The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-04-19 00:00:00

AT PORTLAND.

--
One cold frosty morning a dozen or more smell SIM I
received • letter Irons my old friend and college chum,
Frank Markham, then surgeon in one of Her Majesty's
convict priama. The letter ran as follows :—" Dear Var.
nom—You have often expressed a wish to see the inside
of • convict establishment, in order to find out for your-
self how things are managed within these mysterious
walls. If you are still of the same mind, lam now in •
petition to gratify your wish. If you can find it conveni-
ent to come here for • few days, it will afford much
pleasure to yours faithfully, FRANK bleax HAW."
Nothing could b.eveigilmnnmoetileresime,
offNerothofi pleasure than this
nig Markham's letter, thanking him for his kindness in
greater pleasure
in answer-
thinking of me, and gladly accepting the proffered oppor-
tunity. Next day, I arnved safely: and was met at the
station by Frank, who at once led me through the cheer-
less.looking streets, and up the almost perpendicular road
that leads from the town to the summit of the rock
whereon the said prison is perched. The day was bitterly
cold, soils keen north-east wind came swirling round the
huge piled-up masses of limestone that flanked both ~ides
of the road, and roared fiercely through the narrow gorges
with which the cliff, are everywhere intersected, as if it
meant to march its *say into our very vitals, despite the
heavy wraps which we wore, and which only partially
shielded us from its fury. In the teeth of the biting
tempest, conversation was impossible; and SO we toiled
on in enforced silence, climbing the bill till we arrived at
a gigantic block of stone, in the lee of which we were
glad to pause and recoyer our exhausted breath. We were
separated from the edge of a tremendous precipice by
little more than the health of the road ; and KS the tierce
gust caught our garments; and almost lifted us off our
feet, we were glad to cling closer to the jagged angles
A the rock, for fear of being blown over the face of the
cliff.
I availed myself of this ruck halting place to take a
fore leisurely survey of our surroundings. The spot was
bleak and cheerless- looking. On our oft stood a small
noortuary chapel, surrounded by is cemetery, which occu.
pied about two-thirds of the entire plateau. On one aide
of the chapel the burying-place WAS decorated with a
few stunted evergreens and weather beaten tombstones;
but the other side was destitute of all ornament, except
• luxuriant growth of nettles and other weeds over row
upon row of unmarked and nameless graves. Net &stone,
or even a simple cross of wood, not a tree or shrub, was
to be seen in that desolate city of the dead. "Prison
burying.ground." growled my companion, giving • vigor-
ous pun between each word to a somewhat reftactory
meerschaum. "I thought so," I replied; "but is it used
exclusively for the interment of prisoners t" " Not
mite," said Frank; "you may see that Icy these con.
suniptivedooking evergreens, and the lichen mottled
tombstones yonder, that look as if they were afflicted
with sonic new form of leprosy. We don't confer such
sculptured honours on those who do their country the
service of dying in prison.' "Scum of the neighbouring
(Oki, then, I suppose, are buried in this reserved section.
Is It not so?" Frank shook his head. "No I They would
is soon think of being thrown into the sea, uncoffined, as
having their bones laid in tbu game earth with those of •
convict, These have been erected Icy the prison authorities
in memory of such warders as have died or been murdered
on the spot."
" Murdered!" I exclaimed. "Murdered is the word,'
replied Frank; "it's no uncommon thing bore, I assure
you, to have an officer of the prison murdered, sometimes
for steeply doing his duty ' • sometimes—and who shall say
how often—for exceeding his duty. You see, friend, the
amiable individuals to whose health I have the honour to
attend, sometimes tire of the rigorous seclusion to which,
for their own and society's weal, they are condemned.
They grow restive under restraint, and often seek to vary
the monotony of their prison life Icy knocking the life out
of some overzealous warder. Ti ue, it ie a risky kind of
amosement ;• but from the frequeney with which it Is
tried, and often. I am sorry to say, accomplished, I am
convinced it must have it.. attraction,', Do you bee that
stone than, sway up at the right-hand corner of the
ground t Well, that s poor Warder B—'s grave. Ile
wae reckoned, even by the convict., whose taste In that
respect are eotnewhat hard to please, to be a very con
siderate slicer. He found it nece,-,nry, however, on one;
occasion, to report a prisoner for some breach of regula-
tions; and the nian woo punished. The latter endured
his sentence of tbree days bread and water in the dark
cello with the silence and sullennese peculiar to men of his
eta— ; but the hunger that preyed upon him only fed and
kept alive his revengeful spirit. The three days expired,
and the convict return-el to his wock in the gang. His
comrades noticed the scowl of hat, that deepened on his
lace e henever the warder approachsd to inspect his work
suddenly, be RAN seen to grab', the heavy hammer used
for breaking up the undressed stnnee us they came from
the quarriee, stealthily creep up behind the unsuspecting
weeder, whose attention was just at the moment occupied
Icy wine other business& and then to deal bin,a heavy
blow on the head, which sent him tothe foot of the t•
embanknoent, lifeless. Then leaving the corpse where it
lay, he quietly sat clown till some officers, who had
witnessed the tragedy from a distance, arrived, and
,v-cured bins. Ile was hanged at the county gaol wine
eesks ago.
I listened a ith painful attention to the description
ehich lay friend gave et this terrible crime, which greatly
stimulated my curiosity, and I longed to see and know
wore of that terrible class of beings. "Have you had
many such tragedies as the one you have just related r I
inquired. " Not during zny tittle," rvpliW Frank • " the
present governor takes greater precautions gains} their
recurrence than his medeoessor did. Disci ne now is
much more stringent and severe than it was- and if a
prisoner makes an attempt upon the life of an official, he
does so at the immediate risk of his own. In most cams,
the miscreants who make these murderous attacks upon
their warders have given up all hopes of ever regaining
their freedom. Hanging, with the notoriety which they
thereby acquired, had at one time few or no terrors for
them ; but the death that is now meted out in the silence
and solitude of the prison, acts as a deterrent upon many
who would otherwise care nothing to commit the most
serious crime." Just then, the solemn toll of a passing-
bell smote upon our ear. He anticipated my question by
exclahning, "To be sure. I forgot we had a burial to-day.
You will now have the opportunity of witnessing a con-
vict's funeral. Yonder's the grave; see I" and he pointed
to a spot where the dark earth had been upturned to
receive a new occupant. "Who and what was he I, I
inquired. " A poor fellow who got hurt in the quarries.
We had to amputate • leg, and he never rallied sifter the
operatiou. His sentence of five years would have expired
to-morrow had he lived. But here comes the funeral." I
looked in the direction indicated, and beheld one of the
most mournful sight. I ever witnessed. Wending its way
slowly down the steep and rugged incline that led from
the prison, came the twenty weer that bore the dead con-
vict to his lant resting-place. I. ire; were two warden
with bayonets fixed and rifles loaded; then, some ten
yards behind them, four gaunt-looking 3 deceased
in short jackets and kn Ickerbeckers, who bore the ler upon
which was elepoeiled the bless coffin of rough, black.
paiuted deal boards; and ringing op the rem, two more
Fat
warders, also armed with omied rifles. The feu} spectree
refenol to were convicts, and never shall I forget the
fetnished, wolf-like expression on their faces as, with
tottering steps and eves bent earthwards, they Passed
with their elishionourel burden into that dank and weed-
enceinte-m.l ni ole of the dead.
An ximo . to cc itness the whole zof the melancholy pro.
cmdiues I emitted tuy companion'. cede, and followed the
funeral. Tbe poorhi steering bearers carried the corpse
into the little onortm..ry chapel, at the door of which it
was met be a sleek young curate in white surplus and
chasuble. who read "see it, thouelo not very impressively.
parte( the beat:tied eerviess for the d.mod ; after which
the lily WA* lifted from the bier and hurried off to the
bole melon.' to heeds, it, brecedol l,y the clergyman.
who th. re co Med "ashes to ashes, dust to dust,'
mm in a degree of haete for which lotto to excessive cold
as well as the furry of habit might partly account. When
the last ehovelful of earth had been heaped upon tin
newly-made grave,and batted down was to lie close on the
kindred chiy betkatb, the convicts were ordered to "fall
in," and were forthwith marched back to the mortuary
dispel, a place that looked as dine as • coal-cellar, and
smelt like a Parieian b100m.% Arrived there, two of thr
prisoners twist-a upon the Icier, the other two "fell in"
loebinii, and, guarded as before, were manioc,' back to
the Pels"ns I was aftereards informed that to attend
a comrade s funeral I, regarded as • gavial privilege by
Ike enlibietA. They lockod upon it as a little outing,
clering n Well they base had the good fortune to see •
summer ; for anythieg that wears the appearance of
nevelt y lb t. 41111., imber-Alrli CM:Amu aea cheanng blink
of the outei,lo world.
%VIA II I rejoined Markbata, he said to me—" Do you
see that withered sic, ciliaim et heitnanity there with the
blue facings on his jacket, and but one ear r "Mat old
Islam, ii alking behisel the bier r -Ex aetly. That 'old
man; as pin "all Ishii is still considerably on thin side of
forty. 1 don't winder, however, at your =Raking his