Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich: the interior of the King Charles Ward, with some "cabbins" and several pensioners. Wood engraving.

The first mention of the "cabbins" for the inmates of the Hospital seems to be in 1698 (P. Newell, Greenwich Hospital: a Royal foundation 1692-1983, Greenwich, 1984, pp. 17-18). "The sleeping places ... are something between ship's cabins and civilised bedchambers" ( The pictorial guide to Greenwich, op. cit. p. 9)