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HE most ancient of the mediæval prisons of Leicester was the Castle Dungeon. The partly subterraneous room, which still exists between the Mount and the Hall of the Castle, and which has long been known as "John o' Gaunt's Cellar," has been generally identified with this venerable gaol. A very full and illustrated description of it will be found in James Thompson's account of Leicester Castle, published in 1859. He describes it as a long, dark and damp chamber, the sides and roof of which are constructed of wrought stones. "It is fifty feet from end to end, eighteen feet wide, and twelve feet high from the original floor, now covered over with accumulated earth and rubbish." Thompson came to the conclusion that the walls of the chamber were older than the ceiling, and he conjectured that at some time, not earlier than the middle of the 15th century, an upper room had been built over the original building, probably a guard-room. "But, whatever it may have been," he continues, "the chamber below was evidently a prison, and I doubt not was that erected under the authority of Edward the First, whose grant, dated 1301, is entitled ' De prisona in villa Leicestriae constructend' pro prisona comitatus qui ante usque gaolam Warwici duci "solebant.' "

It is not, however, at all certain that the existing building was really the dungeon of the Castle, as Thompson believed. Other antiquarians, who have studied the character of the structure, and compared it with similar underground places in other castles of the period, have come to an opposite conclusion. They think that it was not built for a prison, but more probably as a cellar for the storage of wine and other domestic supplies. 41