goodly pile of building strong, albeit of paper hight,' confronting with massy contrast the lighter, older, more fantastically shrouded one named of Harcourt! What a collegiate aspect has that fine Elizabethan hall! What an antique air had the sundials with their moral inscriptions seeming coevals with that time which they measured!"

GRAY'S INN stands on the north side of Holborn and abuts on Gray's Inn Lane. It derives its name from the family of Gray of Wilton, to whom the property formerly belonged. It came into the possession of "certain students of the law" in the 16th century. The chief entrance is from Holborn, by a gateway of brickwork erected in 1592. There are two squares with chambers around them, divided from each other by the hall, chapel, and library, the last erected in 1861. The hall was finished in 1560. The open roof is of oak, and the windows are emblazoned with arms. The garden was first laid out when Francis Bacon was treasurer, and in Charles II.'s time they were a fashionable place of promenade. Here is a catalpa tree, cuttings of which are much sought after, for it is traditionally asserted that it was raised from a tree planted by Lord Bacon. Chief Justice Holt, Lord Burghley, and Sir Samuel Romilly, were members of this Inn; and Bradshaw, who presided at the time of Charles I., was a bencher. But the most eminent name connected with the Inn is that of Lord Bacon, who was a bencher and reader. His celebrated essays are dated from "my chamber at Graie's Inn." After his disgrace he returned to his old chambers, and was residing here at the time of his death, which, however, took place at Highgate. His chambers are thought to be no longer in existence.

In addition to the four principal Inns there are several minor Inns nominally attached to the others. They are scattered about in the neighbourhood of the parent Inns, and some of them are quaint places with halls. It will be recollected that Justice Shallow was once of Clement's Inn (a dependency of the Inner Temple), where Falstaff remembered him "like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring." In Staple Inn, Holborn, a dependency of Gray's Inn, Dr. Johnson wrote his Idler in 1759. Serjeant's Inn, Chancery Lane, is the Inn of the serjeants, of whom mention has already been made.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-THIRD.

CRIMINAL PRISONS.

Bridewell - Holloway Prison-Coldbath Fields Prison- Middlesex House of Detention - Millbank Prison - Newgate - Pentonville Prison-Debtors' Prisons.

THE FLEET PRISON, in Farringdon Street, and the COMPTER, Giltspur Street, have been pulled down. There remain for notice the following places of incarceration.

CRIMINAL PRISONS.

BRIDEWELL HOSPITAL, in Bridge Street, Blackfriars, is marked by a bust of Edward VI. over the entrance. It stands on the site of an ancient royal palace, which site was granted by Edward VI. to the city as a workhouse and house of correction. To this use it was applied for many years, but it is now unoccupied. There is a hall 85 feet long by 30 feet wide, and over the chimney-piece is a picture attributed to Holbein, but spoiled by being painted over, if really his, representing King Edward handing the endowment charter to the mayor. The room contains a full-length of Charles II. by Lely; of George III. and his Queen by Reynolds, as well as portraits of several presidents of the institution. Hogarth laid in Bridewell the scene of the fourth plate of the Harlot's Progress. The name Bridewell, which has been transferred to other prisons, is derived from the parish in which it is situate.

THE CITY PRISON, Holloway, was opened in 1852, having been built by the city at a cost of £100,000. The walls include a space of ten acres. Mr. Bunning designed the prison, which, by its castellated style, resembles a fortress. It contains 436 cells, which are disposed in six radiating wings.

COLDBATH FIELDS' PRISON, between Gray's Inn Road and Bagnigge Wells Road, covers nine acres of ground, and will hold 1500 prisoners. It is the prison for Middlesex.

THE FLEET PRISON, infamous for nearly 800 years, was abolished by Act of Parliament, and the corporation bought it from the Government for £25,000. It stood on the east side of Farringdon Street, where the vacant site may still be seen, for it was pulled down in 1846, and the materials sold. It derived its name from the river Fleet, which ran hard by, and is at this day hidden under the pavement of Farringdon Street.

HORSEMONGER LANE GAOL, Newington Causeway, is the prison for the County of Surrey. It was built 1791-9, upon the plan of John Howard, and has accommodation for 400 prisoners. Colonel Despard, the Mannings, and other criminals, have been hanged here. Leigh Hunt was imprisoned for two years for libellously styling the Prince Regent an Adonis of fifty, and here Lord Byron made his acquaintance.

MIDDLESEX HOUSE OF DETENTION, Clerkenwell, erected in 1846, with 286 cells, to receive prisoners detained for trial.

MILLBANK PRISON, a very large structure near Vauxhall Bridge, Westminster, built on the plan devised by Jeremy Bentham, who had described something like it in his work on prison discipline, entitled the "Panopticon, or the Inspection House." But Bentham's plan, if properly carried out, would have cost about £30,000 for 1000 prisoners, whereas this building cost about £500,000-about £500 for each cell. Six lines of building radiate from a centre, where the governor's house is placed. The average number of persons confined in this, the largest prison in London, is about 700, but there is accommodation for 1200. The outer walls enclose sixteen acres, seven of which are covered with buildings. The corridors are said to be more than three miles in length, and the staircases almost as long. Convicts sentenced to transportation are lodged here until they are removed out of the country. For permission to inspect the prison, apply to the Home Secretary of State; or to the Directors of Convict Prisoners, 45 Parliament Street, Westminster.

NEWGATE, in the Old Bailey, has become a celebrated name in the annals of crime. Its name originated from the first prison on the site having been adjacent to the then latest built of the city gates. Here are confined persons who have been guilty of offences on the high seas; those upon whom sentence of death has been passed; and persons who are awaiting trial at the Central Criminal Court in the Old Bailey. In the old prison. many persons who have made figures in history or literature

have been confined. George Wither, the poetical Earl of Dorset, William Penn, Titus Oates, Defoe, Dr. Dodd, and Jack Sheppard, were imprisoned in Newgate. The present building, which has received commendation for its appropriate style of architecture, was commenced in 1770 from the designs of George Dance. In 1780, when still unfinished, it was set on fire by Lord George Gordon's rioters, and 300 prisoners set free from the inhabited portion. In 1782 it was repaired and completed. Soon afterwards the sentence of hanging was carried out in front of it, instead of at Tyburn. John Howard was opposed to the plan of the prison, and it is now seen to be utterly unfit for the purposes of a jail, except that of securing the persons of its inmates. Fevers have often raged within its walls, from the want of ventilation and the small space. Lord George Gordon died here in 1793 of fever, after several years' imprisonment. About 2500 persons are committed to this place in the course of a year. То inspect the prison, apply to the Home Secretary of State, the Lord Mayor, or the sheriffs. Next to the prison stands the Sessions' House, mentioned in another part of this volume.

PENTONVILLE PRISON, frequently called the Model Prison, stands in the Caledonian Road, Islington, not far from the New Cattle Market. It contains 1000 cells, and was erected, 1840-42, at a cost of £85,000. Nearly seven acres are enclosed by the wall. The system of management is a modification of the silent and solitary systems. In plan, five wings radiate from a central hall, and a lofty clock tower rises from the main building. The cells are each 13 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 9 feet high. The prisoners are made to work at various handicrafts-tailoring, shoemaking, weaving, etc.; and the cultivation of their minds is attended to. A library of 2000 volumes is placed at their use. Everything is kept in admirable order, and the place well deserves the inspection of those who take an interest in such things. For permission to see it, apply to the Directors of Convict Prisons, 45 Parliament Street, Westminster, or to a visiting magistrate.

DEBTORS' PRISONS.

Of these there are only two in the metropolis-The QUEEN'S PRISON, Borough Road, Southwark, and the DEBTORS' PRISON, in Whitecross Street, Cripplegate.