The press-yard of the prison was intended especially for State prisoners, or those incarcerated on "commitments of State," and was deemed to be part and parcel of the governor's house, not actually within the precincts of the prison. This was a pious fiction, put forth as an excuse for exacting fees in excess of the amounts prescribed by act of Parliament. A sum of twenty guineas was charged for admission to this favoured spot; in other words, "for liberty of having room enough to walk two or three of a breadth." "The gentlemen admitted here are moreover under a necessity of paying 11_s._ each per week, although two and sometimes three lie in a bed, and some chambers have three or four beds in them." The act referred to specially provided that keepers might not charge more than half a crown per week as rent for every chamber. This rule the governor of Newgate—for this haughty commander-in-chief over defenceless men was styled by the same name as the constable of the Tower—entirely ignored, and the prisoner committed to his custody had to decide between submitting to the extortion, or taking up his abode in the common gaol, where he had thieves and villains for his associates, and was perpetually tormented and eaten up by distempers and vermin. The extortion practised about 1715 is graphically described by one who endured it. The author of the "History of the Press-yard," after having been mulcted on first arrival at the lodge for drink and "garnish," was, although presumably a State prisoner, and entitled to better treatment, at once cast in the condemned hold. In this gruesome place, he lay "seized with a panic dread" at the survey of his new tenement, and willing to change it for another on almost any terms. "As this was the design of my being brought hither, so was I made apprized of it by an expected method; for I had not bewailed my condition more than half an hour, before I heard a voice from above crying out from a board taken out of my ceiling, which was the speaker's floor, 'Sir, I understand your name is ——, and that you are a gentleman too well educated to take up your abode in a vault set apart only for thieves, parricides, and murderers. From hence criminals after sentence of death are carried to the place of execution, and from hence you may be removed to a chamber equal to one in any private house, where you may be furnished with the best conversation and entertainment, on a valuable consideration.'" The speaker went on to protest that he acted solely from good-will; that he was himself a prisoner, and had suffered at first in the same manner, but had paid a sum to be removed to better quarters, and which he thanked God he enjoyed to his heart's content, wanting for nothing that a gaol could afford him. The victim begged to know the terms, and to be put in communication with the proper officer to make a contract for release. The other promised accordingly, and a quarter of an hour afterwards "clang went the chain