The

"In 1779 I went through Flanders into Germany, and getting acquainted with Col. (afterwards Gen.) Dalton, I was, through his interest, permitted to visit La Maison de Force, at Ghent. This was, without exception, the best planned and the best regulated prison I had seen before, or, I think, since. It is situated near a canal; the plan octagon; separate courts for men vagrants and men criminals: one side is for women, and in the middle of their court is a bason of water for washing the linen of the house; and a large wooden horse, to ride by way of punishment; their bedrooms uniform, and in a range, something like Chelsea Hospital; every range opens into a gallery or lobby, which is open to the air of the court: the prisoner has an uniform clothing, with the number of his room. work-rooms are on the ground floor, and there were more than 100 prisoners, with only one person to superintend them; he was at one end of the room, with a desk before him, and a large book, in which were entered the names of the prisoners, the crimes for which they were committed, the time of imprisonment, from one to twenty years, according to their crimes; the day the work was begun, the day it was finished, the measure of the piece, the task due per day, observations, such as sick, lame, &c. &c. and deficiency of task, punishment, &c. &c. &c. Though this room was so crowded, not a word was spoken by any of the prisoners during the time we inspected it; no noise or confusion, all were silent and attentive to their work; in short, it appeared a most noble institution. A few years after, being at Ghent, I think in 1784, having no acquaintance there, I could not gain admission; but was told the manufactory was destroyed, and the whole in a very bad state. At Bruges the prison is on a much smaller scale; some were employed in making cloaths, and others in making saddles, bridles, &c. &c. for the army. In 1780 I had the honour of the King's commission in a corps of volunteer infantry, in which I was actively employed, till there was no further occasion for our services. In 1781 I visited Warwick Gaol, and in the dungeons caught the gaol fever or distemper. Mr. Roe, the keeper, was too ill to accompany me, and sent his turnkey. Roe's death was, I believe, acceJerated by drinking. When I found myself sick, which was almost immediately, I took a post chaise to Stratford, where I arrived just as the coach was setting out to London. I got into it, and soon reached St. James's-street.

I did not, however, recover for some time. This sickness, and my young fa. mily, made me more cautious of entering dungeons, which had now become less necessary, from the labours of the immortal Howard, whose visits and inquiries comprehended every class of prisoners, whilst mine were particularly

directed to the debtors.

"I did not wholly abstain from making remarks on felons, particularly in the dungeons of the two prisons at Ches. ter and Liverpool.

"The acts which passed in conse quence of the benevolent Howard's Reports, produced an immediate and ge neral reform in prison police, by the abolition of taps Several new gaols were built, in which solitary cells supplied the place of dungeons; and, in many prisons, women were not loaded with irons. From this period to 1791 my visits were less frequent, and extended to the country, as business would permit.

"This year I lost a most amiable wife, my own health was rapidly on the decline, and my business increased beyond my abilities or power to manage. In 1792, having only two sons to provide for, I retired from business with a very ample fortune; and, as my health became restored, recommenced my prison visits and inquiries, reports of which (as far as related to debtors) I made regularly, at the meetings of the committee, in Craven-street. In 1800, when the excessive dearness of provisions, and the difficulties of the poorer classes of the people required an extraordinary relief, the necessity of a general visit and inquiry into the state of all the gaols struck me very forcibly.

"I set about it immediately, and in 1801 published my first Account of Debtors, by which it appeared there were 39 prisons in England and Wales which did not furnish the debtor with any allowance whatever; and in these there were, in the month of April 1800, 427 persons confined to this wretched state of captivity. Lord Romney, as President of our Society, did me the honour of presenting this book to the King, and his Majesty was pleased most graciously to receive it. The approba tion with which it was honoured by the publick, together with the very consi derable benefactions to the Society for Relief of Persons imprisoned for Small Debts in consequence of it, induced me

"The two-penny loaf in London, August 1783, weighed 21 ounces. In March 1801, the two-penny loaf in Lon don weighed only six ounces."

to

to publish a new and more copious edition, in 1802, and likewise extend my visits to Scotland and Wales.

"As I kept a diary, so I wrote to my benevolent friend Dr. Lettsom, an account of the most striking occurrences; and to his suggestions alone the pub lishing my prison remarks owe their origin. It had been my constant practice, in my various prison excursions during a period of 30 years, to wait upon the magistrates, particularly of cities and boroughs, and respectfully to represent what I saw amiss in their gaols. I was always received with cordiality and kindness; and, as they were struck with compassion at the recital, reform was determined upon, and resolutions entered into; but, after a lapse of eight or ten years, guess my surprize, when I found nothing done! So total and general a neglect must be produced by some cause. I inquired into it, and found many who were magistrates, from local situations, and before they were acquainted with its duties, were out of the commission; others, whose active situations in commerce denied them time; some, who had large families, were afraid to venture inside of the pri son; and many were numbered with the dead. Under these discouraging circumstances I had almost despaired, when Providence raised up a man, by whose labour the cloud was dispelled; and that life, hitherto spent uselessly, became fruitful. If Howard owed any thing to Fothergill, I am in a ten-fold degree indebted to Dr. John Coakley Lettsom. He first suggested, nay, requested permission to publish some of those crude remarks, which I had sent for his perusal, and by which communication I had found a sensible relief: they were begun and continued without design; written in the hours of fatigue, lassitude, sickness, and the bustle of inns; little calculated to appear before the publick, except in matters of fact.

"These remarks on prisons were introduced with a preface, which caused a general sensation, and brought a degree of celebrity on the Visitor of Prisons he neither desired or deserved; whilst it enriched his funds as Treasurer to the Society for Small Debts, in the sum of 3281. 2s. 9d. evidently occasioned by the reading the Gentleman's Magazine, in which they were inserted.

"The benevolence of my friend did not rest here; for, as he was no stranger to the inside of the prison-house, so did he frequently accompany me those abodes of guilt and misery, and suggest what his professional skill so well enabled him to do, to my great ad

to

vantage, and the prisoners' comforts. Many new gaols are now (1806) building; and, from the alterations and improvements which have been making these four years, and are now daily making, the particulars of which my "State of Prisons' will notice, my visits will become less necessary. As soon as this Work is published, and I can provide for my necessary absence, I propose visiting Ireland; and happy will the short remaining period of my life be spent, if I can suggest to a brave and generous people, any improvements in their prison police, and of which I am informed there is much need."

[The Memoir here terminates, but not so the benevolent labours of Mr. Neild. His health did not, however, allow him to visit Ireland as he intended; but he continued to inspect the various prisons of England, Scotland, and Wales, and to suggest numerous improvements, both in regard to the construction of the wards, and the internal management of these establishments. In 1812 he published the "State of Prisons," above alluded to, in a large and very elegant 4to volume, with a portrait of the author. It is a Work teeming with valuable information.

He continued his exertions, as Trea surer of the Society for Small Debts, until the time of his death, which took place Feb. 16, in the year 1814.

T. J. PETTIGREW.]

Stained

Stained Glass, confining my investigation to its origin and progress, in this kingdom, to the present time. My object will be, to ascertain the date of its introduction, and to oppose facts to certain erroneous statements concerning it, particularly as to its practice having entirely ceased; or, what has gained a more general belief, that the artists of the modern school have been, or now are, unable to produce so much brilliancy of colour as those of the ancient.

No specimen probably remains in any sacred building of a date antecedent to the reign of Henry the Third. Leaving the disputed fact as it stands, as to whether we implicitly copied our Church Architecture from France, or invented it for ourselves, it appears beyond a doubt that stained glass was in almost general usage in that country for nearly two centuries before it was in any degree of frequency among us*.

The examples in proof which I shall adduce in the course of this little discussion, will be those only which may be inspected by the curious investigator, without coumerating those of which authentic descriptions are given, but which have been sacrilegiously broken in pieces, or have been gradually decayed by the effect of the external air during the lapse of several centuries.

In point of chronology, I believe one of the first of well-authenticated specimens is at Chetwood in Buckinghamshire +. The design has great elegance. Small whole-length figures of kings and saints are inclosed within ovals; there are likewise escocheons, flowers in various patterns, and inscriptions in the Iongo-bardic character. Little doubt can be entertained but that these were manufactured in France. Date 1240, if coeval with the church.

The Thirteenth Century.

The murder of Thomas à Becket is the earliest attempt at historical representation which I have seen. The original still remains in Canterbury Cathedral, and another in the Cathedral Church at Oxford. The penance of Henry 11. once in the Church of Rollright, in Oxfordshire, is now in the Bodleian Library. These are all of them upon a small scale.

The Fourteenth Century was the era of the introduction of large windows, and a consequent enlargement of the subjects represented in them. The windows were divided by mullions, and finished in the heads by segments of circles and rosettes or compartments formed by many, combined in one outline. Usually, the first contained a niche, canopy and pedestal, resembling tabernacle work, in stone or wood, but com posed of an infinite variation of the common colours. Inclosed was an upright figure of a prophet, a king, or an ecclesiastic of the higher de grees. In the second were placed escocheons and mosaics. Such were certainly the most frequent subjects, some of which are yet unremoved in the anti-chapel of New College, Oxford. Scripture histories, from both the Old and New Testament, are in York Cathedral, which are attri butable to this age.

Towards the close of it, this art was applied to portraits, which, if they bore no great resemblance to the life, were.arked by the armour peculiar to the age, and identified by their surcoats and escocheons. They stood under most splendid canopies

At Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, is the only remaining series to which I can refer, as having escaped the demolition in which so many of our Conventual buildings are lost.

The

very numerous copyists, they were more especially applied to Glass, as a vehicle. The first attempts were made in chiaro-scuro only, called by the French "Grisaille." Soon, however, they applied colours, in the composition of which their skill in chemistry mainly assisted them, and they produced an extraordinary richness or brilliancy, as the picture might demand them. The professors of this art were established at Ghent, and at Gouda in Holland. There is evidence that Henry VII. employed English artists for bis Chapel at Westminster, who afterwards furnished those of King's College. The designs, which are excellent, were pro-cured from the Continent, and were painted as cartoons for tapestry. For his palace at New Hall, Essex, he received from the magistrates of Dort, in Holland, a window, the subject of which is the Crucifixion, with the portraits of Heory and his Queen, on either side of it. This very beautiful piece is now preserved in the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster. Portraits usually described as kneeling, and habited in tabards, were not in the first instance seen in this century. Those of John of Gaunt, and Archbishop Chicheley, semain perfect at All Souls College, Oxford. Henry VI. is still in King's College Chapel, at Cambridge. Edward IV. his queen and daughters, are seen at Canterbury, and in the Church of Lle 'Malvern, Worcestershire, but in a mutilated state. These are enumerated merely on account of their date. But now the art had gained

such improvement from its applica tion to historical subjects, that the portraits conveyed a certain idea of likeness to the originals. At Great Malvern are preserved the portraits of Prince Arthur, Sir Reginald Bray (the architect of that church, and of the Nave at Windsor), and others, which are the best examples I could cite t. A very finely finished wiodow, exhibiting the portraits of some of the family of Fettiplace, was set up at Childrey in Berks, dated 1511. It is still in their possession, and is, without doubt, of Flemish workmanship. In the earliest part of this century, the subjects from Scripture in the large windows of Baliol College, Oxford, and of Peterhouse, Cambridge, were severally placed, and, I am inclined to believe, brought from the Continent. It is certain that our native artists were few, and incom petent to great works, and that se veral foreigners were encouraged in England in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII.

The Seventeenth Century. There was, in consequence of the Reformation, not only a want of encouragement of the art of Glassstaining, but from the intemperance of zeal in the reformers, a very wide destruction of its best specimens. Queen Elizabeth issued an ordinance that plain glass should be, as far as possible, substituted for coloured, if superstitious, a circumstauce left to the decision of those who were thos authorized to break them in pieces. Fortunately several of the large Scripture histories escaped.

for his work of destruction.

But