217 
Sunday there is service in the chapel, but for each sex separately, 
and every morning there are prayers. The prisoners were for¬ 
merly principally employed in spinning or weaving cotton; but 
as for some months this article had much fallen in value, the 
working of the prisoners, except those engaged on the tread-mill, 
had in some measure ceased, and the greater portion of them were 
idle. 
Whipping is expressly forbidden in the prison. The most se¬ 
vere punishment which the governor is allowed to inflict, is three 
days solitary confinement. Should it become necessary to exer¬ 
cise a greater punishment, application must be made to a com¬ 
mittee of magistrates, who meet weekly in the prison, and the 
punishment is left to their option. A court-house, built of sand¬ 
stone, adjoins the prison. The grand entry is ornamented with 
a portico of six Ionic columns: it communicates with the prison 
by a small back-door, through which the prisoners are conducted 
unperceived into court. It is two stories high, has large rooms, 
and is handsomely laid out. The hall for the public sessions is 
extremely elegant, and is the whole height of the building. The 
antechambers are destined for the jury, witnesses and judges, to 
meet in private, and for the different offices attached to the court. 
One of them is a dressing-room for the judges and lawyers; there 
are several shelves in it for their wigs and cloaks ; for in the Eng¬ 
lish courts the judges and lawyers must in open court be dressed 
in powdered wigs. 
After I had inspected this interesting prison, we went to visit 
the institution for the blind, of which I had heard such a high 
character. Unfortunately, the hour for the admission of strangers 
had passed, and notwithstanding all our intreaties, we were de¬ 
nied admission by a handsome girl, who opened the door. 
We next visited a small museum, which was pretty much 
on the plan of those in America, and like most of these es¬ 
tablishments, was furnished with a hand-organ, on which they 
played at certain hours, to induce people to enter. This mu¬ 
seum possesses rare stuffed animals, viz. a large ant-eater, and a 
quantity of foreign lizards and snakes; many living ones of the 
same kind I had seen in America; they are attached in a very 
natural manner to moss-covered rocks. It has likewise a collec¬ 
tion of foreign birds and shells; garments and weapons of the 
savages of America, and the Southern Islands ; a boa constrictor 
coiled round and choking a young antelope, &c. A Miss Brown, 
a young person, born without arms, was to be seen working with 
her feet in the most ingenious style. She eats not only with her 
feet, but likewise pours out a glass of wine, and carries it to her 
mouth without spilling a drop; she mends a pen, and writes very 
distinctly with her right foot; she threads a needle, sews, &c. 
Vol. II. 28 
