, 1880-11-26
Some Old. Fashioned Punishments.

many borsughs, we have ample proof
that at an earlier period this curious
mode of punishment was the common
instrument of Justice for scolds and in
corrigible women--a practice, indeed,
which continued till within the last Gen.
mrv. One OF the last cases on record
in which it was resorted to is recorded
in the London Evening Post of April
Of. l745, where we read: "Last week
woman that keeps the Queens Head
Ale-house at Kingston, in Surrey, was
ordered by lhe court to be ducked for
scolding, and was accordingly placed in
the chair, and ducked in the river
Thames, under Kingston bridge, in the
presence of two or three thousand peo-
rnle." That this cold-water cure had a
wholesome effect upon unru)y women is
agreed by most of the old writers who
mention il. Dr. johnson, in conver-
sation with Mrs. Knowles, said !:
"Madam, we have different modes of
restraining evil-stocks for the men, a
ducking. stool for women, and pound
for beasts" And Gay, in his "Pas-
torals," is very decisive on this point:
III speed me to the pond, where the high stool
On the long plank hangs DER the muddy pool;
That STOOL the dread Of every scolding quean.
The popularity, too, of the punishment
is further show by the fact that cer.
porate bodies were required to furnish
themselves with ducking stool, Just as
they are now forced to provide and
maintain fire engines Thus, in the par
ish accounts OF Mortlake, .e3 shilings
appears to have been paid in 1862 "for
erecting and painting a ducking-stool
for scolds :" and among the Corporation
Records of Shrewsbury, 1869, we read
of "a ducking.stool to be erected for the
punishment of all scolds." Various
specimens of these instruments of cor
rection are still in existence, preserved
in local museums. One, which for many
years was in the Custom House at
Ipswich, is now in the museum of that
town and another, which was formerly
used in Leicester, is still preserved in
the town museum there. The term
cucking stool is sometimes applied to the
ducking stool resemblance Of the
names having apparently led to an idea
that they meant the same thing. A
learned writer on the subject, however,
has pointed out that the cucking gstool
was specially used for the exposure of
flagitious women cat their own doors or
in some other public place, as means
of putting upon them the last degree of
ignominy." In the year 1857, we are
told of a scold who was put upon the
"cuck-stool at Leicester, before her
own door, and then carried to the four
gates of the town; and Blomefeld. in
his "History of Norfolk" tells us of one
Margaret Grove, a common scold, who
in the year 1897 was ordered to be car
ried, with a basin "rung before her, to
the cuck-stool at Eye Bridge, and there
to be three times ducked" Again, in
days gone by, the "ducking-pond" was a
common adjunct to any place where a
number of habitations were collected to.
gether, and was in general use for the
summary punishment Of petty offenders
Of various descriptions. The ducking-
pond for the western part of London
occupied the site of part of Trafalgar
Square, and was very celebrated in the
annals Of the London mob.
Another mode of punishment, which
was formerly carried to q cruel extent,
was the whipping of vagrants and those
guilty of slight offences. BY an act
passed in % Henry VIII, beggars
found wandering about seeking their
subsistence from the aims Of the bener-
olent, were to be carried to some mar
ket-town or other place, and there tied
to the end of cart naked, and beaten
with whips throughout such market
town or other place till the body should
be bloody by reason of such whipping"
In the thirty ninth year of Elizabeth,
oowever, this act was slightly mitigated,
and "vagrants were only to be stripped
naked from the middle upward and
whipped till the body should he bloody"
Entries in some of our old church regis
ters remain as witnesses of the operation
of this law. About the year 1896 whip.
ping-posts came into use, and at the
time the writings of John Taylor,
"the water poet" were Published, they
appear to have been very plentiful, for
he narrates how
In London, and within mile, I ween,
There Of jails prisons full eighteen.
And sxty whipping-posts, and stocks and cages.
1t is also on record that on May 5,
l7l3, the corporation os Dopcaster gave
orders for whipping-post to be set up
at the stocks at Butcher Gross for pun.