t a word was uttered during the time of our
remaining, unless, indeed, by the wardswoman in reply to some question
which we put to the turnkey who accompanied us. In every ward on the
female side, a wardswoman is appointed to preserve order, and a similar
regulation is adopted among the males. The wardsmen and wardswomen are
all prisoners, selected for good conduct. They alone are allowed the
privilege of sleeping on bedsteads; a small stump bedstead being placed
in every ward for that purpose. On both sides of the gaol, is a small
receiving-room, to which prisoners are conducted on their first
reception, and whence they cannot be removed until they have been
examined by the surgeon of the prison. {161}

Retracing our steps to the dismal passage in which we found ourselves at
first (and which, by-the-bye, contains three or four dark cells for the
accommodation of refractory prisoners), we were led through a narrow yard
to the 'school'--a portion of the prison set apart for boys under
fourteen years of age. In a tolerable-sized room, in which were
writing-materials and some copy-books, was the schoolmaster, with a
couple of his pupils; the remainder having been fetched from an adjoining
apartment, the whole were drawn up in line for our inspection. There
were fourteen of them in all, some with shoes, some without; some in
pinafores without jackets, others in jackets without pinafores, and one
in scarce anything at all. The whole number, without an exception we
believe, had been committed for trial on charges of pocket-picking; and
fourteen such terrible little faces we never beheld.--There was not one
redeeming feature among them--not a glance of honesty--not a wink
expressive of anything but the gallows and the hulks, in the whole
collection. As to anything like shame or contrition, that was entirely
out of the question. They were evidently quite gratified at being
thought worth the trouble of looking at; their idea appeared to be, that
we had come to see Newgate as a grand affair, and that they were an
indispensable part of the show; and every boy as he 'fell in' to the
line, actually seemed as pleased and important as if he had done
something excessively meritorious in getting there at all. We never
looked upon a more disagreeable sight, because we never saw fourteen such
hopeless creatures of neglect, before.

On either side of the school-yard is a yard for men, in one of
which--that towards Newgate-street