ELIZABETH BUNYAN, hardships I thought my poor blind one might go under, would break my heart to pieces. Poor child! thought I, what sorrow art thou like to have for thy portion in this world ! Thou must be beaten, must beg ; suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities ; though I cannot now endure the wind upon thee ! But yet, recalling many, thought I, I must venture you all with God, though it goeth to the quick to leave you! Oh, when I saw you in this condition, I was as a man who was pulling down his house upon the heads of his wife and children ; yet, thought I, I must do it, I must do it." It is generally believed that shortly after Bunyan was imprisoned, Elizabeth removed with the children from Elstow to Bedford, in order that she might have more frequent access to him. In the town of Bedford, on one of the central piers of the rude bridge across the " lilied Ouse," stood the ancient prison where the Christian husband and father was confined. It was almost damp enough to make " the moss grow upon the eyebrows " of the prisoners ; and as the bridge was only four yards and a half wide, the prison must have been very small,- twelve feet square was about the extent of the walls, for it occupied but one pier below the centre arches of the bridge. There was no court-yard, no space for out-of-door work, or open-air exercise. A century later, the damp and dreadful condition of this prison first roused John Howard's philanthropic efforts for the improvement of the prisons throughout 28
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