Lord George Gordon had beards and wore head coverings. He would often, in keeping with Jewish "chesed" (laws of mercy and charity), go into other parts of the prison to comfort prisoners by speaking with them and playing the violin. In keeping with "tzedaka" (charity) laws, he gave what little money he could to those in need. Charles Dickens, in his novel "Barnaby Rudge", which centres around the Gordon Riots, describes Gordon as a true "tzadik" (pious man) among the prisoners: On 28 January 1793, Lord George Gordon's sentence expired and he had to appear to give claim to his future good behaviour.
Charles Dickens becoming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions, the rigours of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor. He later wrote that he wondered "how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age". As he recalled to John Forster (from "The Life of Charles Dickens"): The blacking-warehouse was the last house on the left-hand side of the way, at old Hungerford Stairs. It was a crazy, tumble-down old house, abutting of course on the river, and literally overrun with rats. Its wainscoted rooms, and its rotten floors and