where any quantity of meat is sold at a very reasonable rate, or any
kind of provision boiled and roasted gratis, for the poor prisoners.
Nay, there are certain servants of the public, who are obliged to go to
market, at the pleasure of individuals, without fee or reward from those
who employ them. Nor are they cooped up, so as to be excluded from
the benefit of fresh air, there being an open area, of a considerable
extent, adjacent to the building, on which they may exercise themselves
in walking, skittles, bowls, and a variety of other diversions,
according to the inclination of each.

Our adventurer being admitted a denizen of this community, found himself
bewildered in the midst of strangers, who, by their appearance, did not
at all prepossess him in their favour; and, after having strolled about
the place with his friend Cadwallader, repaired to the coffee-house,
in order to be further informed of the peculiar customs which it was
necessary for him to know. There, while he endeavoured to pick up
intelligence from the bar-keeper, he was accosted by a person in
canonicals, who very civilly asked if he was a new-comer. Being answered
in the affirmative, he gave him the salutation of welcome to the
society, and, with great hospitality, undertook to initiate him in the
constitutions of the brotherhood. This humane clergyman gave him to
understand, that his first care ought to be that of securing a lodging;
telling him there was a certain number of apartments in the prison let
at the same price, though some were more commodious than others;
and that when the better sort became vacant, by the removal of their
possessors, those who succeeded in point of seniority had the privilege
of occupying the empty tenements preferable to the rest of the
inhabitants, howsoever respectable they might otherwise be. That, when
the jail was very much crowded, there was but one chamber allotted for
two lodgers; but this was not considered as any great hardship on the
prisoners; because, in that case, there was always a sufficient number
of males, who willingly admitted the females to a share in their
apartments and beds. Not but the time had been, when this expedient
would not answer the occasion; because, after a couple had been
quartered in every room, there was a considerable residue still
unprovided with lodging; so that, for the time being, the last-comers
were obliged to take up their habitation in Mount Scoundrel, an
apartment most