◄Back

# Long description

Figure 7 Perspective view of the north front of the York Retreat, opened in 1796 and run by William Tuke (1732–1822), a retired tea merchant, and his family. It was intended primarily for members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), although as time went on it became increasingly multi-denominational. The engraving shows the plain edifice of the Retreat, and its leafy site, removed from the bustle of York. The inspiration for the foundation of the Retreat was the Tukes’ disgust at the ill treatment and death of a Leeds Quaker, Hannah Mills, in the York Asylum. This image is taken from the frontispiece of Description of the York Retreat (1813), written by William's grandson Samuel, which did more than any single publication to broadcast and popularise the virtues of the Tukes’ distinctive approach to madness, known as ‘moral therapy’