[169] Wild at last had the audacity to occupy a house in the Old Bailey, opposite the present Sessions House. [170] There were sometimes as many as sixty or seventy pirates awaiting trial at a time in Newgate, about this period. [171] By Lord Orford and the Board of Admiralty. [172] Luttrell. [173] See _ante_, chap. vi. p. 279. [174] Hume, xi. 418. [175] The following are some of the great people who owned prisons in those days: “The Dukes of Portland, Devonshire, Norfolk, and Leeds, the Marquis of Carnarvon, Lords Salisbury, Exeter, Arundel, and Derby, the Bishops of Salisbury, Ely, and Durham, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.” [176] Book iv. c. 22. [177] ‘Buxton on Prison Discipline,’ p. 11. [178] As late as 1818 the most capricious rules prevailed as to ironing in various prisons in the country. Thus at Newgate all felons were ironed; it was the same at Chelmsford; but at Bury and Norwich all felons were without irons. Again at Coldbath Fields, only the untried and those sent for re-examination were ironed; at other places the untried were not ironed, and so on. Dr. Dodd, in his ‘Thoughts in Prison,’ refers to the horror he experienced in Newgate from the constant rattling of chains. It seems the most hardened prisoners often clanked their irons for an amusement. [179] See _ante_, chap. v. p. 211. [180] ‘Dr. Guy on Public Health,’ 183. [181] Lind, ‘Health of our Seamen.’ [182] According to Lord Campbell, Lord Chief Justice Lee was attacked with the gaol fever in this year, but recovered. It was through Lee’s remonstrances that certain precautions were adopted, such as plunging a hot iron into a bucket full of vinegar and sweet smelling herbs. ‘Lives of the Lord Chief Justices.’ [183] Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Pringle had already published (1750) a pamphlet on hospital and ‘jayl’ fevers, in which he traced the distemper to jails being too small for their numbers, and too insecure to forego the use of dungeons. The only resource, he said, until these two evils were removed, was in ventilators. [184] In this year 1752 another Lord Mayor, Winterbottom, died of the gaol fever. Lord Campbell’s ‘Lives of Lord Chief Justices.’ [185] A full account of the ventilator from the pen of Dr. Hales is published in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ vol. xxii. p. 180 (1752), where also is the plan of the windmill which worked it, which plan I have introduced into this chapter. The various letters on the plan refer to the detailed description in the original. [186] For full account of this see next chapter. [187] Lord George Gordon died of it in the new Newgate in 1793. [188] See next chapter. [189] See page 379. [190] Dr. Dodd in his ‘Prison Thoughts’ animadverts strongly upon the evils of Newgate, but completely exonerates Mr. Akerman. “No man could do more,” says Dr. Dodd. “His attention is great, and his kindness and humanity to those in sickness or affliction peculiarly pleasing.”