or -jug, -pitcher, -tavern, subs. phr. (old).—A prison: spec. Newgate (B. E., GROSE, and VAUX). Also JUG (q.v.).
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, IV. xii. In danger of miserably rotting within a STONE DOUBLET, as if he had struck the King.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, ii. 300. Once more … observe … for I am not at leisure to trifle any longer with you: otherwise a STONE DOUBLET is the word.
1834. W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood, ‘Jerry Juniper’s Chant.’ In a box of the STONE JUG I was born.
1836. DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, ‘Prisoner’s Van.’ Six weeks and labour … and that’s better than the STONE JUG anyhow. Ibid. (1838), Oliver Twist, viii. “Was you never on the mill?” “What mill?” enquired Oliver. “What mill? why the mill—the mill as takes up so little room that it ’ll work inside a STONE-JUG.”
1856. C. READE, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, lxxxii. I will sell the bed from under your wife’s back and send you to the STONE-JUG.
