not fourteen feet square, and it consisted of one damp, dirty dungeon, ten feet by eleven feet, at the bottom of a descent of seven steps, with a sleeping-room, about same size, over it.  In these rooms male and female alike were confined, at one time to the number of fifteen; each being allowed 3d. per day by their parishes, and a little straw on the floor at night for bedding, unless they chose to pay the keeper 2s. a week for a bed in his house.  In 1809 the debtors were removed to the Old Court House [See “Court of Requests"], where the sleeping arrangements were of a better character.  Howard, the “Prison Philanthropist,” visited the Philip Street prison in 1782, when he found that the prisoners were not allowed to do any work, enforced idleness (as well as semi-starvation) being part of the punishment.  He mentions the case of a shoemaker who was incarcerated for a debt of 15s., which the keeper of the prison had to pay through kindly allowing the man to finish some work he had begun before being locked up.  In these enlightened days no man is imprisoned for owing money, but only because he does not pay it when told to do so.—­See also “Dungeon” and “Gaols.”

Privateering.—­Most likely there was some truth in the statement that chains and shackles were made here for the slave-ships of former days, and from the following letter written to Matthew Boulton in October, 1778, there can be little doubt but that he at least had a share in some of the privateering exploits of the time, though living so far from a seaport:—­“One of the vessels our little brig took last year was fitted out at New York, and in a cruise of thirteen weeks has taken thirteen prizes, twelve of which are carried safe in, and we have advice of 200 hogsheads of tobacco being shipped as part of the prizes, which if now here would fetch us L10,000,” &c.

Progress of the Town.—­The Borough Surveyor favours us yearly with statistics giving the number of new buildings erected, or for which plans have been approved, and to show how rapidly the town is progressing in extent, we give a few of the figures.  The year 1854 is memorable in the building trade, as there were 2,219 new houses erected, the average for years after not being 1,000.  In 1861 the number was but 952; in 1862, 1,350; in 1863, 1,694; in 1864, 1,419; in 1865, 1,056; in 1866, 1,411; in 1867, 1,408; in 1868, 1,548; in 1869, 1,709; in 1870, 1,324; in 1871, 1,076; in 1872, 1,265; in 1873, 993.  The building report for the last ten years is thus tabulated:—­

1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883
——­ ——­ ——­ ——­ ——­ ——­ ——­ ——­ ——­ ——­
Houses 1611 3395 2903 2700 1205 1197 1301 1236 666 938 and Shops Churches 1 1 1 1 —­ —­ —­ —­ 2 2 Chapels 2 2 5 3 1 —­ 1 1 —­ 1 Schools 9 15 6 6 4 —­ —­