Sir John Fielding (he was knighted in 1760) was a most active and energetic magistrate, and he was such a constant terror to evil-doers that his life was often threatened. There were few crimes reported in which he did not take a personal interest, promptly visiting the spot, taking information, and setting his officers on the track. When Lord Harrington's house was robbed of some three thousand pounds' worth of jewellery, Sir John repaired thither [Illustration: SIR JOHN FIELDING OFFICIATING AT BOW STREET. (_From a Drawing by Dodd._)] at once, remaining in the house all day and the greater part of the night. It was the same in cases of highway robbery, murder, or riot. Everyone caught red-handed was taken before him, and his court was much frequented by great people to hear the examination of persons charged with serious crimes--such as Dr. Dodd, Hackman, who murdered Miss Reay, the brother-forgers the Perreaus, and Sarah Meteyard, who killed her parish apprentice by abominable cruelty. One well-known nobleman, "a great patron of the arts," given also to visiting Newgate in disguise in order to stare at the convicts under sentence of death, would constantly take his seat on the bench. Sir John Fielding's appearance in court and manner of conducting business have been graphically described by the Rev. Dr. Somerville of Jedburgh. He speaks in his diary of Sir John's "singular adroitness. He had a bandage over his eyes, and held a little switch or rod in his hand, waving it before him as he descended from the bench. The sagacity he discovered in the questions he put to the witnesses, and the marked and successful attention, as I conceived, not only to the words but to the accents and tones of the speaker, supplied the advantage which is usually rendered by the eye; and his arrangement of the questions, leading to the detection of concealed facts, impressed me with the highest respect for his singular ability as a police magistrate."