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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Fleet prison
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Jail which stood from the 12C beside the Fleet river in London's Farringdon Street. It was used for those convicted in the *Star Chamber and later as one of the main prisons for debtors; the ending of clandestine marriages by impoverished clergy in the Fleet brought prosperity to *Gretna Green. The appalling conditions were described in *Pickwick Papers just before the prison was closed; but the Fleet also had the unusual distinction, as Mr Pickwick discovered, of being an important centre for the game of *rackets. It was demolished in the 1840s.
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