“A very large number must have been buried here at one time and another,” I remarked.
“Bless you, yes sir,” replied the Newgate warder of long service, “you can’t see half the letters. They used to be all over the other wall as well, but, being whitened every year, the letters at last got filled up.”
It was not a pleasant idea, and I believe that the cracked and unstable condition of the paving-stones suggested it, but it came into my mind as I scanned the walls and made out scores and scores of ancient letters, showing ghostlike through the obliterating whitewash, what a hideous crowd it would make if those to whom the initials applied could all in a moment be recalled to life.
The narrow alley would not hold them all. There would ensue such a ferocious crushing and striving for escape that there would be murder done over again, and such work for Mr. Marwood that he would be striking for extra pay.
A hundred years ago the public executioners of the metropolis were kept uncommonly busy.
According to the Newcastle Chronicle, of July 29th, 1780, there were thirteen criminals hanged in the four days from July 18th to 21st, 1780, and of these ten had been convicted of complicity in the Gordon Riots, the remainder being for highway robbery.
One of the condemned rioters was a Jew, named Solomons. The report of the executions says:—
“Yesterday morning (July 21st), at a quarter-past six o’clock, Thomas Price, James Burn, Benj. Walters, Jona. Stacey, and George Staples, convicts, for rioting, &c., in Golden-lane and Moorfields, were called up to prayers, and about eight o’clock the three former had their irons knocked off, put in a cart, and conveyed in the same order as before to the end of Golden-lane, Old-street-road.
“At their coming out of Newgate, James Burn desired the carman not to drive so fast, which was complied with.
“On their arrival at the place of execution, the Ordinary got up into the cart, prayed with them for some considerable time, when he left them, and they were tied up—shortly after they shook hands with each other, and said, as they had lived together on earth, and died, so they hoped they should live together in Heaven—their caps were pulled over their faces, and they were launched into eternity, while the clock was striking nine.