Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the years 1826, 1827, 1828 and 1829.: with remarks on the manners and customs of the inhabitants, and anecdotes of distiguished public characters. In a series of letters by a German Prince.Pückler-Muskau, Hermann, Fürst von
History
Tour in England, Ireland, and France, in the years 1826, 1827, 1828 and 1829.: with remarks on the manners and customs of the inhabitants, and anecdotes of distiguished public characters. In a series of letters by a German Prince.
Pückler-Muskau, Hermann, Fürst von
Great Britain -- Description and travel; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
The former, which is principally appropriated to the reception of
debtors, is a perfect isolated world in miniature;--like a not
insignificant town, only surrounded by walls thirty feet high.
Cookshops, circulating libraries, coffee-houses, dealers, and artizans
of all kinds, dwellings of different degrees, even a
market-place,--nothing is wanting. When I went in, a very noisy game at
ball was going on in the latter. A man who has money lives as well and
agreeably as possible within these walls,--bating liberty. Even very
'good society,' male and female, is sometimes to be found in this little
commune of a thousand persons; but he who has nothing fares ill enough;
to him, however, every spot on the globe is a prison. Lord Cochrane
passed some time in the King's Bench, for spreading false intelligence
with a view to lower the Funds; and the rich, highly respected, and
popular Sir Francis Burdett was also imprisoned here some time for a
libel he wrote. The prisoner who conducted me about had been an
inhabitant of the place twelve years, and declared in the best possible
humour, that he had no hope of ever coming out again. An old
French-woman of very good air and manners said the same; and declared
that she did not intend ever to acquaint her relations with her
situation, for that she lived very contentedly here, and did not know
how she might find matters in France. She seemed perfectly persuaded
'que le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.'
The aspect of Newgate, the prison for criminals, is more apalling. But
even here the treatment is very mild, and a most exemplary cleanliness
reigns throughout. The Government allows each criminal a pint of thick
gruel in a morning, and half a pound of meat or a mess of broth
alternately for dinner, with a pound of good bread daily. Besides this,
they are permitted to buy other articles of food, and half a bottle of
wine a day. They employ themselves as they please; there are separate
courts belonging to a certain number of rooms or cells: for those who
like to work there are work rooms; but many smoke and play from morning
till night. At nine o'clock they must all attend divine service. Seven
or eight generally inhabit one room. They are allowed a mattress and two
blankets for sleeping, and coals for cooking, and, in winter, for
warming the cells. Those condemned to death are put in separate less
convenient cells, where two or three sleep together. By day, even these
have a court-yard for recreation, and a separate eating room. I saw six
boys, the eldest of whom was not more than fourteen, all under sentence
of death, smoking and playing very merrily. The sentence was not yet
confirmed, however, and they were still with the other prisoners; it was
thought it would be commuted for transportation to Botany Bay. Four of a
maturer age, in the same predicament,--only that the enormity of their
crimes left them no hope of pardon,--took their fate still more gaily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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