A detail of an old Newgate prison door, now kept in the London Museum. The prison was founded in 1188, and by the fourteenth century was so wretched that Sir Richard Whittington left a substantial part of his personal fortune for rebuilding and humanising it. See The Mirror of Charity. Repeatedly cleaned up and repeatedly allowed to fall back into horrific squalor, it was closed at last in 1902. Some famous names have been confined there: adventurer Giacomo Casanova; playwrights Ben Jonson and Oscar Wilde; novelist Daniel Defoe; pirate William Kidd; politician William Cobbett; and Quaker William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. Notable women include: midwife Elizabeth Cellier and cutpurse Mary Frith (17th century); counterfeiter Catherine Murphy and highwaywoman Jane Voss (18th century); and serial killers Amelia Dyer and Catherine Wilson (19th century).
Introduction
Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) sprang to the public’s attention in 1813, after asking the Governor of Newgate prison if she might be allowed to read prayers for the female inmates. To his amazement she wanted to do it not through the railings of the outer courtyard, but inside the gaol. And to his credit the Governor, feebly informing her that there was no precedent for such a thing, said Yes.
THE gates were swung open and the iron quickly snapped behind her. She spoke to the women, addressing the one who seemed to be leader as sister, and asked the others to follow her back into the courtway away from the sound of the street, so they could have prayers. They followed dumbly. She knelt on the stone pavement and prayed in silence. Then she arose and read to them the One Hundred Seventh Psalm.* Again she prayed, asking the others to kneel with her. A dozen knelt. She arose and went her way amid a hush of solemn silence. Next day, when she came again, the ribaldry ceased on her approach, and after the religious service she remained inside the walls an hour conversing with those who wished to talk with her, going to all the children that were sick and ministering to them.
In a week she proposed starting a school for the children. The mothers entered into the project gladly. A governess, imprisoned for theft, was elected teacher. A cell-room was cleaned out, whitewashed, and set apart for a schoolroom, with the permission of the Governor, who granted the request, explaining, however, that there was no precedent for such a thing.
* See Psalm 107, which begins ‘O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.’ It is a psalm of deliverance from affliction, of restoration to blessedness, and of thanksgiving. Hubbard was an American; the English would say ‘one hundred and seventh’.
Précis
(1 / 60 words)
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 5 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly -5 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, despite, if, just, must, since, whether.
Word Games
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