ing; but what that meaning is I have long been at a loss to understand, and you may suppose I despair of finding any explanation, when I defy any man who has ever received a dinner-invitation, to help me through my difficulty. To illustrate the matter, we will suppose that the hour of appointment is five punctually. Now, Sir, I have known, within the short space of a year, that five punctually extended to half-past five, six, halfpast six, and so on till eight, every one of which periods I have been repeatedly taught to consider as five punctually, with all its synonyms of precisely, exactly, and to a minute. The consequence of taking such liberties with the plain, obvious, and right-antient meaning of words is, that many choice dishes have been spoilt, many sweet tempers lost, many stout appetites damaged by relax ation, and a good quantity of patience completely worn out. You will, therefore, Mr. PROJECTOR, very much gratify your Readers, if you will touch upon the difference between the genuine meaning of words, and the capricious latitude allowed to them, at so important a crisis as the dinner-hour; and be pleased also to inform us, by whose authority it is, that the words above-mentioned are not to be understood in the letter, but in the spirit; all which tends to the great detriment of the stomach, and to bring clocks and watches into contempt. I am, Sir, Yours, &c. ESURIENS. But what a picture of human misery is here exhibited, of a poor debtor descending into dungeons, by 42 steps! There is a promise to him who is good to the poor, of being "strengthened on the bed of languishing, and the pillow softened under sickness *." Will the prose cutor who sends the prisoner into these caverns of stone, finally repose on a bed of down? J. C. LETTSOM. NOTTINGHAM. Gaoler, John Holt; Salary £140. Fees, Debtors 13s. 4d. and to the Turnkey 1s. besides which, the Under Sheriff demands 4s. for his liberate! For Felons, no fees. Garnish abolished. Chaplain, Rev. William Gill. Duty, prayers every Thursday, and prayers and sermon every Sunday, Christmas-day, and GoodFriday. Salary £50. Surgeon, Mr. Partridge; salary, for Debtors and Felons, &c. 30. Number of prisoners on the 19th March, 1800, Debtors 7, Felons, &c. 7; on the 29th September, 1805, Debtors S, Felons, &c. 5. Allowance, sixteen ounces of bread per day. Felons have the same allowance in bread, with one penny per day in money, and one penny per week for soap each. The assize convicts under sentence of transportation, I am informed by the Gaoler, have the County allowance of bread, in addition to the King's allowance of 2s. 6d. per week to live upon. Remarks. This Gaol adjoins to, and stands on the South side of, the County or Shire Hall. It is situate on the declivity of a hill. The entrance to it is down a passage from the street, leading to the Turnkey's Lodge; and close to this is the Debtors court-yard, of 100 feet by 41, with a flagged terrace, and handsome iron palisades, commanding a view of three Counties. On the East side of the Debtors court, is their day apartment, or common mess-room, 17 feet by 10, with a glazed window, a fire-place, and side-oven; and also three goodsized sleeping-rooms. On the North side are three sleeping-rooms; one of which has been lately converted to its proper use out of the Keeper's stable, now dis *Psalm xli, S. used; used; the average size 22 feet eight inches by 11 feet. Women Debtors have a room 20 feet square, which has a flagged floor with arched roof, a fire-place, and a large window, that, very improperly, looks into the men's court. To all the above-mentioned rooms the Keeper supplies beds and bedding at 3s. per week for a single person, or at 2s. per week if two sleep toge ther. Over the mess-room is a small Chapel, 23 feet by 20 feet six inches, which has four glazed windows. The sexes are separated, and all attended divine service when I was here. The poorer Debtors who cannot afford to pay for a bed, are most uncomfortably provided for in this County prison. Their descent is by twenty-eight steps to three miserable sleeping-rooms, called free wards. The two largest, about 12 feet by nine, have fire-places; the third, which formerly was the condemned room, or place assigned for convicts under sentence of death, is about nine feet square, and has in it a wooden bedstead; and all have a small iron grated and glazed window. Debtors here confined are obliged to furnish their own beds, which yet necessity only in the extreme can induce, or rather compel, them to occupy. The A considerable part of the North side of the Debtors court-yard is occupied by a large dust-hole and dung yard, leading to arcades, under which are a capacious and convenient bath, with a copper to warm it when necessary, but they are seldom used. Two pumps and three cisterns supply the bath, the Gaoler's house, and the whole prison, with soft water from the river Leen: it is sometimes muddy, and at other times must be fetched from the bath. There is a well in the Felons old court, near the Keeper's parlour, which if a pump were put down, would supply the whole prison with excellent spring water. The well was covered over in the year 1799, for which the only. reason I could hear assigned was, that some prisoners, then here, had thrown improper things into it. The arcades under the County-hall would afford good room for workshops, and comfortable free wards for the poor or common-side Debtors; and adjoining to the Turnkey's lodge there is sufficient space for a small court-yard, to accommodate the Women Debtors. For Felons, at a descent of fortytwo steps, here are two dark and damp dungeons, called "The Pits," cut out of the friable sandy rock; one of which (23 feet by 13 and seven feet high) appears not to have been used for a long time. The one, occupied at the time of my visits, is nearly circular, 12 feet in diame ter, supplied with barrack-bedsteads; and opposite to it in a narrow passage are three cells, each 8 feet by 5. All the light or ventilation these subterranean abodes can receive, is from two circular apertures over the doors, of seven inches in diameter. Each has a wooden bedstead with loose straw thrown upon them, and two rugs: the door-ways only four feet six inches high and two feet wide. The court-yard appendant to these cells is that which heretofore had the well in it; and close to the Keeper's door is raised an open iron-palisaded fence of 10 feet by 5, to prevent the Felons rushing out. Their courtyard, 39 feet by 28, is paved with flag-stones; and their day, or mess room, is in the centre of it. The newly-built part of the Felons Gaol has a court-yard for the men 25 feet by 18, with a day or messroom 22 feet by 10. For women here are arcades about sixteen feet square, and a day-room 46 feet by 18. To each day-room there is a fire-place with side-oven. Over these apartments are five sleeping-cells for men and three for women, which open into a lobby five feet wide, with a wooden door of separation. Each is about 9 feet by 7, arched roof, with a semicir cular grated and glazed window; a grating of like forin over each door. They were heretofore only supplied with a wooden bedstead each for two prisoners, loose straw, and two rugs; but the considerate Magistrates have lately ordered a bed for every cell, and to these new cells they have added a stove, to introduce warmth. The door ways to these cells are 4 feet 6 inches high by 2 feet 6 wide, and cased with iron. in the Old aud New New Gaol are twelve sleepingcells. Prisoners on their discharge from hence have money proportionally granted, to carry them home. When convicts are left for execution, it is customary to confiné them, during the day-time, in a room, 22 feet by 10, with two windows in it, a fire-place, and a table. Here they are duly supplied with religious books; they have tea twice a day, and a hot dinner; and are daily attended by the Chaplain, or other Clergyman. At the West end of the County-hall there is a very convenient and suitable place for the awful business of executions, and where a platform might be occasionally or permanently fixed, as at Chelmsford, Reading, and many other places. Instead of which, the poor wretches are dragged through the town in a cart, to a place about a mile distant, to the preposterous gratification of unfeeling curiosity, that "knows no brotherly yearnings," and to the disgrace of civilized society! Some years since, the following singular incident happened with respect to the Prison, which is vouched by good authority:-On the 19th of February, 1787, two women (Mabel Morris and Elizabeth Morris) were committed to this Gaol, by virtue of a Bishop's Writ, and confined there till the 25th of February, 1799; when, some repairs being wanted at the Prison, their doors were thrown open; they sent for a cart, in which their goods were loaded in the day-time, and the women went out unmolested. Application was made to the Sheriff, to know if they were to be brought back to prison, but nothing was done; and, at my last visit, in Sept. 1805, they resided at Calverton, in this county. The sanction for the confinement of a prisoner upon the above-mentioned process runs thus: "For as much as the Royal power ought not to be wanting to the Holy Church in its complaint-You are commanded to attach the said * * * by bis [or her] body, according to the law and custom of England, until he or she] shall have made satisfaction to the Holy Church, as well for the contempt, as for the injury by bim [or her] done unto it.” One cannot help wishing, that the Reformation or the Revolution, or any other adequate and legal interference, had done away the power of such imprisonment, LIST of LEGACIES and DONATIONS. John Sherwin, Esq. of Nottingham, four pounds per annum; now paid quarterly by John Longdon, Esq. out of an estate at Branscote, purchased by Mr. Sherwin of the descendants of Henry Handley, Esq. the donor. By Samuel Smith, Esq. M. P. forNottingham, pursuant to the will of Mr. Abel Collings, four shillings monthly to the prisoners, for coals. John Elliott, Esq. of Nottingham, sends to all the prisoners beef, bread, and ale at Christmas. The Rev. Mr. Gill, Chaplain, sends a large piece of beef at Christmas. Lady Warren sends twelve stone of beef, at different times, to the Debtors, The High Sheriffs, for the last three years, have sent five ton of coals, and bread, beef, and ale to all the prisoners. The Grand Jury, at the Assizes, make a collection for the criminal prisoners, to the amount of from thirty to forty shillings. Here, as at Derby, Horsham, &c. a man goes round the country about Christmas, and collects money at gentlemen's houses for the debtors. In 1803, the collection was £28. 2s. 2d. In 1804, it amounted to £56. 10s. 10. The particulars of distribution will be narrated in my State of Prisons, now preparing for the press. 1 I here beg leave to pay my respectful acknowledgements to William Elliott Elliott, esq. of Gedling House, late High Sheriff of this county, who humanely accompanied me to the prisons, bospital, and work-houses; and also to the worthy Magistrates in general, for the polite notice they were pleased to take of my suggestions, relative to the state of the gaols at Nottingham and Southwell. My dear Friend, The above Remarks on the County Gaol of Nottingham will, I fear, occupy too much of Mr. Urban's valuable Miscellany, to admit of adding the Town Gaol to it. But I cannot close the narrative without observing, that the Old Castle presents one of the finest situations in the kingdom for a new Gaol, together with the Courts of Justice, &c. for the whole of which the antient pile of ruins seems capable of affording an ample, if not a sufficient supply of materials. I hope the period is not far distant, when the judicious Magistrates of so respectable a County will turn their attention towards this important object, as a lasting monument of humanity; and am, Yours truly, JAMES NEILD. Swallows (Hirundo Rustica) in full health and feather, made their appear ance, skimming the surface of a millpool; a circumstance which would have been vory favourable to the above idea, had not a shepherd, attending his flock upon the downs, informed me he had seen numbers of them for seven or eight days previously, flying about on the more elevated parts of the parish. April 18. Thermometer 26°; wind quite calm; swallows numerous. April 19. Thermometer 32°; heavy fall of snow for five hours; swallows much increased in numbers, and flying about apparently unaffected by the strangeness of their situation. 20th. Thermometer 25°; rain and sleet all day; swallows as in the preceding day, 21st. Thermometer 32°. 22d. Thermometer 32°; since which the Thermometer has never been lower than 35°. It is worthy of remark, that Swifts (Hiruudo Apus) make their appearauce much earlier in one place than in another. Their first arrival in an adjoining parish, scarce a mile distant, was the sixth of May; but not 'an individual was to be seen at my residence before the fourteenth. Yours, &c. C. E. W. B. **We needed not a Reminder; but it is impossible to notice in our Index every Letter that is received. the M Frequent has been the remark, that Swallows are first seen about pools and rivers; and that if they chance to meet with severe weather, they immediately withdraw for a time; a circumstance much stronger in favour of hiding than of migration. But birds of this description do not always, I suspect never, make their first appearance near lakes or millpools; neither is severe weather, even frost and snow, so inimical to them as some have been apt to imagine, and it is reasonable to conclude, that a deficiency in the means of living occasions the departure, and induces the return, of these birds. April 17. Thermometer 28°; wind very cold from the E, or N. E.; two VOYAGE FROM BATAVIA. Y last closed where our departure from Cooper's Isle drew near; and as to myself, in a state, compared with our arrival, not differing less than usefulness from discredit. Our Captain had tasted somewhat of the bitterness disease brings, and, nolens volens, turned to a profession for relief, which constant freedom from sickness in healthful babits is too apt to think unnecessary. Whatever slighting opinion of Doctor or of medicines he had imbibed was now palpably changed, and his old looks of scowl and contempt no longer challenged, in spite of subordination, equal unbelief. The Carpenter, from being the Great Man, from being all in all, sunk into comparative insignificance; whilst little Bolus, Crocus metallorum, Pill-monger, and Clyster-pipe, arose into the by-gone greatness of Broadare, of our Mr. Satterly, in seriousness a most worthy respectable man. The want of repair being now transferred from ship to ship's company, we made ready for sailing back to Batavia. Our time had passed pleasantly enough, with scarce a dispute or squabble, for six or seven weeks: the weather by day was all along bright and cheering; in the right, now and, then, we had a thunder-storm; and about once a week, or oftener, there fell heavy rain. Hardly one evening shut in without some kind of lightning in view. During the showers our tent let water through by wholesale, and, on such occasions, we got fairly washed out; but the morning's sun and a thirsty soil soon put every thing to rights. Contrivances, by painted canvas, pieces of tarpaulin, or other extra tovering, secured the sick upon these visitations; whilst to the rest of the party a good sousing proved only matter of diversion. Instead of any adieu from the jettyhead, obstinate Sour-pate the Bass mattered deep-mouthed curses; and, as the Devil probably held him a tried servant, every incantation he could make found its hour of misery before we got clear of Java's pestiferous air. How unlike had been the day of departure from Otaheite, when every eye was strained back to behold the last glimpse of the Island! Not only the spur of public duty, but the faded ideas of family attachment, were conjured up, to drag many of us from that place of fascination; and these of themselves would have been insufficient! deavour's, although most of us could only boast of the true nutmeg-brown (from kisses of sun and weather) succeeded at once to the happy-character, claim, and privilege, of the Dolphin's; were received by the ladies as acknowledged favourites; and reckoned by these ladies' male relatives as beings of a superior nature, like Jupiter in his condescendings at Thebes by Amphitryon. Notwithstanding their mistake in admitting us as good specimens of England's fair-hued sons, on our side there was no mistake as to symmetry of limb in the Houcis we saw; their natural graces, as to the studied elegance of manners, a sultan might well admire. Yet less than a year from London's galaxy of beauties, not an eye had need to wander far for similar attractions; and one only real difference (tinge of skin) was abundantly compensated by the n ost irresistible flattery, in admiration incessant of our heretofore valueless white. What were the joyous exertions on the part of my shipmates on such an Island, I leave to imagination! By chance and considering friends, many of us were rich in iron, thanks to the quartermen of Plymouth Dock-yard in 1768, for spike-nails numberless: added to these, lookingglasses provided in London for the purpose had fitted out some lucky souls as chapmen for crowned heads to deal with. Oberea took especial care of all afloat; and two spikes and one looking-glass shone a won der of treasures, no Maid of Honour, the most fastidious in her retinue, was ever found to withstand. The Years after years sunk in the gulph carpenters at Plymouth knew the of time, and various circumstances of ship's destination, and were liberal weight in their day, somewhat flatten in the extreme; to them were we perthe impression in spite of such, how-sonally indebted beyond all account. ever, that jubilee-spot, so complete an illustration of the fabled Cythera, calls forward at this moment a grateful train of thought to past adventures, in which our utmost indulgences came unaccompanied by the base vexatious alloy of deceit or imposture, jealousies or riot, The notion of superlative beauty seemed fixed in these charming Islanders upon whiteness of the skin; and it is not improbable the crew of the Dolphin had much original family colour to produce; certainly the Ens But for them, the profusion of some gallants, who could and did give away shirts, had well nigh knocked up trade: luckily we had not many. such darlings of Plutus 'on-board— as it was, an emulation, ruinous in the body-linen way, left more of the officers in a situation to borrow shirts than to lend one, Had our stay at Otaheite been much longer, the ship might have been laid up; for not a nail or a holt, to be drawn by strength or art, could have rested in place to hold her sides together, |