The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 237: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

» CHAPTER XIX THE KING’S BENCH Ar the period of which we are writing, the authority of the Secretary of State had not invaded the King’s Bench Prison with those innovations, encroachments, and changes which have since robbed that establishment of all its peculiar glory. The immense enclosure had not then been divided into different compartments and yards respectively appro- priated for the degrees and grades of insolvency and indebt- edness; but the Bench was then indeed in its glory, as the cesspool of the West End of London. Resembling an enormous barrack standing in the midst of spacious grounds, girt by a wall of the same height as the edifice itself, and covered with those revolving iron spikes that are technically termed chevauz-de-jfrise, having also several detached buildings, such as the state house, the coffee-house, and the kitchen, and with the principal portion of the grounds themselves divided into racket-courts, — such was the King’s Bench Prison. But there were many features connected with the place which were celebrated then, have been celebrated until very late years, and still remain doubtless memorable in the minds of thousands and thousands who have passed through the ordeal of captivity there. For instance, there was the strong room, in which obstreperous prisoners were confined, the chapel, where the parson preached to the clerk, and the clerk said “‘ amen” to the parson, for want of a ‘congregation, the little market-place close by the kitchen, and the three pumps which marked the limits of each racket- ground, the central pump being dignified with the name of the Dolphin. Then there was the Tap, where the genuine beverage brewed by Barclay and Perkins found shoals of 217 (COMMUC 0)(0)0) (CG) im