Sketches by Boz

Chapter 24

CRIMINAL COURTS

We shall never forget the mingled feelings of awe and respect with

which we used to gaze on the exterior of Newgate in our schoolboy

days. How dreadful its rough heavy walls, and low massive doors,

appeared to us--the latter looking as if they were made for the

express purpose of letting people in, and never letting them out

again. Then the fetters over the debtors' door, which we used to

think were a bona fide set of irons, just hung up there, for

convenience' sake, ready to be taken down at a moment's notice, and

riveted on the limbs of some refractory felon! We were never tired

of wondering how the hackney-coachmen on the opposite stand could

cut jokes in the presence of such horrors, and drink pots of half-

and-half so near the last drop.

Often have we stra