It was the practice at that time to hang the bodies of prisoners in chains as a warning to other depredators, but this also has been abolished.
There is, in Newgate, also an axe which was made to behead Thistlewood and the other Cato-street conspirators, but it was not used; the bodies of the culprits, after hanging the usual time, were taken down and decapitation was effected by the use of a sword, which was said to be dexterously used by a young surgeon engaged for the purpose.
The axe, which forms one of the curiosities of Newgate, is large and heavy, and weighs about eleven pounds.
There is also a murderer’s belt, about two and a half inches wide, for pinioning condemned persons when about to pay the last penalty of the law.
It goes round the body; and fastens behind with straps to secure the wrist, and clasp the arms close to the body.
There is likewise another used by the executioner on the drop for securing the legs. A number of these straps had been used in pinioning notorious murderers executed at Newgate, who tragic histories are recorded in the “Newgate Calendar,” and many of these leg-irons had fettered the limbs of daring highwaymen in the olden times, who used to frequent Blackheath and Hounslow-heath, Wormwood Scrubs, and a host of other places on the outskirts of the metropolis.
What thoughts do these memorials of the past conjure up!
The massive and cheerless City prison which contain these ghastly relics give us a glimpse of the rigid discipline of our forefathers.
In the meantime we returned to an ante-room leading into the governor’s office on the left-hand side of the lodge, lighted by an iron-grated window looking into the Old Bailey.
There is a cupboard here containing arms for the officers in the event of any outbreak in the prison, consisting of pistols, guns, bayonets, and cutlasses.