Confinement of Christopher Smart

Date: May 6, 1757 • Location: Barbican, United Kingdom

English poet Christopher Smart (pictured) was admitted to St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement in mental asylums.

Christopher Smart was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines, The Midwife and The Student, and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout London.