The prisoners, if they chose, could find their own food, but they were kept strictly at work as is quaintly put by Fuller--
"I had, in each Shop, the Thieves for my Fellow-labourers, and the Journeymen, our Deputy Task Masters, were frequently calling to the Prisoners, _Why don't you Work there, strike hard_: Then threaten, and sometimes beat them with a small Cane. These Task-masters are so accustomed to keeping their Prisoners hard at Work, that I have heard themselves say, they have, frequently, (forgetting themselves) called out, when they had no Prisoner in the Shop, as before, _Why don't you work there_."
Ward (in the "London Spy") gives an almost too graphic account of this prison, but expresses unmitigated disgust at the whipping of women, which took place there, and solemnly protested against its continuance. His description of a woman being flogged, is as follows:--
"My Friend Re-conducted me back into the first Quadrangle, and led me up a pair of Stairs into a Spacious Chamber, where the Court was sitting in great Grandeur and Order. A Grave Gentleman, whose Awful Looks bespoke him some Honourable Citizen, was mounted in the Judgement-Seat, Arm'd with a Hammer, like a _Change-Broker_ at _Lloyd's Coffee House_, when selling Goods by Inch of Candle, and a Woman under the Lash in the next Room; where Folding doors were open'd, that the whole Court might see the Punishment Inflicted; at last down went the Hammer, and the Scourging ceas'd.... Another Accusation being then deliver'd by a Flat-Cap against a poor Wench, who having no Friend to speak in her behalf, Proclamation was made, _viz. All you who are willing E----th T----ll, should have present Punishment, pray hold up your hands._ Which was done accordingly:
And then she was order'd the Civility of the House, and was forc'd to shew her tender Back and Breasts to the Grave Sages of the August Assembly, who were mov'd by her Modest Mein, together with the whiteness of her Skin, to give her but a gentle Correction."
John Howard, in his "State of the Prisons in England and Wales" (ed. 1777) gives the following description of Bridewell:--
"This building was formerly a Palace, near St. Bridget's (St. Bride's) Well; from whence it had the name; which, after it became a Prison, was applied to other Prisons of the same sort. It was given to the City by King Edward VI. in 1552.