5. The present situation is _certainly_ not desirable for the teachers, especially as, when their hours of work are over, they have no garden or fields close to the house immediately to go into for a little refreshment of their body; and for some of them it is too far to go to fields, where they might have a bracing air.
6. In times of sickness we are too confined in the houses in Wilson Street. If there were less than thirty children in each house, the average expenses for each child would be too great, it being desirable, as the arrangements are now, that there should not be less than three laborers in each house; and yet, if there are thirty children in each house, we are too full in time of sickness, as we have not a single spare room in any of the houses. Now, though the Lord has during all these years most mercifully helped us through such seasons, yet it has not been without inconvenience, and without also, perhaps, having more of the children in one room, at such times, than on account of health it is desirable.
7. Even ordinarily, when there is no sickness, it would be desirable to have more room.
There are no premises to be had in Bristol, or in the immediate neighborhood, where we could have these advantages; _for I have been looking about in all directions for this purpose during the last ten years_. But suppose there were a large house to be had in one part of the city, and a second a mile off, and a third and a fourth in other directions, such houses, on account of our peculiar position in the work, would not do. For in seasons of need the distance of the several houses would render it very inconvenient for the laborers to meet together for prayer, to divide the means that may be in hand, etc. Besides, when in seasons of other peculiar difficulties, connected with the work, I wished to meet all my fellow-laborers, there would arise great difficulty by their being divided in different parts of the city. It would also thus be very inconvenient to persons who wish to see the work, to go from place to place, in order to have a view of all the Orphan Houses. But this is not all. The more I have considered the matter, the more am I now persuaded that no ordinary large houses, built for private families, and therefore only calculated to accommodate, ten or fifteen persons at most for any length of time in them, will do for charitable institutions of any considerable size, as no ordinary house, except built on purpose, furnishes the proper advantages of ventilation, _a point so needful for the health of the inmates in a charitable institution_. There seemed to me, therefore, to remain nothing but to build premises for the purpose.