Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-27
DISAPPEARING LONDON.
The Last of Christ's Hospital and
 Newgate.

NOLe Lne cneefIul leSenuE put upon the railings of Christ hospital by those who are now reducing that venerable pile to nuthingness. What a subtle element of comic callousness enters into the announcement, Good old brick rubbish for disposal" a form Of the heading, What Hor' to complete the onlooking antiquarian's temporary disbelief in Providence. Then there is another notice: Hard core and dry mrick rubbish for disposal a form of words that rings with the indecent brutality in inevita bleness. Rubbish! Yes, the Grey Friars' cloister has be- come rubbish. May be the great hall, mixed up with old tins and cinders, will go to the making of road in a south London suburb. It is possible that the Grecians' clolster, ground up, will be- come the foundations of fried fish shop.
 They can remove the masonry, but not the memories, in their carts. The Colerfdge and Lamb and Leigh Hunt associations arc not for disposals2 with the hard core and dry brick rubbish. What spot that will always be. how ever prosaic the rent yielding buildings that may replace the old school, which, by the by, itself replaced an institution whereof the memory is yet green. That was the convent of Grey Friars, with adjoining churchyard, that twas thought, in the middle ages, to be pe- culiarly free from incubi and flying demons of all sorts" Therefore it
 became fashionable burying place, ana almost as popular as the great abbey even with royalty" There the English queen Isabella was buried with the heart of her murdered hus- band on her breast. There also were placed the remains of her wretched paramour, the gentle Mortimer" who was hung at Tyburn and left two Gays W1thering on the galloWs. It was also Inc last resting place of two rapacious faVor1tes of Richard J Chow frankly can one talk of distinguished person. ages of the pastD to wit, Sir Nicholas Brembe, lord mayor of London. and SIT Robert Tresilian, chief justice of England. Both gentlemen breathed their last at Tyburn, though 1t was rn- derstood at the time that the hanging of the latter proved impossible until certain magic images and the head of the devil had been removed from his person. True those ancient monu ments and tombs have not been visible TOT several centuries, for in 1545 Sir Martin Bowes. lord mayor, "basely and stupidly'? sold the lot for e50.
 How full the place is of literary schoolboy memories. Take Leigh Hunts account of his first impressions or Lamb: \ pensiye brown, hand some and kindly face, and gait ad- Vanc1ng with motion from side to side, between involuntary conscious. ness and attempted ease. His brown complexion may have been owing to a visit to the country; his air of uneasi- ness to 8 great burden of sorrow. He dressed with Quaker-Iike plainness. | did not know him as Lamb; I took him for Mir "Guy," having heard some body address him by that appellatiye. l suppose in jest"
 At last NeWgate is going. The heusebreakers are throwing it down piece by piece. How many persons in the past would have been willing. with out any payment, to prize out some of those great stones. Nay. some ent<r- prlsing individuals have essayed de-
 mol1tlon in small way. Jack Shep- pard, that thieyish young London cars penter, destroyed some small portions of the Institution. Ion the first occa- slon, says MT Thornbury, "Jack dur lhg an interview with two female friends 1n the lodge at Newgate broke spike oH the hatch, and, by the as issuance or the two women. being slim ana nexlbIe, was pulled through the opening and so escaped Retaken at T !, incnley, the angry turnkeys gripped the young thief with handcuffs. loaded him with heavy irons (such as are still fastened above the side doors of tha pflsoD, and chained him to q stout staple in the floor of a strong room called the Castle There peonle of aII ranks came to see him, and all gave money to the young lion of the hour put extreme care was taken that no sympathizers should pass him a chisel or He. Jack was, however. eager | lor notorlety, and resolute to baffia inc turnkeys. He chose quiet afternoon. when most of the keepers were away Wltn their amiable charges at the Old pailey sessions. With a small nail he nad round he loosened his chain from lne noor staple, then slipped his small lilleVish hands through his handcuffs and tied up his fetters as high as be could with his garters. With n niece of his broken chain he worked oI1t of the chimney transverse iron bar that stopped his upward progress. Jack forced oH the lock in seven minutes
 and got into passage leading to the chapel. To force q strong bolt here he broke a hole through the wall and
 with an iron spike from the chanel door opened q way between tho chapel l and the lower leads
 The place Is passing away. but ifs lamentable, pitiful, and awful mem ories will endure Here is a sample of 1 the grim associations of the Old Bai- ley: The bodies of murderers after execution were removed for dissection l to the surgeons theater, and in the Annual Register for 1909 we read of an awful experiment performed oil the corpse of murderer named Foster
 Tt Was,' says the writer .'subiccted to the ga1vanic process by Mr Aldini
 a nephew of Galvani. in presence of MT
 Keate, Nr Corpue and several other professional gentlemen. On the first l application of the process to the face l the jaw of the deceased criminal began l to culver, and the adjoining muscles
 were horribly contorted. and one eve actually opened"
 l To-day notice board oyer the pris-
 on wall draws attention to the tenn I DOrarV prison cn11S coTcfrf1ofnT br,