who has been
pictured to our eyes as there testing the powers of his endurance, by
holding his finger in the lighted flame of the candle, to satisfy his
friends that he should not shrink from the bodily pangs that were on the
morrow to earn for him the crown of martyrdom. Solemn and sad are the
memories clustered around these dreary tombs of liberty, nor is their
atmosphere tempting to linger in, even upon a visit of curiosity.

The winding stair from _the dungeon_ leads into what is now a porch-way,
but which must once have been the site of the old chapel, built for the
use of the prisoners. This chapel was dedicated to St. Barbara, the
prisoner's saint, who, according to the legend of the Romish church, "was
imprisoned by her father, in a high strong tower, to the end that no man
should behold her," and therefore St. Barbara is always represented with
a tower. She is commemorated on the fourth of December, as St. Barbara,
the Virgin and Martyr. Here, were formerly kept all the goods and
chattels appertaining to the mayorality and civic feasts, in addition to
the services belonging to the chapel itself; but about the era of the
Reformation the chapel was pulled down, to make way for secular offices.
How busy those good reformers were in abolishing every place dedicated to
worship, that their judgment deemed supernumerary! When the treasury
tower fell in, it crushed a prison, known by the name of "_Little Ease_;"
the full details of whose attractions we are left in ignorance of. Upon
the first floor, near the site of the chapel, was once the large chamber,
where the sealing of the cloths manufactured in the city was carried on,
since converted into an assize court, where the notorious lawmongers of
this city, with their brother dignitaries of the bar, join forces to
promote the ends of justice, their clients, and their own. There is a
queer old document extant, wherein the number of learned gentlemen
permitted to follow the profession of the law in this city was limited,
"because," as the preamble states, "when there were no more than six or
eight attorneys at the most coming to the king's courts, great
tranquillity reigned in the city and county, and little trouble or
vexation was made by untrue and foreign suits; and now, so it is, that in
the said city and county there be fourscore attornies, or more, the more
part having nothing to live upon but only his gain by the practice of
attorneyship, and also the more