apable of accommodating 260 inmates; and, with grounds attached, covers
an area of between four and five acres. It is now known as "The Union,"
and the union district embraces 69 parishes, represented by 76 guardians,
to whom, as already stated, the former duties of the overseers were
transferred in 1839.

The Rev. Canon A. E. Moore is the present Chaplain.

THE COURT HOUSE.

The majesty of the law has not always been so worthily domiciled in
Horncastle as during the last forty years. In Stukeley's map of the
town, dated 1722, the Sessions House is placed at the south-east corner
of the "Mercat Place," where there now (1908) stands a small refreshment
house. The cells for prisoners probably formed the basement of this
building, as there is no known record of their being confined elsewhere,
until the year 1821, when what was called the "Round House" was built, at
the north-east corner of the Market Place, opposite the present Lord
Nelson Inn. This was a small circular building, having two cells, with a
colonnade running round it, which formed a shelter for market women
selling butter, eggs, &c. The foundations of this structure were so
shallow that it is on record that a prisoner, in the course of one night,
scratched a passage under the wall and effected his escape. {135} This
prison was demolished in 1853, when the present police station was built,
facing the Wong, at a cost of 500 pounds, having four cells, for 12
prisoners, and a residence for a superintendent and constable.

[Picture: The Court House]

Some years later fresh premises were rented for the magistrates, on the
south side of the High Street, adjoining the George Hotel, now extinct,
though then a leading establishment. That site is now occupied by the
Lincoln and Lindsey Bank.

In 1843 the magistrates' office was transferred to what is now 19, Bull
Ring, part of the shop of Messrs. Robinson, Drapers. All these premises
proving inadequate for their purpose, the present Court House was built
in 1865, on the site of the former parish stocks, the site, a slight
rising ground, being called "Stocks' Hill," at a cost of 3,000 pounds.
The architect was Mr. C. Reeves, of London, the builder Mr. Huddleston,
of Lincoln. The furniture was supplied by Messrs. Pike & Wright, of
Horncastle; gas fittings by Mr. Murrell, of Chelsea.

In this handsome building, of white brick, there is accommodation for
many branches of public,