The dinners were served in oblong-shaped tins, divided in the centre into two compartments, with a lid to each.
The division in the centre came up so as to form a convenient handle.
The dinners were kept pretty hot, and the meat and vegetables were well cooked—indeed there was but little to complain of as far as the living was concerned. The food was plain and homely, but wholesome, and the meat was of good quality. Sauces were, of course, not thought of, but there was a plentiful allowance of fresh vegetables.
Cabbages and parsnips were frequently served out, also rice, peas pudding, harricot beans, and preserved potatoes.
One hour was allowed for dinner, and a bell rang at twelve, and frequently in Peace’s ward all the dinners were served out before the bell began.
Many of the trades, such, for instance, as tailors and shoemakers, “knocked off” work at six o’clock, and then got their supper, after which they retire to their cells, but they must do some kind of work until the bell sounds eight o’clock, when they may cease, and are privileged to spend the ensuing hour in reading or meditation, or washing themselves, when the bell tolls again, and a clatter of hammock hooks, as long and precise almost as the grounding of arms at a military review, resounds through the corridors, and the prisoners may go to bed.
Reading during this hour is of course a great solace, and cannot be too highly estimated.
With some prisoners it is a necessity, and if the authorities were to deprive the better class of convicts of this boon many of them would doubtless be driven insane.
When the prisoner can read the beneficial workings of the mind are much aided. Although Peace was not what might be termed a great reader—that is, when outside the walls of a prison—he fully appreciated the benefit to be derived from good books during his lonely hours in a prison cell.
At this time all sorts of systems of prison discipline were tried in the gaols throughout the United Kingdom.