ed for the demolition
of the Fleet prison, and on 30 Nov., the records, books, etc., and the
remaining prisoners, seventy in number, were removed to the Queen's
prison. The Marshalsea was also closed, and its three prisoners were
also transferred. The Fleet had been a prison ever since the time of
William the Conqueror.

Writing about the Fleet prison sets one thinking of the marriages
solemnized within its rules, and there is an entry in one of the
registers: "The Woman ran across Ludgate Hill in her shift." In the
_Times_ of 15 Dec., I find the following, copied from the _Boston
Herald_:

"GEDNEY.--A most extravagant exhibition took place here on Friday. A
widow, named Farrow, having four children, was married to a man named
David Wilkinson; and the woman having been told that if she was
married, covered by nothing but a sheet, her husband would not be
answerable for her debts, actually had the hardihood to go to church
with nothing on but a sheet, sewn up like a sack, with holes in the
sides for her arms, and in this way was married." I have come across
several instances of this vulgar error.

On the 3rd Dec. was tried a famous gambling case which ended in the
discomfiture of a notorious gaming-house keeper, named Bond. It was a
case in the Court of Exchequer--Smith _v._ Bond. At the gaming house
kept by the latter, the game played was, usually, "French Hazard"; and
persons of rank were in the habit of staking large sums against the
"bank" held by Bond, to whom reverted all the profits of the game; in one
evening they amounted to 2,000 or 3,000 pounds. Considerable losses were
sustained, on various occasions, by Mr. Bredall, Capt. Courtney, Mr.
Fitzroy Stanhope, the Marquis of Conyngham, Lord Cantelupe and General
Churchill. The action was brought under the Act 9th Anne, c. 14, to
recover from Bond the sums alleged to have been unlawfully won. A
verdict for the plaintiff was returned on five out of ten counts, with
damages including the treble value of 3,508 pounds, the sum lost. Half
the damages went to the parish.

CHAPTER XIX.

Murder of Mr. Drummond--Rebecca and her Daughters--Spread of the Movement
through Wales--Its End--Rebecca Dramatised--Rebecca in London.

The year opened badly, with the assassination of Edward Drummond, Esqre.,
the private secretary of Sir Robert Peel. Walking quietly down
Parliament Street, he was suddenly fired at by a man named