FLEET MARRIAGES

irregular marriages performed without licence by needy clergymen in the Fleet Prison, London, from about 1616 till they were suppre ed by the Marriage 473 FLEET PRISON Act of 1754. These clergymen were ready to marry any couples that came before them for a fee proportioned in amount to the circumstances of those who were married. Sometimes a dram of gin was thought sufficient; at other times the fee was rather exorbitant. Registers of these marriages were kept by the officiating parties, and a collection of these books, purchased by Government in 1821, amounted to between 200 and 300 large registers, and upwards of 1,000 smaller books. These books were inadmi ible as evidence in a court of justice.—Cf. J. 470 on! nal one AM p fl i l] A FLEMING Pope the ‘Haunt of the Muses,’ from the number of poets who were confined in it.