"I have served my Queen and country sixty-three years," he said, " and you can see that I have fought for them too, and now that I'm an old man they're keeping me here and won't let me out."

Of course, there was a very good reason for his not being let out, and, in another sense, a sufficiently bad one; but that, of course, was a matter which he could not be expected to appreciate.

In the -female wings this contrast between the calm, orderly, and often cheerful bearing of the patients, and the reasons for their being where and what they were, was, if possible, even more startling and more shocking. A well - dressed lady, sitting in one of the spacious, sunlit corridors, put down her lace-work and bowed as we passed, murmuring a few words of polite greeting to the Superintendent. Her eyes were perfectly calm, her features were those of a delicately-bred woman, her abundant hair was beautifully arranged ; in fact, she might have entered any drawing-room in the country without exciting suspicion, and yet the delicate-looking hands which had been making the lace were stained with the blood of her own offspring.

Another lady, with whom I had a conversation in her own room - there are no cells at Broadmoor - was engaged in copying a head from one of the illustrated papers, and doing it very well, too. The walls of her room were neatly covered with similar pictures, and all about were little signs of feminine taste and refinement. She received me most affably, talked with thorough intelligence as to the comparative merits of her drawings and the originals, and received my good opinions of the former with quiet but evident satisfaction. So far, indeed, as our interview showed, she was just an entirely harmless lady pursuing a peaceable employment in a calm retirement, and yet this was a woman whose crime, committed something like a quarter of a century ago, sent a thrill of horror from end to end of the kingdom.

Another acquaintance that I made was that of a good-looking, buxom, middle- aged woman in the best of health and spirits, and apparently perfectly contented with her surroundings, as, indeed, the majority of the better patients appeared to be. She asked me if I didn't think she was looking exceedingly well after being fifteen years in the asylum. No one would ever have dreamt that such an amiable-looking creature could possibly have set fire to the bed in which her children were sleeping.

There are something like 120 women now confined in Broadmoor, out of a total of less than 200, who had murdered their own child or children. In fact, homicide, with attempts to murder and maim, would appear to be the crime to which the great majority of criminally-inclined lunatics are most prone.

As regards its general architectural structure and internal design Broadmoor does not differ very greatly from an ordinary prison save in the following respects : - the cells are replaced by rooms, small, but comfortably furnished, and very cheerful-looking. Instead of the great " halls" lighted from the top and containing three or four tiers of cells opening on to iron-railed galleries, the patients' rooms at Broadmoor are arranged in long corridors, most of which face ample-sized windows, barred, of course, but affording a good view of the grounds, and some of them splendid views of the surrounding country.

Then, of course, there are the common rooms, recreation-rooms, theatre, and concert-rooms, which you would look for in vain in the most perfect of British prisons. In short, the main idea of the designers appears to have been to get as much fresh air and sunlight as possible, and they have certainly succeeded exceedingly well. In fact, take away the bars from the windows, the iron gratings at the ends of the corridors and at every entrance from the grounds, and you would have in Broadmoor a perfectly arranged sanatorium, situated amidst the most delightful surroundings, to which anyone might go and make himself or herself thoroughly comfortable and happy.

The bakeries, cook-houses, laundries, tailors', shoe- makers', and carpenters' shops are just the same as in an ordinary prison - the only difference observable is in the costumes of the workers. So far I have dealt only with what may be called the pleasant aspect of Broadmoor, but behind it, and away out of sight of those who are enjoying in their own way these agreeable conditions, is another infinitely sadder - sad, in fact, almost to repulsiveness - and it is this aspect that you see when you enter the " back blocks" on either side.

The population of Broadmoor is divided into three classes. First come what are called the convalescents - that is to say, lunatics who are tranquil in their general behaviour, and do not exhibit any active signs of insanity, but who, of course, are nevertheless always insane. Then there come those who are as a rule quiet, orderly, and obedient, but who are actively insane and liable to outbreak ; these, like the convalescents, are allowed the greatest measure of freedom compatible with due restraint, but they are under ceaseless observation by attendants who are trained to recognise the slightest sign that indicates relapse.

Thus, for instance, if a man at work in his garden, or on the farm, or in any of the workshops, shows symptoms of restlessness or begins to work in an irregular way, or complains of headache, he is immediately taken to his room, where he is examined by a medical officer, and he is not allowed to go back to work till he returns to his normal condition. So, too, if a man voluntarily leaves his work he is not allowed back to it till he has been examined and certified fit. Every morning, too, the attendants on night duty have to make their reports to the principal attendant as to how their charges have slept during the night. If any suspicious symptoms are reported, an examination is made, and the patient does not go out till they are allayed. If necessary, he or she is sent into hospital. On one of these reports I noticed a rather curious entry : -

Slept well. Mouth and nose distinctly seen.

The explanation was this - the rooms are all supplied with a slit beside the door, through which the attendant can see the patient. This particular case was that of an epileptic, and if the attendant had seen the bedclothes over his face it would have been his duty to go in and remove them, otherwise the probability is that he would have suffocated himself.

I have mentioned these minute precautions here because they apply to all classes of patients, but more particularly to the third class, which consists of the refractory and violent - that is to say, those who would be called in common parlance, stark, staring mad. These I only saw through bars of the corridor, whose windows gave on to the exercise ground.

That corridor was one of the most unpleasant places I have ever been in in my life. Outside in the big, walled-in courtyard, plentifully planted with tall trees, were about a hundred grey-clad figures walking along, all alone - I didn't see two of them together - mostly only taking a few strides in one direction, then stopping a little as if they were lost, and starting off in a different direction. Others would walk swiftly in a straight line for several yards, then stop, look up at the sky, and make some half-human gesture, and then crawl away to a seat and crouch down on it.

Others, again, were swinging their arms and addressing imaginary audiences on imaginary wrongs ; but on every face, and in every eye, there was that horrible expression which only blank madness can give. Every now and then one would catch sight of us, run ,up and catch hold of the bars, and begin pouring forth the most piteous nonsense, mingled with horrible blasphemies and obscenities, and, seeing that I was a stranger, charging the officials with the most appalling cruelties.

I had a talk with one of them who had come from Parkhurst. He vowed that he had seen me there, which was within the bounds of possibility, as he had been sent from the Convict Convalescent Home since my visit there. When a convict becomes insane in prison he is sent to Broadmoor as a criminal lunatic. If he recovers he is sent back to prison to be discharged; if not, he is kept at Broadmoor. This poor wretch's complaint was that he had served the legal part of his sentence and earned a certain remission by good conduct. He remembered perfectly the date of his conviction, the name of the judge who had sentenced him, and even the date of what would have been his legal release.

So far his story, although gabbled out with the volubility of insanity, was perfectly coherent; but when he came to the reason why he was detained in Broadmoor instead of being released, it was a very different matter. The Lord Chief-Justice, the Home Secretary, the Governor of Parkhurst, both Houses of Parliament, and even Her Majesty herself had entered into a deliberate conspiracy to deprive him of his rights - and after that the rest was the most hopeless and piteous nonsense.

I was not at all sorry when the iron gateway of that corridor closed behind me; but in the back block of the female side the sight was, if anything, more pitifully repulsive than this, and here, too, there were no conversations.

" We will just walk through, so that you may see it," said the Superintendent, " and I must ask you not to take any notice of anyone. We have a lot of inflammable material here."

The warning was almost unheeded, for the difference was only too obvious. Here there was nothing like what I had seen in the other wards ; no trim, well-dressed, ladylike figures engaged in the ordinary employments of women in the outer world ; no sounds of music or conversation : only figures in female dress lying down on the floor, or huddled up in corners, or walking with slow, dragging footsteps, scraping their hands and bodies along the walls, wild eyes staring out under untidy hair, dog-like whimperings and crooning noises which were even more horrible.

In these back blocks the guards, both male and female, are doubled, and I noticed that whereas in the other parts of the asylum and grounds the Superintendent and I wandered about unattended, here there were never less than three attendants always within arm's length. I was not at all sorry when their services could be safely dispensed with. Here, too, the furniture is reduced to the minimum of absolute necessity. Everything is massive and solid, table utensils are made of tin instead of china, knives and forks are constructed so that they can neither be used for cutting or stabbing; in short, there is nothing that could be used as a weapon.

Before I conclude I should like to remove one more popular delusion with regard to Broadmoor. It is a too common belief that murderers and other criminal lunatics are maintained in comfort in Broadmoor at the national expense when they are quite well enough to be discharged. Now, there are two systems of discharge from Broadmoor: a patient may be released unconditionally if he is certified as fully recovered. This very rarely happens, there being only one case in 1897 ; but patients are also discharged into the care of friends who can prove their ability to take care of them, and who have to make periodical reports certified by responsible persons as to their state of mind ; nine such cases were discharged in 1897.

Now I, in my ignorance, should have thought that a great many of the patients whom I saw were fit to be discharged, but, as the Superintendent explained, it is not their behaviour in the asylum, where they have no worries, no responsibilities, and no cares for the morrow, that has to be considered ; the point is whether they are fit to go back to the world to which they have been strangers for so long and there conduct themselves like sane people. The answer of mature experience is an emphatic " no." Just after we had discussed this point the Superintendent introduced me to a quiet and most pleasantly-spoken individual who was tending a most carefully-kept flower-bed, brilliant with blooms. From his conversation I should never have dreamt that he was mad, yet this man had once been released from an asylum as cured, into the custody of his wife, and within three days he had relapsed and smashed her head into pulp with a hammer.