We not long ago read of a person who wrote a book in one language and compiled an Index to it in another. This Index is almost as curious. It is a county Index, but refers only to the places mentioned in the accounts for each county, and not to the places actually situate in each county. The results are strange enough. Thus we find Lancaster in Lincolnshire, Stafford in Oxfordshire, Somerset in Wiltshire and Berkshire; Limerick in Sussex, and London in half the counties of England! We presume that this is another of the labours of the great unknown' of the Record Commission: if so, we humbly thank him for it. Next time, he will probably give us an Index to every page instead of every county. But when will next time be? Not before the Greek Calends. **Since this article was printed, we have read in the newspapers that the House of Commons has referred the proceedings of the Record Commissioners to the consideration of a Select Committee. We have long looked forward to this result as not merely likely to ensue, but as calculated, when it did come, to do much good. If the Committee will throw aside all party-considerations, and make truth their sole aim, we are confident that the results will not be displeasing to those who think the objects of the Commission to be of very high importance, who have been disappointed that so little has been done towards effecting them, and have lamented that of that little, so very small a portion has been done well. For thirty-five years past we have been looking for the harvest; but alas! in some places the seed has only just now been sown. It is evident from the extraordinary mistakes which abound in the speech of the Honourable Mover for the Committee, that there exists a great deal of misunderstanding as to the powers, the objects, and the publications of the Commissioners. All this will be set right by an inquiry. If any honourable persons have been unjustly accused, they will have an opportunity of vindicating themselves; and, on the other hand, if any persons of mean and mercenary character have misled the Commissioners with a view to their own advantage; if any persons whose knowledge of records extended little beyond an ability to count their words, have been permitted to disgrace the Commissioners by their ignorance, the day of reckoning has arrived. The literary public, as well as the Committee, will have the means of forming a just judgment, not only of those foul birds of prey' who have regarded the Commission merely as a means of enriching themselves, but also of those who have done much, if not every thing, towards its emancipation from improper control, and towards placing it upon a footing consistent with the dignity and utility of the purposes for which it was issued. We shall look for the results with very great interest. THE GATE-HOUSE, WESTMINSTER. IN the accompanying engraving, we have again the pleasure of presenting to our readers a view of a building of considerable interest, now destroyed, and of which no representation has hitherto been published. The Gate-house at Westminster, a place long familiar to the inhabitants of the metropolis as one of the public prisons, was originally the principal approach to the inclosure of the monastery, from the open space in front of the western towers of the Abbey church. Turning also at a right angle, it had another gateway facing those towers, and leading directly to Tothillstreet, then the principal thoroughfare, next to King-street, of the old city of Westminster. We are informed by Stow, that this Gatehouse was erected in the reign of Edward the Third, whilst Walter Warfield administered, as Cellarer, the household affairs of the monastery. "The Gatehouse (says the old historian), is so called of two Gates, the one out of the Colledge Court [now called Great Dean's Yard,] toward the north, on the east side wherof was the Bishop of London's Prison for Clarkes convict: And the other Gate adjoyning to the first, but towards the west, is a gaole or prison for offenders thither committed. Walter Warfield, Cellerer to the Monastery, caused both those Gates (with the appurtenances) to bee builded in the reigne of Edward the third." This account of the Gatehouse, given by John Stow in his first edition of 1598, was repeated without alteration or addition in every subsequent reprint, and forms the substance of all that is said of the building in any other history of London. Little can now be added to it, except to trace the continued use of the building as a prison. After a time, we find that another Gatehouse, which led from King-street to New Palace Yard, near St. Margaret's church, was employed for the same purpose. It is stated in Seymour's History of London, printed in 1735, that the Gatehouse into the New Palace Yard is a Prison for the Liberty of Westminster, the Prison being some years since removed from the old Gatehouse by Tothill-street, this being more convenient." But this passage must have been copied from some book of a considerably earlier date, for we find that the Gateway into New Palace Yard had been "demolished" nearly thirty years before; and it may be fairly doubted that the prison was ever entirely "removed" thither, though this other gateway was clearly employed as an auxiliary place of confinement. The following passage is from Hatton's New View of London, 1708: "Gatehouse, a Prison in Westminster, or rather two, the Old and the New. The Old Gatehouse is situate near the west end of the Abby entering into Tuttle Street and the Almery; the other was situate near the south end of King-street, as you enter into the New Palace Yard, now demolished. The first is the chief Prison for the City of Westminster Liberties, not only for Debt but Treason, theft, and other criminal matters. The Keeper has that place by lease from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster." From this statement, it would seem that the New Gatehouse prison was not long employed for that purpose, and that it had been lately taken down in the year 1708. This alteration was probably contemporaneous with the first erection of a criminal prison in Tothill-fields. It is mentioned in the Parish Clerks' "Remarks of London,' 1732, that "Tothill Fields Bridewell* was made a jail for criminals by an Act of Parliament in the reign of Queen Anne." The Gatehouse continued, however, to be used for the like purpose, though it was principally tenanted by Debtors. It is thus noticed in the last-named volume: "The Gatehouse, where persons are confined for Debt, by writ directed to the High Bailiff of Westminster it is also a Gaol for criminal persons, who have committed any crime in the City or Liberty of Westminster." In Nov. 1757, the Dean and Chapter appointed Mr. Matthew Clark, attorney, the keeper of the Gatehouse Prison, in the room of Mr. Salt; and the following paragraph occurs in the newspapers of the day : "Matthew Clark, Gent. Attorney-atLaw, has taken Possession of the Gatehouse Prison, Westminster, by Ejectment; of which he was lately appointed Keeper by the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster; and Mr. William Long is appointed Deputy Keeper of the Gatehouse under Mr. Clark." Some other newspaper passages, of shortly subsequent dates, may be extracted for their curiosity, and as showing the sentiments with which the Gatehouse was regarded at the time, though they do not furnish any material facts in its history: *Tothill-fields Bridewell, (so named, as all other Bridewells, from its London prototype near the well of St. Bride, by Fleet-street,) was first built in the year 1622, and the cost, and particulars of its erection, will be found in the accounts of St. Margaret's parish printed in Nichols's "Illustrations of the Manners and Expences of Ancient Times," 4to. 1797, and in Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum, vol. iv. p. 131. It was then called the House of Correction; its objects were formerly declared by the following singular inscription placed over the gate: "Here is several sorts of Work for the Poor of this Parish of ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER; as also Correction according to Law for such as will beg and live idly in this City and Liberty of WESTMINSTER. Anno 1655." When the Bridewell had been converted into a Gaol for criminals in the reign of Queen Anne, we may suppose the modern workhouse of St. Margaret's parish, for the reception of the indigent poor, took its rise. The Bridewell was rebuilt or enlarged about 1778 (after the Gatehouse had been pulled down); and it was finally deserted about two years ago, for the magnificent new prison erected at a short distance, and intended to serve for the whole county of Middlesex. "It is said the Gatehouse is to be pulled down and rebuilt in Tothill Fields. Indeed it has been always the Wonder of People of Taste and Observation, that it was not removed when those two beautiful Towers were added to the Front of Westminster Abbey. The Gatehouse is certainly a most shocking Place to look at, and is said to be the most dismal within Side in the Kingdom."--(25 May, 1763.) "A Gentleman_has lately purchased two Houses near a Prison in Westminster, intending to live in one of them himself, and offered to give 30l. per Annum, providing they would not put out their begging Box, and desist from Begging, which was refused, as not being equivalent to the Benefactions commonly received."— (20 Sept. 1765.) "For the Public Advertiser. An ORTOLAN for BENEVOLENCE. THE Gatehouse near Westminster-Abbey is the Gaol whereunto those poor Wretches who cannot pay their small Debts are committed, for forty Days, unless they do what is too often impossible; namely, pay the Debt sooner. Add to this, that these Prisoners have no other Maintenance but what they derive from the Charity of Passengers: For, strange as it is, yet true it is, that there is no Provision by Law for the Subsistence of Prisoners in this Gaol. It often happens that many persons are here, bereft of Liberty, whose debts amount to a small Sum. I saw seven there Yesterday who were committed from the Court of Conscience for forty Days, whose Debts and Costs altogether do not amount to Fourteen Pounds. A Word is enough to the Wise, says Solomon, and I say that half a Word is enough to the Charitable. Your's, &c. (8 June, 1769.) PHILANTHROPOS." The Gatehouse was at length removed in the year 1777; but a portion of the eastern wall of the gateway leading to Dean's Yard, is still in existence, forming part of the side wall of the house once inhabited by the Right Hon. Edmund Burke. Of this fragment, John Carter perpetuated a view in his small book of etchings; and the upper view in the present plate represents its actual appearance in 1836. It might not be very difficult to collect some interesting annals of the Gatehouse prison; for most persons who became amenable to the law within the City of Westminster (the scene, be it remembered, of the Court, and the stage for high as well as petty treason,) were committed thither, at some periods of their examination or imprisonment. The following, however, will be deemed sufficient in the present place.* It is connected with the last hours of Sir Walter Raleigh. That illustrious victim of the envy of Spain, having lain some time in the Tower, after returning from his last fatal voyage, was brought up to the King's Bench bar at Westminster on the 28th Oct. 1618, to be asked what he could allege in arrest of the judgment passed upon him fourteen years before; this formality being closed, he was led to the Gatehouse, and there received information that the King had, that same morning, signed a special warrant for his decapitation. That most hateful judicial murder, in which the peace-preserving James sacrificed to a truckling policy one of the brightest ornaments of his country, was carried into execution the next morning in New Palace Yard, and the body of the magnanimous victim was buried in the adjoining church of St. Margaret. Col. Richard Lovelace, the author of Lucasta, having been "made choice of by the whole body of the county of Kent at an assize, to deliver the Kentish petition to the House of Commons, for the restoring the King to his rights and settling the government," was for so doing committed to the Gatehouse at Westminster; where he remained for three or four months, and there, says Anthony à Wood, "made that celebrated Song called Stone Walls do not a Prison make." Those beautiful of Wood, are perhaps too well known lines, which so well deserve the praises to render it necessary to introduce them; yet they can seldom come amiss, and can scarcely be placed more ap *In the original Funeral Certificate of Dame Catharine Gates, 1594, recently printed in the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, it was stated that she died "in the Gathowse," but the words were afterwards erased; which must have been done because it was considered unkind to record her Ladyship's disgrace ;-unless it was a wicked hoax passed upon the Heralds, in allusion to the name of the deceased. She was buried in St. Marga ret's church. |