BOOK II. the fiftieth year of the reign of Edward III. Henry Percy, being marshal, kept his prisoners in the city of London, where having committed one J. Pendergest, of Norwich, contrary to the liberties of the city of London, the citizens, by persuasion of the Lord Fitzwalter, their standard-bearer, took armour, and ran with great rage to the marshal's inn, broke up the gates, brought out the prisoner, and conveyed him away, intending to have burnt the stocks in the midst of their city, but they first sought for Sir Henry Percy, to have punished him.

"Moreover, about the feast of Easter, next following, John duke of Lancaster, having caused all the whole navy of England to be gathered together at London, a certain esquire chanced to kill one of the shipmen: which act the other shipmen taking in ill part, they brought their suit into the king's court of Marshalsea, which then, as happened, saith my author, was kept in Southwark; but when they perceived that court to be too favourable to the murderer; and farther that the king's warrant was also gotten for his pardon, they, in great fury, ran to the house wherein the murderer was imprisoned, broke into it, and brought out the prisoner with his fetters on his legs; they thrust a knife to his heart, and stuck him as if he had been a hog. After this they tied a rope to his fetters, and drew him to the gallows, where, when they had hanged him, as though they had done a great act, they caused the trumpets to be sounded before them to the ships, and there, in great triumph, they spent the rest of the day."

This court had particular cognizance of murders, and other offences committed within the king's court; such as striking, which was anciently punishable by the loss

of the offending hand. Here also persons guilty of CHAP.11. piracies, and other offences on the high seas, were committed. For the latter purpose it is still continued, though the offenders are tried and convicted at the Old Bailey, and executed at the Execution dock, Wapping.

The court has jurisdiction twelve miles round Whitehall (exclusive of the city of London) for actions of debt, damages, trespasses, &c. and subject to be removed to a higher court of law, when above twenty pounds.

Mr. Howard describes the old prison as "an irregular building (rather several buildings) in a spacious yard. There are in the whole nearly sixty rooms, and yet only six of them left for common side debtors.

"Mr. Allnut, who was many years since a prisoner here, had, during his confinement, a large estate bequeathed to him. He learned sympathy by his sufferings, and left one hundred pounds a year to release poor debtors from hence. Many are cleared by it every year."

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Mr. Bray says, government purchased the old county gaol, called the White Lion, for four thousand pounds, and built a new prison, fitted up in 1811, of which Mr. Nield gives this account: The entrance gate fronts the High street, near St. George's church, and a small area leads to the keeper's house. Behind it is a brick building, the ground floor of which contains fourteen rooms, in a double row, and three upper stories, each of the same number. They are about ten feet and a half square, eight feet and a half high, with boarded floors, a glazed window and fire-place in each, intended for male debtors. Nearly adjoining to this is a detached building, called the tap, which has on the ground floor a

BOOK II. wine room and beer room. The upper story has three rooms for female debtors, similar to those for men."

Christ Church pa

rish.

Church.

At the extremity of this prison is a small court-yard and building for Admiralty prisoners, and a chapel.

The parish of Christ Church was taken out of that of St. Saviour, and was originally part of the district called the Liberty of Paris Garden. The first church was erected at the expense of Mr. John Marshall, of Southwark, and finished in 1671, when he endowed it with an estate of sixty pounds per annum towards the support of the minister. The steeple and 'spire, which were one hundred and twenty-five feet high, were not completed till 1695. The church was seventy-five feet long, fiftyone feet broad, and twenty-six feet high. This edifice, in consequence of the badness of the foundations, soon became so ruinous, that, in 1737, Mr. Marshall's trustees applied to parliament for power to rebuild it, with the sum of two thousand five hundred pounds, which had accumulated in their hands from the trust, and obtained an act for that purpose. The present structure was accordingly erected.

It is situated in a spacious burial-ground, on the west side of Great Surrey street. The plan is nearly square; at the west end is a square tower, flanked by lobbies. The walls are of brick, with stone dressings. In the centre of the west front is the tower, which is situated partly within and partly without the wall of the church; the elevation of the western aspect is in three stories, the lower has an arched doorway, with a circular window over it, and the second and third stories have each arched windows. The walls are finished with a cornice. An octagon turret of wood rises above the parapet in two heights, the lower forming a plinth to the other; in four of the faces are dials, and the whole is finished with a

cupola and vane. The north and south sides of the CHAP. III. church are similar; each contains two series of windows, enclosed in rusticated frontispieces; the lower tier are nearly square, with segmental arches and a doorway. In the upper story are six arched windows. The walls are finished with a modillion cornice, surmounted by a low parapet. The east front has a large arch in the centre, partly occupied by a wall, and in other parts by a palladian window; on each side of this are doorways, with pediments surmounted by windows of a similar character with the flanks. The elevation is finished with the continued modillion cornice and a pediment; in the tympanum is a circular window.

The interior shows an unbroken area, and in consequence has a plain naked appearance; the walls are finished by a cornice, on which rests an horizontal ceiling, panelled. A gallery occupies the west, north, and south sides; the front is oak, panelled, and sustained on iron columns. The south and north sides of the gallery were erected in 1811, and the fronts are so well assimilated with the original western gallery, as to appear the work of one period. At the west end are two additional galleries in recesses, formed over the vestry and lobby, which contain seats for the charity children. The altar screen is very plain, it is painted to imitate verd antique, and is divided by antæ into compartments, bearing the usual inscriptions, and crowned with an entablature and elliptical pediment; the pulpit and desks are grouped on the south side of the central aisle; the former is hexagonal, with panelled fronts, it has sounding board and ogee canopy of the same form, resting on two Corinthian columns. The organ, the case of which is very plain, is placed in the western gallery. The font is a neat marble basin. The

BOOK II. great east window contains some ornamental stained

Unitarian chapel.

glass, and a painting of the descending dove; in the side ones are the arms of the see of Winchester impaled with those of Bishop Morley, who consecrated the church on its erection in 1671, and the arms of Marshall. This church was laid open to the street by the removal of a row of houses which stood on the present pathway, between the years 1818 and 1819, and the present iron railing was then erected.

In the church-yard is a plain stone to the memory of Thomas Wyon, Esq. chief engraver to his majesty's mint; died September 22, 1817, aged twenty-five.

In this parish is a charity school for thirty boys and twenty girls, maintained by subscription; a workhouse; and a neat alms-house, in Church street, founded about the year 1730, by Charles Hopton, Esq. for twenty-six decayed housekeepers, each of whom has an upper and lower room, with ten pounds per annum and a chaidron of coals.

On the south side of Stamford street is the Protestant Dissenters' chapel. The principal front, which projects a small degree before the adjacent houses, is composed of a hexastyle portico of the Doric order. The columns are of the most magnificent proportions of Grecian architecture, and the entablature is of a corresponding character; where it enters the walls of the main building, it is received upon antæ of slight projection; the whole is crowned with a pediment; there is but one entrance, which has a lintelled frontispiece. The whole design is chaste and grand, and it is only to be regretted that it does not occupy a more commanding situation. The interior is very plain; the pulpit is situated opposite the entrance, between two Doric columns, in a recess. This chapel was erected in 1821. The