hog barbacued. A
general officer present ob-served, that the fellow ought to
be burnt as a wizard.--"May it please your Majesty," said
the gormand, "to order that old gentleman to take off his
spurs, and I will eat him before I begin the hog!" Panic
struck, although a brave soldier, at the idea of being
devoured alive, the general shut himself up in his tent
until the man-eater departed the encampment.

~~315~~~ The Squire knew not what to think--the circumstance was
so extraordinary, that the story would have been rejected by him as
unworthy of notice, had it been told by any other person; and coming
even from his respectable friend, he remained, until reassured of the
fact, rather incredulous of belief.

Descending the declivity leading from Pentonville to Battle Bridge,
Dashall, pointing to an extensive pile of buildings at some little
distance on the left,--"That," said he, "is Cold Bath Fields
Penitentiary House, constructed on the plan of the late Mr. Howard, and
may be considered in all respects as an experiment of his principles.
It cost the county of Middlesex between L70 and L80,000, and its yearly
expenditure is about L7,000. It was opened in 1794, and was originally
designed only as a kind of Bridewell; but having suitable accommodations
for several descriptions of prisoners, it was applied to their different
circumstances. The prison you may observe is surrounded by a wall of
moderate height. Here are workshops for the prisoners; an office in
which the business of the prison is transacted; a committee-room, and
the best chapel of any prison in London. The cells are 218 in number,
about eight feet long each. In these, penitentiary prisoners are
confined till they have completed their tasks, when they are let into
the courts at the back. Owing to the exertions of Sir Francis ~~316~~~
Burdett, and his partizans, this house, about the year 1799 and 1800,
attracted much popular odium. Many abuses, now rectified, were then
found to exist in the management, though not to the full extent
described."

A new scene now rose on the view of our two pedestrians. A little
further on, in a field by the roadside, a motley assemblage of auditors
environed an orator mounted on a chair, who with frequent contortion
of feature, and appropriate accompaniment of gesticulation, was holding
forth in the spirit, as Pashalt, surmised, either of radicalism or
fanaticism. This elevated personage,