extremity. Neither of these wards had beds, and the unfortunate inmates
were obliged to take their rest on the oaken floor. The condition of the
rooms was indescribably filthy and disgusting; nor were the habits of
the occupants much more cleanly. In other respects, they were equally
indecorous and offensive. "It is with no small concern," writes an
anonymous historian of Newgate, "that I am obliged to observe that the
women in every ward of this prison are exceedingly worse than the worst
of the men not only in respect to their mode of living, but more
especially as to their conversation, which, to their great shame, is as
profane and wicked as hell itself can possibly be."

There were two Condemned Holds,--one for each sex. That for the men lay
near the Lodge, with which it was connected by a dark passage. It was a
large room, about twenty feet long and fifteen broad, and had an arched
stone roof. In fact, it had been anciently the right hand postern under
the gate leading towards the city. The floor was planked with oak, and
covered with iron staples, hooks, and ring-bolts, with heavy chains
attached to them. There was only one small grated window in this hold,
which admitted but little light.

Over the gateway towards Snow Hill, were two strong wards, called the
Castle and the Red Room. They will claim particular attention hereafter.

Many other wards,--especially on the Master Debtor's side,--have been
necessarily omitted in the foregoing hasty enumeration. But there were
two places of punishment which merit some notice from their peculiarity.
The first of these, the Press Room, a dark close chamber, near
Waterman's Hall, obtained its name from an immense wooden machine kept
in it, with which such prisoners as refused to plead to their
indictments were pressed to death--a species of inquisitorial torture
not discontinued until so lately as the early part of the reign of
George the Third, when it was abolished by an express statute. Into the
second, denominated the Bilbowes,--also a dismal place,--refractory
prisoners were thrust, and placed in a kind of stocks, whence the name.

The Chapel was situated in the south-east angle of the jail; the
ordinary at the time of this history being the Reverend Thomas Purney;
the deputy chaplain, Mr. Wagstaff.

Much has been advanced by modern writers respecting the demoralising
effect of prison society; and it has been asserted, that a youth once
confined in Newgate, is cer