440
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. NOV. 29, 1002.
early and, as it at one time seemed, hopeless
struggle and splendid accomplishment. In every
life of Dickens we are confronted with the sorrowful
fact that his life might have been indefinitely
prolonged had he been less anxious to reap the rich
harvest of his later years), and had he not alter-
nated his fierce labours with overstrained exercise.
We are still too near the time of Dickens, and too
full of memories or recollections concerning him, to
attempt to point the moral of his career. Painful
as were his early days, the struggles were soon
forgotten in the success with which his efforts
were crowned, and the portion of his life which it
is most satisfactory and consoling to read is that
which shows his sudden rise into an almost unpre-
cedented popularity. Among the best of the full-page
plates now reproduced are the portraits of George
Cruikshank, John Forster, Harrison Ainsworth,
Judge Talfourd, Clarkson Stanfield, Maclise, Lyt-
ton, Macready, and others of Dickens's intimates.
These were all taken while the sitters were
young, and are in some cases not easily recognizable
by those who in later days knew the originals best.
Not less attractive are the designs in the text of
spots of interest, such as Rochester Old Bridge,
Tavistock House, the study at Gadshill Place, &c.
Exactly the book for the Dickens-lover is this, and
in days when the calls upon the reader are over-
powering it is probable that for ninety-nine readers
out of a hundred the work will supply every
requirement.
The Old Bailey and Newgate, By Charles Gordon.
(Fisher Unwin.)
THE history of Newgate is that virtually of its inmates. Not wholly criminal are these, though all of them, with the exception of the officials, had come in conflict with their country's laws. Among those, however, who occupied its gloomy cells were many who suffered for their faith or their views. Anne Askew, the fair and pertinacious Protestant martyr, was confined here before exhibiting her heroism and obstinacy at the stake at Smithfield. Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, and Lodowicke Muggleton, the heresiarcn, were inmates ; and Thomas Ellwood, the devout secretary of Milton, was compelled to herd with rogues and vagabonds. William, Lord Russell, was one of the most dis- tinguished residents. Defoe began here his Review, and Lord George Gordon died, professing Judaism, of gaol fever, in a place the destruction of which he had previously wrought.
Mr. Gordon opens his volume with an historical account of the places. Records and allusions in early times are mostly fragmentary, but many references are found in the ' Liper Custumarum,' the 'Liber Albus,' and other civic records. In grim contrast with subsequent proceedings, we find in 1303 an account of a festival held within its pre- cincts. This was called the Festival of the Pui, a kind of society at once religious and social, at which the singer of the best song was crowned prince, and the spare provisions were then handed, an eleemosynary gift, to the prisoners. This society did not, presumably, last long enough for any of the heroes of the Macheath type to carry off, four centuries later, its vocal or convivial honours. The first notorious personage we have to deal with after the religious persecutions of the Tudors have passed is Moll Cutpurse, otherwise Mary Frith, with whose deeds Stuart times ring. For Royalist
blades were in time substituted crop-eared Puritans
and Fifth Monarchy men.
The chronicle of highwaymen seems to begin with Claude Duval or Devol, a metrical account of whose deeds is given. After his hanging his body was cut down and conveyed by well-dressed persons to the "Tangier" Tavern, where he lay all night in state, the room being hung with black cloth, the hearse covered with escutcheons, " eight wax tapers burn- ing, as many tall gentlemen with long black cloaks attending." In the numerous train of mourners most were of the fair sex. Mary Carleton, the famous adventuress, known as the German Princess, is another interesting prisoner. A record of Newgate would not be complete without an account of those who, in order to save their property from confis- cation, refused to plead, in most cases a futile pro- ceeding, or of the reputed resuscitation of a man who had been hanged. The peine forte et dure is, indeed, herein described. Gaol fever seems to have claimed more victims than the gallows. Among those in whom some interest is still felt are Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild. The terrible, but scarcely unmerited fate of Catherine Hayes, who was burnt at the stake in 1726, is recorded, before we come to Mrs. Brownrigg and Sixteen-stringed Jack, the former possibly the most execrated of all culprits. The latest wholesale execution, that of the Flowery Land pirates, is still within public recollection. Many views of Newgate are given, together with portraits of notorious offenders and of various forms of punishment. There is a large class of readers to whom the proceedings of criminals are of high interest. To such the book, which contains much that is curious and nothing that is repulsive, will appeal.
to C0msp0tt2r*ttis.
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