[174] Hume, xi. 418.
[175] The following are some of the great people who owned prisons in those days: “The Dukes of Portland, Devonshire, Norfolk, and Leeds, the Marquis of Carnarvon, Lords Salisbury, Exeter, Arundel, and Derby, the Bishops of Salisbury, Ely, and Durham, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.”
[176] Book iv. c. 22.
[177] ‘Buxton on Prison Discipline,’ p. 11.
[178] As late as 1818 the most capricious rules prevailed as to ironing in various prisons in the country. Thus at Newgate all felons were ironed; it was the same at Chelmsford; but at Bury and Norwich all felons were without irons. Again at Coldbath Fields, only the untried and those sent for re-examination were ironed; at other places the untried were not ironed, and so on. Dr. Dodd, in his ‘Thoughts in Prison,’ refers to the horror he experienced in Newgate from the constant rattling of chains. It seems the most hardened prisoners often clanked their irons for an amusement.
[179] See ante, chap. v. p. 211.
[180] ‘Dr. Guy on Public Health,’ 183.
[181] Lind, ‘Health of our Seamen.’
[182] According to Lord Campbell, Lord Chief Justice Lee was attacked with the gaol fever in this year, but recovered. It was through Lee’s remonstrances that certain precautions were adopted, such as plunging a hot iron into a bucket full of vinegar and sweet smelling herbs. ‘Lives of the Lord Chief Justices.’
[183] Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Pringle had already published (1750) a pamphlet on hospital and ‘jayl’ fevers, in which he traced the distemper to jails being too small for their numbers, and too insecure to forego the use of dungeons. The only resource, he said, until these two evils were removed, was in ventilators.