Prison labour, &c. : correspondence and communications addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the introduction of tread-mills into prisons : with other matters connected with the subject of prison discipline / by Sir John Cox Hippisley.

  • Hippisley, John Cox, 1748-1825.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prison labour, &c. : correspondence and communications addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the introduction of tread-mills into prisons : with other matters connected with the subject of prison discipline / by Sir John Cox Hippisley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    234/238
    There has also been an excess of walling of one foot in thick- ness, throughout the whole of the back of the western range of buildings, and also fully to the amount of one-third of the whole of the massive substructions, to the depth of from 17 to 20 feet, under nearly two-thirds of the area of the Old Court, though now invisible, from being filled up; indeed in every part of the buildings there has been an excess of labour and materials throughout, constituting no inconsiderable aggre- gate. And here it may be observed, that had it been con- sistent with the primary object, to have erected cells instead of the wards, as they exist with their massive floors and ceilings, constructed, as they are, of free-stone, brought, at great labour and expense, from the Doulting Quarries—two- thirds of that expense would have been saved:—but a refer- ence to the Surveyor will be most satisfactory on this head. In closing this additional Note of observations, the un- dersigned must advert to certain passages in the anterior Reports, as of material reference in forming a just estimate of the nature and progress of the works which were under- taken, as contradistinguished from buildings constructed by the ordinary classes of artificers and workmen, in the usual manner, and which must necessarily produce a conviction that to prescribe an exact limit, or point of time, for the absolute completion of such works as were undertaken, could not possibly fall within the compass of ordinary calcu- lation. On the 17th of October, 1818, the Report states, “ that “ at the commencement of the work no mason was found in “ the Prison; but that two young men, scarcely above the “ class of boys, proved highly useful, and under the direc- te tion of the intelligent and active Keeper, soon acquired “ great dexterity in carrying up the walls, and encouraging “ others by their example,”—and, that it would “be highly “ gratifying to the Bench of Magistrates to hear, that, after “ the County had been thus benefitted by the opportune “ labours of these two young men, during a period of 13 “ months, they have since their discharge been in the prac- “ tice of gaining each 18s. weekly in their newly-acquired “ occupation, thus meritoriously acquired.” And it may be here observed, that the work thus executed will bear the test of the most rigid examination, and the mortar through- out the new buildings has been so well prepared, that it has actually acquired a consistency nearly equal to the stone itself. In the same Report it was observed, “ that if only a single “ mason had been introduced, in addition to the actual