OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



the name of a philanthropic age ; but ccuturies before a Howard, or a 

 Sir George Paul," rose to set us the example, there was Ricliard 

 "Whittington leuding his purse and his influence to better the condition 

 of the poor prisoner, and to raise him in the scale of humanity. He 

 began to rebuild, during his lifetime, the prison of Xewgate Avhich we 

 read in the Patent Rolls of Henry YII. " was then so small and in- 

 fected that it occasioned the death of many." The City ' itself (A.D. 

 1422), had become alarmed at the pestilence likely to ensue from the 

 overcrowding of prisoners, and it petitioned the king's council for 

 permission to remove the prisoners out of Xewgate, in order to rebuild 



a To show the state of Gloucester Couaty Prison in 1778-9, when Howard first 

 began his reformation of prison discipline, 400 years after Whittington's time, wc 

 may quote Howard's own notes : — 



" Oxford Circuit. Gloucestershire County Gaol, Gloucester Castle. Xo alteration. 

 Eight prisoners died about Christmas, 1778, of small-pox. No proper separation of 

 the sexes, or of the Bridewell prisoners from the rest. From the magistrates' 

 inattention to this most important point, there is the most licentious intercourse ; 

 and all the endeavours of the chaplain to promote reformation must necessarily be 

 defeated where the most abandoned are daily encouraging others to vice. Five or 

 six children have lately been born in this gaol. Eleven of the twenty-four felons 

 were fined without any allowance. The clause of the act against spirituous liquors, 

 and the act for preserving the health of the prisoners was not hung up." 



"The gaol disease so prevailed that the proportion was three dead of distemper 



to one executed." 



Mr. Howard's first report on this prison says, 



" County Gaol, Gloucester Castle. 



"Gaoler — Salary none — {i.e. his emoluments wci'c derived from selling beer 



and fees.) 



Fees, Debtors 1 10 



Felons at Assize 17 8 



Felons at Quarter Sessions . . 13 4 



"License beer. Prisoners' allowance. Debtors and fines — none. Felons, each 



a sixpenny loaf in two days. Garnish, is. 6d. Surgeon — none, but on applying to a 



justice. The Castle is also one of the County Bridewells, yet only one court for 



all the prisoners, one small day room, 12 feet by 11, for men and women felons. 



The free ward for debtors is 19 feet by 11, which having no window, part of 



th4: plaster tcall is broken doicn for light and air. The night room (the main) for 



men felons, though up many stone steps, is close and dark, and the floor is so 



niinous that it cannot be washed." 



b New Descrijition and Survey of London, by William Thornton and otlicrs, 

 fol. 1784, 



H 



