llowances of provision; and to maintain some show of
decorum; for which latter purpose they were allowed to carry whips and
truncheons. When any violent outrage was committed,--and such matters
were of daily, sometimes hourly, occurrence,--a bell, the rope of which
descended into the hall, brought the whole of the turnkeys to their
assistance. A narrow passage at the north of the Stone Hall led to the
Bluebeard's room of this enchanted castle, a place shunned even by the
reckless crew who were compelled to pass it. It was a sort of
cooking-room, with an immense fire-place flanked by a couple of
cauldrons, and was called Jack Ketch's Kitchen, because the quarters of
persons executed for treason were there boiled by the hangman in oil,
pitch, and tar, before they were affixed on the city gates, or on London
Bridge. Above this revolting spot was the female debtor's ward; below it
a gloomy cell, called Tangier; and, lower still, the Stone Hold, a most
terrible and noisome dungeon, situated underground, and unvisited by a
single ray of daylight. Built and paved with stone, without beds, or any
other sort of protection from the cold, this dreadful hole, accounted
the most dark and dismal in the prison, was made the receptacle of such
miserable wretches as could not pay the customary fees. Adjoining it was
the Lower Ward,--"Though, in what degree of latitude it was situated,"
observes Ned Ward, "I cannot positively demonstrate, unless it lay
ninety degrees beyond the North Pole; for, instead of being dark there
but half a year, it is dark all the year round." It was only a shade
better than the Stone Hold. Here were imprisoned the fines; and,
"perhaps," adds the before-cited authority, "if he behaved himself, an
outlawed person might creep in among them." Ascending the gate once more
on the way back, we find over the Stone Hall another large room, called
Debtors' Hall, facing Newgate Street, with "very good air and light." A
little too much of the former, perhaps; as the windows being unglazed,
the prisoners were subjected to severe annoyance from the weather and
easterly winds.

Of the women felons' rooms nothing has yet been said. There were two.
One called Waterman's Hall, a horrible place adjoining the postern under
the gate, whence, through a small barred aperture, they solicited alms
from the passengers: the other, a large chamber, denominated My Lady's
Hold, was situated in the highest part of the jail, at the northern