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The Vicar of Wakefield.

farther interruption. Some hours before night we reached the town, or rather vil­lage; for it consisted but of a few mean houses, having lost all its former opulence, and retaining no marks of its ancient supe­riority but the gaol.

Upon entering, we put up at an inn, where we had such refreshments as could most readily be procured, and I supped with my family with my usual chearfulness. Af­ter seeing them properly accommodated for that night, I next attended the sheriff's of­ficers to the prison, which had formerly been built for the purposes of war, and consisted of one large apartment, strongly grated, and paved with stone, common to both felons and debtors at certain hours in the four and twenty. Besides this, every prisoner had a separate cell, where he was locked in for the night.

I expected upon my entrance to find no­thing but lamentations, and various soundsof