tortures in 1659. The father of Strangeways had left him in possession of a farm, in which he lived happily with an elder sister till she happened to form an intimate acquaintance with one Fussell, a lawyer of respectability, but so obnoxious to Strangeways that he was heard to swear, "if ever she married Fussell, to be the death of him either in his study or elsewhere." Nevertheless the marriage took place, and was followed by Fussell prosecuting certain suits against his brother-in-law. One day, as the former was sitting in his lodgings in London, whither he had repaired on business, he was struck by two bullets, which deprived him of life. Suspicion falling on Strangeways, he was taken into custody and carried before the coroner's jury, where, we are told, "he was commanded to take his dead brother-in-law by the hand, and to touch his wounds," an expedient, however, which seems to have entirely failed in producing the intended effect.

On the 24th of February, Strangeways was brought up for trial at the Old Bailey, but it was in vain that he was exhorted to plead. By not doing so, he said, "he would both preserve an estate to bestow on such friends for whom he had most affection, and withal free himself from the ignominious death of a public gibbet." Lord Chief Justice Glynn then passed on him the terrible sentence, that he "be put into a mean house, stopped from any light, and be laid upon his back

with his body bare; that his arms be stretched forth with a cord, the one to one side, the other to the other side of the prison, and in like manner his legs be used; and that upon his body be laid as much iron and stone as he can bear, and more; and the first day shall he have three morsels of barley bread, and the next shall he drink thrice of the water in the next channel to the prison door, but of no spring or fountain, and this shall be his punishment till he die!" Accordingly, on the Monday following, clothed in white from head to foot, and wearing a mourning-cloak, he was "by the sheriffs conducted to a dungeon, where, after prayers, his friends placed themselves at the corner of the press, whom he desired, when he gave the word, to lay on the weights. This they did at the signal of Lord Jesus, receive my soul; but, finding the weight too light for sudden execution, many of those standing by added their burthens to disburthen him of his pain." Eight or ten minutes are said to have elapsed before he expired.

Before quitting our notices of the Old Bailey, let us not omit to mention the frightful gaol-fever, which raged in its precincts in the month of May, 1750, and especially in the neighbouring gaol of Newgate. Notwithstanding every precaution had been taken to prevent it, the malaria made its way into court, hurrying to the grave, among other victims, the Judge of the Common Pleas, Sir Thomas

Abney; Baron Clark; the lord mayor, Sir Samuel Pennant; and several members of the bar and of the jury.

Adjoining the Old Bailey is the prison of Newgate, deriving its name from one of the old city gates, which as late as 1778 was still standing, and formed a portion of the prison. The original gate appears to have been built about the time of Henry the First, from which early period till centuries afterward it continued to be used as a place of confinement. Here, in the reign of Edward the Third, the chancellor, Robert Baldock, ended his days in prison, and here, in 1457, was imprisoned Sir Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont, who afterward fell at the battle of Northampton.

In the course of the strange and romantic career of Owen Tudor, grandfather of Henry the Seventh, it was twice his good fortune to effect his escape from Newgate. At a later period we find William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, confined here for preaching in Gracechurch Street against the Established Church; and again, in 1702, not only was Daniel Defoe a prisoner here, but within its walls he wrote his "Review," which is said to have afforded Steele his first idea of the Tatler. For a long lapse of years it bore the name of Chamberlain's-gate, but in the reign of Henry the Fifth it was rebuilt and its name changed to New-gate. Having been considerably injured by the great fire of London, it was again

rebuilt in 1672. In 1778 the latter building was demolished to make room for the present Newgate Prison. This massive building was scarcely completed, when, in 1780, broke out the famous riots which bear the name of their instigator, Lord George Gordon. In their fury, the mob tore away the stones, two or three tons in weight, to which the doors of the cells were fastened; the prisoners were released; the building was fired in several places, and in a short time became a mass of ruins. Within the walls of the restored prison Lord George died on the 1st November, 1793. The first execution which took place at Newgate was on the 9th December, 1783.

In the neighbourhood of Newgate Street are many places and objects of interest. From the south side, in the direction of St. Paul's Cathedral, runs Ivy Lane, a narrow, gloomy street, in which, for about eight years, Doctor Johnson presided over a convivial and literary club of which he was himself the founder. "The club," writes Sir John Hawkins, "met weekly at the King's Head, a famous beefsteak house in Ivy Lane, every Tuesday evening. Thither Johnson constantly resorted, and, with a disposition to please and be pleased, would pass those hours in a free and unrestrained interchange of sentiments, which otherwise had been spent at home in painful reflection." Speaking of some years later, Sir John Hawkins again writes: "About the year 1756,