ion. The
'Seventh Report of the Inspectors of Prisons on the City Bridewell' is
as follows:--'The establishment answers no one object of imprisonment
except that of safe custody. It does not correct, deter, nor reform; but
we are convinced that the association to which all but the City
apprentices are subjected proves highly injurious, counteracts any
efforts that can be made for the moral and religious improvement of the
prisoners, corrupts the less criminal, and confirms the degradation of
the more hardened offenders. The cells in the old part of the prison are
greatly superior to those in the adjoining building, which is of
comparatively recent erection, but the whole of the arrangements are
exceedingly defective. It is quite lamentable to see such an injudicious
and unprofitable expenditure as that which was incurred in the erection
of this part of the prison.'"

Latterly Bridewell was used as a receptacle for vagrants, and as a
temporary lodging for paupers on their way to their respective parishes.
The prisoners sentenced to hard labour were put on a treadmill which
ground corn. The other prisoners picked junk. The women cleaned the
prison, picked junk, and mended the linen. In 1829 there was built
adjoining Bedlam a House of Occupation for young prisoners. It was
decided that from the revenue of the Bridewell hospital (L12,000)
reformatory schools were to be built. The annual number of contumacious
apprentices sent to Bridewell rarely exceeded twenty-five, and when Mr.
Timbs visited the prison in 1863 he says he found only one lad out of
the three thousand apprentices of the great City. In 1868 (says Mr.
Noble) the governors refused to receive a convicted apprentice, for the
very excellent reason that there was no cell to receive him.

The old court-room of Bridewell (84 by 29) was a handsome wainscoted
room, adorned with a great picture, erroneously attributed to Holbein
and representing Edward VI. granting the Royal Charter of Endowment to
the Mayor, which now hangs over the western gallery of the hall of
Christ's Hospital. It was engraved by Vertue in 1750, and represents an
event which happened ten years after the death of the supposed artist.
Beneath this was a cartoon of the Good Samaritan, by Dadd, the young
artist of promise who went mad and murdered his father, and who is now
confined for life in Broadmoor. The picture is now at Bedlam. There was
a fine full-length of swarthy Charles II., by Lely, and f