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Where sickness pines"

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THOMSON, Winter. Sambrook Court, Aug. 15. ROM Howard's History of Prisons, he visited those of Exeter in 1775, 1779, 1783, and 1787; and although he gives an unfavourable account of the state of them, he acknowledges the attention with which he was received, and notices a prevalent disposition to promote their improvement, for which indeed there was much occasion; for he observes, that he "found the men together encouraging and confirming one another in wickedness, and the women obliged to associate with them in the day

EXETER, Devonshire.-The COUN TY HOUSE of CORRECTION-Keeper, William Ford. Salary, £150. ; and a considerable portion of the PrisonChave: who is also Chaplain to the ers' earnings.-Chaplain, Rev. Edw. Quarter Sessions. Duty; on Thurs Gaol, and to the Magistrates at their day, Prayers; on Sunday, Prayers and a Sermon. Salary, for the whole duty, 126. 10s. -Surgeon, Mr. Benjamin Walker. Salary, for the Gaol and House of Correction, £50. -Number of Prisoners, June 21, 1810, 68: every one of whom is em ployed in some kind of labour. Allowance to each, twenty-two ounces of good wheaten Bread per day.

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time."

On his visit 1787, probably his last, he notices, that an elegant Shire-hall is now finished; and hopes" that the gentlemen will turn their thoughts to this crowded, offensive, and destructive Gaol (High Gaol)."

The Coadjutor of Howard, my friend Neild, visited the prisons of Exeter in 1796 and 1803. See Letters

L. and LI. vol. LXXVIII. p. 412. 502. In the first, he describes the High Gaol for felons with approbation, but not the others, as appears by Letter LI. "I understand," he adds, "that a new Bridewell on a very good plan, adjoining to the High Gaol, is now in building, so that this miserable place of confinement is likely to be soon discontinued."

There is a pleasure in tracing the progress of virtuous exertion; and that gratification is still more heightened, when it is crowned with ample success, whilst the name of Milford will be associated with the names of Howard and Neild.

J. C. LETTSOM. GENT. MAG. August, 1810,

REMARKS. This extensive and no ble Structure, now completed, is equally admired for the solidity of its construction, the excellence of its masonry, and its handsome appearance, which will remain a lasting hostands on somewhat more than an nour to the County of Devon. It acre and a half of ground, and is situate in a field, on a fine eminence adjoining to the County Gaol. Its foundation was laid near three years since; and underneath is placed a tin plate, with the following inscription :

"The Foundation Stone of this House of Correction was laid by SAMUEL FREDERICK MILFORD, Esq. Chairman of a Committee of Magis trates of the County of Devon, in the Presence of the said Committee, on the 22d Day of August, in the Year

1807.

"GEO. MONEYPENNY, Architect."

The Prison is encircled by a boundary wall, twenty-two feet high; in the front of which is the Keeper's lodge, a handsome stone building, rendered very conspicuous by a noble gate of entrance, sixteen feet high, and eight feet wide; adorned with rustic cinctures and arch-stones of uncommon granden, adopted from a design of the Earl of Burlington, as executed in the flanks of Burlington House, Piccadilly. Above the gate is a stone cornice, crowned with a tablet, on which is inscribed:

"THE HOUSE OF CORRECTION FOR THE COUNTY OF DEVON; ERECTED IN THE YEAR 1809." On passing the lodge, in which are the turnkey's apartments, amply

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fitted up with every accommodation, a spacious flag-stone pavement leads through a neat shrubbery to the keeper's house, an octagon building, situate in the centre of the Prison; on the ground-floor of which are a Committee-room for the Magistrates, a parlour for the keeper, an officeroom, and a kitchen: and underneath, in the basement story, are large vaulted apartments for domestic purposes.

The House of Correction consists of three wings, detached from the keeper's house by an area twelve feet wide; each wing containing two Prisons totally distinct, so that there are six divisions for as many classes of Prisoners, with a spacious court-yard appropriated to each, surrounded by wrought-iron railing, six feet high, which prevents access to the boundary-wall, and preserves a free coinmunication of 12 feet in breadth betwixt the wall and the courtyards.

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The entrances to all the court-yards and prison apariments open from the area round the keeper's house, through wrought-iron grated gates opposite the several windows of his apartments. There are also iron-grated apertures in the arcades of the ground-floor, which open into the area; so that the whole Prison is completely inspected, and the different classes attended to, without the necessity of passing or entering the court-yards; the keeper from the windows of his own dwelling having a view into the airing grounds and workshops of all

the divisions.

In each court-yard, on the ground floor, are spacious vaulted arcades, fitted up as work-shops for tight employment; and in which a number of prisoners are occupied in weaving, picking, and sorting wool, beating hemp, cutting bark, &c. Adjoining to the arcade in cach division, is a day-room, lighted by two large sash windows, and fitted up with a patent kitchen stove, which answers every purpose of domestic cookery, Between the stone piers that support the vaulted cieling of the day-rooms, are wooden dressers; and henches of wood are placed round the rooms. The prisoners have access to the day rooms only during their meals, and for one hour previously to their being locked up.

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On the first floor of each division, to which the ascent is by stone staircases, are six cells, and on the second floor six others, making in all seventytwo; each seven feet by ten, and ten feet six inches high to the crown of the arch; lighted and ventilated by iron-grated apertures over the doors, of two feet six inches by one foot, without glass. Each cell is fitted up with one, and some with two wooden bedsteads, in the form of those used in the Royal Hospital at Haslar, to be used in case of necessity. All the cells open into spacious and lofty arcades, guarded by iron rails; and thus a free circulation of air is preserved, which cannot fail to render this Prison always more healthful than it could be with close confined passages, into which the cells and rooms of other Prisons too generally open. The floors of all the cells and arcades are paved with large flag-stones, and the cell-doors lined with iron-plates.

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On the upper floor, at the back of the right and left wing, are two rooms, each thirteen feet six inches by ten feet, and ten feet six inches high, to the crown of the arch, set apart for faulty apprentices. These rooms are lighted by sash windows, and have a fire-place in each; the floors are paved with flag-stones, and each room is fitted up with wooden bedsteads, în like manner as the cells.

On the first floor of the keeper's house is the Chapel, an irregular octagon, 38 feet in diameter, and 14 feet high; lighted by eight large sash windows, and neatly divided by framed partition pews, which are so heightened by crimson blinds, as to prevent the classes seeing each other. The prisoners have a communication with the Chapel, from the first floor of the arcades, into the different divisions set apart for each class of prisoners, where they enter and return, without mixing with, or being in sight of each other.

This Prison is supplied with fine water from a reservoir (placed on an arcade in the area between the back wing of the Prison and the Keeper's house) which is filled from a well underneath by an Hydraulic pump of excellent contrivance, that is worked by the prisoners every morning, From the reservoir pipes are laid into all the day-rooms of the Prison, the turnkey's lodge, and the kitchen of

the

the keeper's house; in each of which rooms, eight in number, is fixed a stone trough, with a pipe and cock. The sewers of this Prison are judiciously placed at the ends of the different wings: they are spacious, lofty, well ventilated, and the vaults are 30 feet deep.

All the areas and walks round the Prison, and the arcades and day-rooms, are paved with large flag-stones, and the six court-yards with fine gravel. The roofs of the whole building are so constructed as to shelter the walls and the foot-paths round the Prison in wet weather. They project five feet beyond the walls, and the soffit of the projection is relieved by cantilivers, in the manner of the early Grecian Temples; of which the Church of St. Paul, Covent Garden, is an example.

At the back of the Prison, and communicating therewith, is a spa

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I am, my dear Sir,

Yours most sincerely,
JAMES NEILD.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF HORACE.

BOOK I. SATIRE VI.

cious work-yard, in which are some To Dr. Lettsom, London.
extensive working-shops, for the pur-
pose of more laborious employment
than is carried on immediately within
the Prison; such as hewing and po-
lishing stone, sawing timber, cutting
bark, &c. In this work-yard are two
sewers, and a pump which affords a
supply of very fine water.

It is in contemplation to erect an Hospital for the use of the Gaol and Bridewell; which will be a detached building, and contain airy wards for male and female invalids, with hot and cold Baths.

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The Rules and Regulations for the Government of this Prison are excellent their principal tendency is to enforce Cleanliness, Morality, and Habits of Industry. The greatest stress is also laid on the constant Separation of the Prisoners into distinct Classes, arranged according to the respective nature of their offences; so that the more criminal may no longer corrupt those who have been committed for slight offences, and thus render them far more depraved, than before their imprisonment; which was inevitably the case in the Old Bridewell.

(Continued from p. 22.)

Quo tibi Tulli, &c.] Who this Tillius, or Tullius (as he is called in most MSS.) was, is not known; perhaps it is only a fictitious name. That Horace designed by it to characterize somebody, who neither by personal merit, nor by birth and opulence, was justified in his pretensions to be of importance in the Government, is manifest from the whole context. So much the more absurd is it in Baxter, fondly to imagine, with the pæda gogues Lubinus and Minellius, that he was endeavouring to render ridicu lous the man who in talents and acquirements surpassed all his countrymen that had gone before him, and played one of the principal parts in the Commonwealth; in short, no less a personage than M. Tullius Cicero, in this passage so utterly and altogether inapplicable to him. Such nonsense deserves no refutation, and serves only as a fresh instance, how an author of Horace's class must submit to be insulted, when matters are once come to that pass with him he had himself foretold in the Epistle to his Book,

MY DEAR FRIEND, The Prison I have just described, will long remain a monument of humanity and attention to the health and morals of Prisoners.

The spirited exertions of that active

ut pueros elementa docentem Occupet extremis in vicis balba senectus.

Nigris medium, &c.] The patricians and senators were distinguished from the inferior classes by a particular kind of half-boots of black shammy leather, which were called mul

leos.

Latum demisit pectore clavum.] The custom of garnishing the cloaths by sewing on them stripes of purple, narrow or broad, seems to have been brought from Asia into Greece, from whence it found its way into Italy. At Rome King Tullus Hostilius was the first that adopted this fashion; and in process of time, the purple stripes on the tunica grew into a badge of distinction, by which the knights were cognizable from the commonalty, and the senators from the knights. The tunica of the knight had a couple of narrow purple stripes on either side tending downwards, and therefore denominated angusticlavia; whereas the senators were distinguished by a single broad stripe (latus clavus) descending across the breast to the girdle. The patricians appear to have worn the latus clavus as their privilege by birth, and prior to the adoption of the toga virilis. Augustus extended this privilege to all sons of senators, and in after-ages it was conferred ab indulgentiâ principis, and the latus clavus became a grace, which might be obtained by favour or fortune, even without the accessaries of birth and honours. In the reign of Augustus, when care was had to make the decline of the antient usages by all kinds of modifications less strange and surprising, the son of a plebeian might rise to the equestrian order by being a tribunus militum, as the son of a knight could by the same military post, ascend to the senatorian, or the right of the latus clavus. Under the later Emperors less strictness still was observed with relation to it, and a great number of titular tribunes were decorated with that honour, purely that they might be entitled to the latus clavus. This right, therefore, became at last so common, that it ceased to be an honourable mark of distinction. Concerning all

* These titulares were however, apparently, obliged to perform a half year's duty, and that was the tribunalis semestris mentioned by several Roman authors of this cra.

these, and a multitude of other particulars relative to this subject, whoever takes as much delight in it as Mr. Walter Shandy was wont to do, may consult the learned work of Rubenius de Re Vestiaria Romanorum, præcipuè de lato clavo, where he will find collected together all that the most patient industry could gather from every writer and monument of Antiquity. To conclude, Gesner, in explanation of the expression sumere depositum clavum, has very well observed, that even simple candidates for the senatorian dignity, in hopes of success, affected to put on the latus clavus by anticipation, and therefore, on a failure, were obliged again to lay it aside. This, as it should seem, had been the case with Tillius, whom the Poet apostrophises in this place; he had, however, at last found means to seize upon the tribunate, as a post conferring a title to the latus clavus.

Sic qui promittit, &c.] This probably may be in allusion to the form of the oath administered to the principal magistrates at entering upon their office.

Dejicere è saxo, &c.] The Tarpeian rock formed the Southern point of the Capitoline mount, where, probably, anterior to the time of Romulus, an antient fortress had stood. Tarpeia, a daughter of Sp. Tarpeius, who had the command of that post, was, according to an old fabulous tradition, bribed by Tatius, the Captain of the Latins, to open to him a private door into the fort; and from her that angular rock is reported to have received its name. Several instances occur in the Roman history, which shew, that tribuni plebis, even persons of the foremost ranks, were menaced with destruction from the Tarpeian rock, which probably in days of yore had been the punishment inflicted on such as were attainted of treason, or other atrocious felonies. That in Ho race's time it was not yet abolished, is evident from this passage; and that Cæsar Tiberius brought it again into practice on the person of Sextus Marius, who (to his sorrow) was the richest man in all Spain, is mentioned by Tacitus, in the 19th Chapter of the with Book of his Annals. Cadmus seems to have been the name of a then well-known public executioner. Upon the whole, this passage appears to me

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light in 689, he was then in his three and twentieth year. On the fata issue of that famous action, of which the death both of Brutus and Cassius were the proximate and most unfortunate effects, Horace availed himself of the general amnesty, which was granted by the conqueror to all such adherents of those two great Champions of Liberty, as should lay down their arms and peaceably return to their houses. He came home (as he expresses himself in the Epistle to Julius Florus) decisis humilis pennis, with pinions clipt, and humbled pride. His little paternal estate at Venusium was forfeited by the proscription decreed by the triumvirate against all the accomplices in the murder of Cæsar and their partizans. He was thus reduced to a situation which left him no other resource than what his excellent education and his talent for poetry offered, wherein (as may be inferred from a passage in the 10th Satire) he had already exercised himself during his stay at Athens *. He no doubt soon after became acquainted with the two poets, Virgil and Varius, who, by the attachment they conceived for him, laid the foundation of his future good fortune, by recommending him to the patronage of Mæcenas. It was only in the year 713, that Virgil himself had come from Mantua to Rome, and got acquainted with that celebrated character; and, on the reasonable supposition, that in consequence of some intimate converse with his new friend, he must have been previously convinced of his other amiable qualities, ere he could venture to tell the friend and favourite of Octavius Cæsar, quis esset; and as, morcover, between the time when this first happened, and the day when Horace was presented to Mæcenas, a considerable interval (as by the word olim we are given to understand) must have elapsed: we may upon good grounds admit, that it could scarcely be earlier than the year 715 when he made his introductory attendance on Mæcenas. tween that and the day when Mæcenas sent for him again, and informed him, that he might in future look upon him as his friend, nine months had elapsed: the epocha of the more intimate and confidential con

particularly remarkable, as it is impossible to avoid concluding from it, that the Roman people must have been under a strange infatuation, so as, amidst the various measures that Octavius Cæsar was taking preparatory to a total revolution in the Govern ment, to imagine that in their Commonwealth every thing was still going on upon the antient footing. At least Horace here makes them speak in a strain as if they did; and that in a discourse addressed to Mæcenas !

Novius.] Probably no other than a fictitious name for any novus homo, who was born a degree lower still than Tillius, or was the son of a Dama or Syrus, whom Horace makes the people upbraid as before expressed, it is evident moreover, that in this passage throughout he is speaking of the popular tribunes.

Quod erat meus.] Libertinus scilicet.

At hic.] Novius.

Nulla etenim tibi me fors obtulit.] In reading tibi me instead of mihi te, 1 again follow Bentley and common sense. Nothing can be more frigid than the here so misplaced joke of Baxter, unless it be Gesner's annexed

notula.

Satureiano caballo.] Servius, an antient Commentator on Virgil, speaks of a town called Satureium, in the district of Tarentumn, that has escaped the notice of Cellarius. That district, in general one of the finest in Italy, was particularly famous for its breed of horses; and that satisfactorily elucidates this passage. The turn of thought is ingenious, in order to give a gentle stroke at the provincial townsmen, who, on their first attendance upon any great man in the metropolis, naturally wished to make themselves of some consequence by talking of their estates, their horses, pack-hounds, &c.

Respondes, ut tuus est mos, &c.] This passage is particularly deserving of notice, as furnishing us with data, from whence the era of several lead-. ing coincidences in the life of our Poet may be accurately ascertained. Horace, at the battle of Philippi, which happened in the year 712, was at the head of a legion, under the command of Brutus, with whom he had become acquainted two years before at Athens. As he first saw the

*Sat. lib. i. Sat. 10. ver. 31.

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