers. The committee was soon charged with promulgating infidel principles, but at a specially convened meeting on September 13th, 1844, the accusation was denied. Some dozens of lectures were given, but the committee refused to hear one on capital punishment. The Institute was dissolved for want of patronage on October 14th, 1847. Then the East Grinstead Young Men's Mental Improvement Society sprang into being and lasted from August 22nd, 1849, to October 10th, 1851, meeting in Zion School Room. Another Institute was established on December 15th, 1851, and used rooms at Mr. Garrett's in the Middle Row for two years, when it ceased to exist. On March 28th, 1853, a Mechanics' Institution was founded and flourished for a long time at the old Court House, which stood on a part of the site now occupied by Mr. C. M. Wilson's furniture stores. On November 26th, 1855, the experiment was made of lighting one room by gas. On March 31st, 1858, the Court House and a coach builder's shop connected with it were demolished by fire and the Institution Library of some 700 volumes entirely destroyed. The organisation continued to exist until September 26th, 1861, when its remaining property was handed over to the landlord in lieu of rent. The fifth institution of the kind was called " The East Grinstead Association and Circulating Library," and this also used the rebuilt Court House, lasting from March 10th, 1862, to April 2nd, 1869. Nothing more was done until January, 1881, when Messrs. F. Tooth and C. F. W. Stannard were the means of forming a Mutual Improvement Society at the Elephant's Head, now the Cottage Hospital. Mr. W. Hosken was its first President and Mr. F. Tooth Vice-President. This changed its name to the East Grinstead Debating and Social Club. From the Elephant's Head the Society moved to a room at the then Public Hall and became the East Grinstead Debating and Social Club. About this time some gentlemen (Mr. E. A. Arnold, Mr. C. E. Collins and others) felt the desirability of and need for a Library for
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