eries, one over the other.
These galleries were separated in the middle by iron grates. The wards
on the right were occupied by male patients, on the left by the female.
In the centre of the upper gallery was a spacious saloon, appropriated
to the governors of the asylum. But the besetting evil of the place, and
that which drew down the severest censures of the writers
above-mentioned, was that this spot,--which of all others should have
been most free from such intrusion--was made a public exhibition. There
all the loose characters thronged, assignations were openly made, and
the spectators diverted themselves with the vagaries of its miserable
inhabitants.

Entering the outer gate, and traversing the broad gravel walk
before-mentioned, Jack ascended the steps, and was admitted, on feeing
the porter, by another iron gate, into the hospital. Here he was almost
stunned by the deafening clamour resounding on all sides. Some of the
lunatics were rattling their chains; some shrieking; some singing; some
beating with frantic violence against the doors. Altogether, it was the
most dreadful noise he had ever heard. Amidst it all, however, there
were several light-hearted and laughing groups walking from cell to cell
to whom all this misery appeared matter of amusement. The doors of
several of the wards were thrown open for these parties, and as Jack
passed, he could not help glancing at the wretched inmates. Here was a
poor half-naked creature, with a straw crown on his head, and a wooden
sceptre in his hand, seated on the ground with all the dignity of a
monarch on his throne. There was a mad musician, seemingly rapt in
admiration of the notes he was extracting from a child's violin. Here
was a terrific figure gnashing his teeth, and howling like a wild
beast;--there a lover, with hands clasped together and eyes turned
passionately upward. In this cell was a huntsman, who had fractured his
skull while hunting, and was perpetually hallooing after the hounds;--in
that, the most melancholy of all, the grinning gibbering lunatic, the
realization of "moody madness, laughing wild."

Hastening from this heart-rending spectacle, Jack soon reached the
grating that divided the men's compartment from that appropriated to the
women. Inquiring for Mrs. Sheppard, a matron offered to conduct him to
her cell.

"You'll find her quiet enough to-day, Sir," observed the woman, as they
walked along; "but she has been very outrageous latterly.