g evidence "as to St.
Briavel's Court and Prison," or "as to making the Forest parochial," or
"as to the rights and privileges claimed by free miners," and "as to the
rights to open or work quarries."

Of all these sections of inquiry, the only one which the Commissioners
found they could at this time bring to a close was that having reference
to St. Briavel's Court, respecting which it appeared in evidence that out
of the 402 suits brought into it during the last twelve months, all but
five were for debts mostly under 5 pounds, to recover which a charge of 6
or 7 pounds might be incurred.

The prison attached to the Court is thus described:--"There is only one
window, which is 1 foot wide, and in a recess. It does not open. The
size of the room is 16.5 feet by 17.5 feet; 13 feet high; three corners
cut off. In one corner is the doorway, 2.5 feet broad, but no door,
leading into the passage about 6 feet long, out of which the privy opens.
There is a door at the outer end of the passage, and in it a hole which
is considered necessary for air. The floor and ceiling are of wood, and
in the former are several crevices and holes. There is a space between
the ceiling of the parlour beneath and the floor of the prison-room
above, which is so filled with fleas and dust that in summer time it
cannot be got rid of by any cleanliness. The privy is a dark winding
recess, about 6 feet from front to back, taken out of the solid castle
walls. It leads to a hole going down to the bottom of the building,
which is always inaccessible for cleaning, but which till six years ago
had a drain from it into the moat; the air draws up through it into the
passage and room. There is no water within the prisoners' liberty, and
they are therefore obliged to get some person to fetch it for them. The
Courtroom is in a bad state."

[Picture: Interior of the Debtors' Prison in St. Briavel's Castle]

In consideration of these facts, the Commissioners in their Report upon
it, which was published 7th July, very properly declared that the said
Court was an evil, and required remodelling altogether, and they
suggested its conversion into a Court of Requests, in which the strict
forms of law might be dispensed with, parties appearing and being
examined in person, without the intervention of professional agents. Its
Commissioners might comprise the Constable of the Castle of St.
Briavel's, the verderers of the Forest, the magistrates of the
n