Then went we up again to our friends in Newgate, and gave them an
account of what had passed, and having taken a solemn leave of them,
we made up our packs to be gone. But before I pass from Newgate, I
think it not amiss to give the reader some little account of what I
observed while I was there.

The common side of Newgate is generally accounted, as it really is,
the worst part of that prison; not so much from the place as the
people, it being usually stocked with the veriest rogues and meanest
sort of felons and pickpockets, who not being able to pay chamber-
rent on the master's side, are thrust in there. And if they come in
bad, to be sure they do no go out better; for here they have the
opportunity to instruct one another in their art, and impart to each
other what improvements they have made therein.

The common hall, which is the first room over the gate, is a good
place to walk in when the prisoners are out of it, saving the danger
of catching some cattle which they may have left in it, and there I
used to walk in a morning before they were let up, and sometimes in
the daytime when they have been there.

They all carried themselves respectfully towards me, which I imputed
chiefly to this, that when any of our women friends came there to
visit the prisoners, if they had not relations of their own there to
take care of them, I, as being a young man and more at leisure than
most others, for I could not play the tailor there, was forward to
go down with them to the grate, and see them safe out. And
sometimes they have left money in my hands for the felons, who at
such times were very importunate beggars, which I forthwith