Girls' school at Tothill Fields Prison

Book illustration of the girls' school at Tothill Fields Prison from page 357 of 'The criminal prisons of London and scenes of prison life' by Henry Mayhew and John Binny. The authors describe the girls' school as being a "cosy little room fitted with forms, on which some sixteen mere children were seated... Against the fire-place stood a table, on which were spread samplers and round patch-work d'oyleys, bordered with fringe and other small mosaic-like articles of needlework; while the floor, though bricken, was covered with a warm rug.... The girl prisoners were clad in blue and white-spotted cotton frocks, and caps with deep frilled borders, and most of them had long strips of shiny straw plait dangling from their hands, which they kept working at instinctively with their little fingers, while they looked with wonder up into our face." The authors spoke to one girl of eight years old, given three months' imprisonment for stealing a pair of boots. On being asked why she had stolen the boots she replied "'Cause I hadn't got none of my own."