THE DOOM OF NEWGATE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11455, 21 June 1899, Page 8

THE DOOM OF NEWGATE.

(Da^ly Mail.)

Sentence o{,'demolition has at last bean passed upon Xevvgdte Gaol and the Old Hailej, and m due course the site -nill be cleired 101 the eiectiou of new courts Nettgato «ilf go ffi t The actual building noM' to lie rnzed is neailj 130 >e«us old—i mere ju\ei.de up start .-in. comparison- with some of the .invent places of the citj , but that lecOid^ fcho.\ tha*- iLeie is as a Newgate Gaol m the vitirtilj of ihe pie^ent one a- eailv as 1218, while so leceith—compelat.\elj—a"3 1457, 2\ewgate, and liot the 'iowei, vvas the prison foi the i>obiht\ and great oihcei^ of State. Being much damaged by the fire of London, it was repaired and beautified by Sir Christopher' Wren in 1672, and it remained- until it • was taken down with the other, city, gates, necessitating the building of tjje prese'nt/.gaol.in 1770/:■;•'■• And no\s' Newgate Gaol is to disappear, even as a name of an existing place; and the students of literature in the generations to come will wonder where it used to stand when they read about Jack Sheppard's escapes from it; when they are conducted by Fielding ■ through the career of Jonathan Wild; when they go.with "Lord Tom Noddy," in "Jngold'sby," to. witness the execution scenes at it; ana when they read of the. savage • deeds which centred around it at the time of the Gordon riots, as related in " Barnaby Budge,"' to say nothing of ': English History." These famous "No Popery "'riots of 1780 form the most striking incident for this and future generations in .the history, of Newgate Gaol,-thanks to Dickens's "perpetuation of the story in " Barnaby Rudge." The mere historian "tells the tale" in a few cold, formal sentences : —

" In June, 1780, the riots known 4>y the name of Lord George Gordon's, or the" ' No Popery' riots, lasted, to the eternal disgrace of the city magistracy of that day, for upwards of a week, and the new prison of Newgale was burned by the drunken incendiaries of the day. It was speedily repaired, and became; the city and county prison.

"In 1783 (he exmitiou of criminals thai had previously taken place at Tyburn was removed by the proper authorities to the present spot, in front of this prison. The first execution took place on the 9th of December of that year."

'Vest 6f „* 'rnfrT,-n ,-n f+i ■'•• . Most otus, catching sight of the grim Eat'vinr^'TTekll^ Picta"d-Bir-S^fnd^'rioftm^TeS; out their designs for his release, marching to that valiant locksmith Dolly Varden's father;' have conjured up Gabriel Varden 'sturdily refusing to pick A rewgate's lock; have seen him rescued from the°mob by Joe Willet, whose "arm was took off at.. the .■ defence of the Salwanners in America,; where the war is"; have witnessed the rioters burning down the gaol door and gaining entrance to the prison ; have seen Barnaby and his father released by the mob; have seen Dennis the hangman, that^ adept in the art of "working people off, "visiting the doomed criminals" and remonstrating against their release by ■ttugh, the former ostler at the Maypole Inn; have .watched Hugh and Dennis led °^ lt ,t°' execution, and have heard Hugh plead for Barnaby; and have heard, that poor, wcak.witted one contemplating d'eVth say, "Aha! Hugh! we shall know wLit makes the. stars shine now." - And now as-the name of a public institution, Newgate Gaol is .to go ; but when every stone ot the gaunt old pile is removed it will yet I"'e (( m Qur.imagination so long as a copy of Barnaby ,Eudge" remains; available ;