DEN! What an abode for men and women who had been made by God kings
and priests--the heirs of heaven! The eyes of Howard, a Dissenter,
penetrated these dens, these hidden things of darkness, these abodes
of cruelty. He revealed what lay and clerical magistrates ought to
have published centuries before, that they were not fit places in
which to imprison any, even the worst of criminals. He denounced
them, humanity shuddered at the discovery, and they were razed to
their foundations. In this den God permitted his honoured servant,
John Bunyan, to be incarcerated for more than twelve years of the
prime of his life. A man, whose holy zeal for the salvation of
sinners, whose disinterested labours, whose sufferings for Christ
prove his apostolical descent much better than those who claim
descent from popes, and Wolsey or Bonner--those fiends in human
shape.

Bedford bridge was pulled down in the year 1811, when the present
handsome bridge was built. One of the workmen employed upon the
ruins found, among the rubbish, where the prison had stood, a ring
made of fine gold, bearing an inscription which affords strong
presumptive evidence that it belonged to our great allegorist. Dr.
Abbot, a neighbouring clergyman, who had daily watched the labours
of the workmen, luckily saw it, and saved it from destruction. He
constantly wore it, until, drawing near the end of his pilgrimage,
in 1817, he took it off his own finger and placed it upon that of
his friend Dr. Bower, then curate of Elstow,[221] and at present
the dean of Manchester, charging him to keep it for his sake. This
ring must have been a present from some person of property, as a
token of great respect for Bunyan's pious character, and probably
from an indignant sense of his unjust and cruel imprisonment. By
the kind permission of the dean, we are enabled to give a correct