humanly, pursed up in their breeches pockets.
A gentleman at the table with a money-bag—
sweet to them all as the thyme of Hymettus
—was hovered about by this swarm, which
consisted not only of the blue-bodied bees,
although the policemen did so much
preponderate that they at first seemed to have
the place entirely to themselves. Mr.
Hymettus at the table was in fact engaged
about the payment of the witnesses,
distributing three-and-sixpences and other sums,
and edifying those about him with a comic
story, in which a lord chancellor and a
surgeon who had come that day for his
attendance fee were interested. There were
no cases then on trial in that court. It is
brought into use towards the conclusion of a
gaol delivery, when there is a heavy list of
causes, and they cannot be got through by
the two other courts within a reasonable
time. The other two courts serve as the two
ordinary pumps used for the emptying of
Newgate. When by any delay, as during
legal holidays, the flood has accumulated, or
when there has been more than an average
run of crime into the prison, a third pump is
manned.

I had feasted my eyes for some time upon
all these things, but I was not so young as
to remain at the Old Bailey reckless of my
dinner. The rest of my experience relates
therefore to visits paid on subsequent
occasions. A few days afterwards I again
mounted to the door of the gallery of the
Old Court, and was faced again by the
Cerberus with three words, who said "Two
shillings, sir! " I thought he must have read
the fable of the Sybil and her Books, and
took me to be the man for succumbing to the
classical device. I made the natural remark
—not in the tone of an aggrieved Briton, but
as a suggestion of a fact modestly thrown out
—that "his price was a shilling when I saw
him last."

"Ah, sir," he answered, "but we've
interesting cases on at present. We charge
according to the cases tried; sometimes it's
one thing, sometimes another. Why, sir,
sometimes you can't come in under a
pound."

I went in, and found the gallery an
incommodious and dirty place, of which little more
than the front row was occupied, and from
which, behind the second row, to persons
sitting down there was a view of the judges
from the nose upwards and nothing else,
except the sword suspended over them. From
the second row, over the head of a doughy
child quietly sucking at the mother's breast,
and taking close Old Bailey breath into its
nostrils, I could see the judges opposite, the
gentlemen of the bar in the ring below, which
from that point of view reminded me of the
old pictures of cockpits, the white-faced man
with a head-dress of grave-clothes in the
witness-box; and, by leaning over, I could
observe the phrenological development of the
two prisoners who stood in the dock
immediately below. To the right there was my
old haunt the civic box, with the box for
reporters under it, at that time empty. The
court was occupied with Knife Cases, which,
inasmuch as they are considered to be more
attractive and agreeable than larcenies, were
not to be so cheaply listened to. In the just
opinion of the reporters, however, they had
rarely sufficient public interest to be allowed
to swell the space devoted to the Central
Criminal Court in the newspapers. Not a
tenth part of the cases heard at the Old
Bailey are, or can be, reported in the daily
newspapers; a selection must be made, and
in making it the discretion of the reporter is
exercised with wonderful dexterity. If you
look down from the gallery upon the whole
scene of Old Bailey business on an ordinary
working-day, you see during a greater or less
part of the time nobody in the reporters'
box. And yet, whenever a case that presents
any feature of public interest is being heard,
or only for a few minutes talked about, a
gentleman is to be seen, who appears simply
to strip off an invisible coat as soon as there
is need for him to go to work; a more than
Argus, quiet as he looks, for he has the eyes
of millions in his head, and carries with him
millions of ears.

The case under investigation when I entered
—a case not reported—was between the two
prisoners at the bar and the witness then
being examined in the box. One of the
prisoners, as seen from above, appeared to
consist of a long, narrow head with weak
light hair combed smoothly over it; the rest
of him appeared to be made up of fustian and
corduroy very much fore-shortened. He
seemed, by his poll, to be a youth of about
eighteen, and there was certainly no power
indicated by the conformation of his cranium.
He it was, Solomon Coward, who was charged
with having used the knife; his brother
Barney, who stood by his side, was charged
with having aided and abetted him. Barney
presented to those over him a small, dark, and
very hairy head; he seemed to be a tall thin
man, and below his poll there was a fore-
shortening of decent clothes, a black cloth
coat and trousers; one might set him down
at a glance as a respectable mechanic.

The cadaverous accuser told how on a
certain night, as he was going down Paradise
Lane, at about twelve o'clock, Solomon leapt
out at him and cried, "So here you are at
last! I have been waiting for you," and
upon that struck him with his fist. He,
Bollkins, the accuser, thereupon returned the
blow with interest, causing the enemy to
stagger. There were people in the lane who
stopped to see the row, and women close at
hand looked out of their bedroom windows.
There was also a gas lamp throwing light
upon the scene. Barney, it was said, came
out of his own door not many yards farther
down the lane, and seeing that his brother