eight in the
morning
So , I rubbed it off with all possible speed by turning into a street where I saw the great black dome of Saint Paul 's bulging at me from behind a grim stone building which a bystander said was Newgate Prison . Following the wall of the jail , I found the roadway covered with straw to deaden the noise of passing vehicles ; and from this , and from the quantity of people standing about smelling strongly of spirits and beer , I inferred that the trials were on . While I looked about me here , an exceedingly dirty and partially drunk minister of justice asked me if I would like to step in and hear a trial or so : informing me that he could give me a front place for half a crown , whence I should command a full view of the Lord Chief Justice in his wig and robes , -- mentioning that awful personage like waxwork , and presently offering him at the reduced price of eighteen-pence . As I declined the proposal on the plea of an appointment , he was so good as to take me into a yard and show me where the gallows was kept , and also where people were publicly whipped , and then he showed me the Debtors ' Door , out of which culprits came to be hanged ; heightening the interest of that dreadful portal by giving me to understand that `` four on 'em '' would come out at that door the day after to-morrow at eight in the morning , to be killed in a row . This was horrible , and gave me a sickening idea of London ; the more so as the Lord Chief Justice 's proprietor wore -LRB- from his hat down to his boots and up again to his pocket-handkerchief inclusive -RRB- mildewed clothes which had evidently not belonged to him originally , and which I took it into my head he had bought cheap of the executioner . Under these circumstances I thought myself well rid of him for a shilling . I dropped into the office to ask if Mr. Jaggers had come in yet , and I found he had not , and I strolled out again .