, and such persons as chose to submit to the
extortionate demands of the keeper: from twenty to five hundred pounds
premium, according to the rank and means of the applicant, in addition
to a high weekly rent, being required for accommodation in this quarter.
Some excuse for this rapacity may perhaps be found in the fact, that
five thousand pounds was paid for the purchase of the Press Yard by Mr.
Pitt, the then governor of Newgate. This gentleman, tried for high
treason, in 1716, on suspicion of aiding Mr. Forster, the rebel
general's escape, but acquitted, reaped a golden harvest during the
occupation of his premises by the Preston rebels, when a larger sum was
obtained for a single chamber than (in the words of a sufferer on the
occasion) "would have paid the rent of the best house in Saint James's
Square or Piccadilly for several years."

Nor was this all. Other, and more serious impositions, inasmuch as they
affected a poorer class of persons, were practised by the underlings of
the jail. On his first entrance, a prisoner, if unable or unwilling to
comply with the exactions of the turnkeys, was thrust into the Condemned
Hold with the worst description of criminals, and terrified by threats
into submission. By the old regulations, the free use of strong liquors
not being interdicted, a tap-house was kept in the Lodge, and also in a
cellar on the Common Side,--under the superintendence of Mrs. Spurling,
formerly, it may be remembered, the hostess of the Dark House at
Queenhithe,--whence wine, ale, and brandy of inferior quality were
dispensed, in false measures, and at high prices, throughout the prison,
which in noise and debauchery rivalled, if it did not surpass, the
lowest tavern.

The chief scene of these disgusting orgies,--the cellar, just referred
to,--was a large low-roofed vault, about four feet below the level of
the street, perfectly dark, unless when illumined by a roaring fire, and
candles stuck in pyramidal lumps of clay, with a range of butts and
barrels at one end, and benches and tables at the other, where the
prisoners, debtors, and malefactors male and female, assembled as long
as their money lasted, and consumed the time in drinking, smoking, and
gaming with cards and dice. Above was a spacious hall, connected with it
by a flight of stone steps, at the further end of which stood an immense
grated door, called in the slang of the place "The Jigger," through the
bars of which the felons in the upp