6 
due to that of Mr. Bengough, as effectually as I am in the habit 
of stating Mr. Jones’s or Mr. Buckman’s ideas in an address, and 
passing them off as my own. 
As I am, by the way, addressing a Club composed principally 
of Gloucestershire men, I may perhaps be pardoned if I indulge 
in a little quiet county boasting; as it is not, I think, foreign to 
the purpose of our Club to notice the deeds of good men of our 
county. Hence we find that fifty years ago the gaols throughout 
the world were in a state that nowadays we cannot read of without 
much pain. Ido not speak of the temperature being three de- 
grees too hot or too cold, or the gruel too thick or too thin, but 
I speak of the days when sprigs of rue were laid round the prison- 
er in the dock; a custom still continued in many places for 
custom’s sake, but then used in the hope of preventing those in 
court from catching the gaol fever, which arose from the filth, 
starvation, and misery, to which the prisoners were exposed, nay, 
on one occasion, chronicled as the Black Assizes, at Oxford, in 
1577: Baker's Chronicle, informs us that “all who were present 
died within forty hours: the Lord Chief Baron, the Sheriff, and 
about three hundred more.” 
Howard, to whose name be all honour, drew public attention to 
the dreadful state of the matter, but it was reserved for a Glou- 
cestershire Magistrate, Sir G. O. Paul, to invent a system which 
should remedy the evil. This system was first carried out in 
Gloucester gaol; thence it was taken to America, and, they said, 
greatly improved upon. It was tried in all parts of the world and 
improved upon everywhere, till at last, after fifty years considera- 
tion of the subject by all the world, after it had been improved 
upon till it was greatly altered from the original plan, the last 
great crowning improvement has been, to bring it back to nearly 
what Sir G. Paul first made it. 
This, Gentlemen, I hold to be a triumph gained for Gloucester- 
shire, by our excellent old Chairman, worthy of the notice of a 
Club who take an interest in all matters connected with the 
county. And perhaps it may be not without interest to remark 
that we do not appear to be retrograding, but that, as by Sir G. 
Paul's labours, who followed out the triumphs of Howard, Glou- 
cestershire was the first county that possessed a good gaol, so by 
the energy of Mr. Bengough, who has followed out the system of 
poor Captain Brenton, Gloucestershire is the first county that has 
made adequate provision for the cure of its juvenile offenders. 
Forgive me, Gentlemen, if I have said too much on this point, 
but the kindness with which you have frequently allowed me to 
digress has perhaps spoiled me. 
From the School we walked over Acklow (or rather, I suspect, 
Oakleigh,) hill, to the lias quarry of Elmore, where the insect 
limestone was said to be opened to large extent; but, if I remem- 
ber right it was in the south western pit where Mr. Brodie found 
the true bed. 
Our dinner was marked by two circumstances—First, the 
