The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-12-08

ment was the common instrument OF justice
for scolds and ineorrigible women-a prac-
tice, indeed, which continued till within the
lost century. One of the last cases on re-
cord in which it was resorted to is recorded
in the London Evening Post of April p
I745, where we read: Last week a woman
that keeps the Queens Head Ale
house at Kingston, in Surray, was ordered
by the Court to be d1cked for scolding,
and was accordingly placed in the chair, and
ducked in the river Thames, under Kingston
bridge, in the presence OF two OF three thou
sand De 1pIe" That this cold water cure
had a wholesome effect upon unruly women
is agreed By most of the old writers who
mention it. DR. johnson, in conversation
with Mrs Knowles, said: MADAM. we have
different modes of restraining evil-stOcks
for the men, ducking-stool for women. and
a pound for beasts" And Gay, in bis 'Pas-
torals, is very decisive on this point:
I'll speed me to the pond, where the high stool
On the long plank hangs DER the muddy pool;
That stood, the dread Of every sco!ding queen
The popularity, too, of the punishment is
further shown by the fact that corporate
bodies were required to furnish themselves
with ducking-stOol, just rs they are now
forced to provide and maintain fire engines.
Thus, in the parish accounts of Mortlake,
f3 Is appears to have been paid in 1862
''for erecting and painting ducking stool
for scolds;" and among the Corporation Re
cords of Shrews bury, 1869 we read of "a
ducking-stOol To be erected for the punish
ment of all scolds." Various specimens of
these instruments of correction are
STILL IN EXISTENCE,
preserved in local museums. One. which
tor many years was in the Custom House at
Ipswich Is now in the museum OF that town I;
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
the resemblance OF the names having ap
parently led to an idea that they meant the
same thing. A highly-learned writer on
the subject however, has pointed out that
the cucking stool was especially used for
exposure OF fagitious women "at their own
door or in some ether public place, as II
means of putting upon them the last degree
of ignOmny In the year l457 we are
told of scold who was put upon the "cuck-
stool .'at Leicester, before her own door and
then carried to the four gates of the town,
tells us OF one Margaret Grove, a common
scold, who in the year 1887 ordered t..
be carried, with basin "rung before her,
to the cuck stool NJ Eye Bridge, and there
to be three times ducked." Again in days
gone by, the "ducking-pond' was common
adjunct To any place whore a number of
habitatiOns were collected together, and wa
in general use for the summary puni-hment
of petty offenders Of various descriptions
The ducking-pond for the western part of
London occupied the site of part of Trafal-
gar Square. and was very celebrated in the
annals of the London mob.
WHIPPING.
Another mode of punishment, which was
formerly carried 10 cruel extent, the
whipping Of vagrants and those guilty of
slight Otienses. By an act passed in %
Henry VIII, beggars found wandering
about seeking their subsistence from the
aims of the benevolent were t. be carried
to some markel-town or other place. and
there lied to the end of a cart naked, and
beaten with whips throughout such market
town or ether place till the body should be
bloody by reason of such whipping" In
the thirty ninth year of Elizabeth, however,
this act was slightly mitigated, and "vag-
rants were only to be stripped naked from
the middle upward and whipped till the
body should b. bloody" Entries in some
of our old church registers remain as wit
nesses of the operation of this law. About
the year 1896 whipping-posts came into use,
and at the time the writings of John Taylor.
'the water poet, were published, they ap
pear to have been very plentiful, for he mar
rates how
In London, asd within a mile, I we-n
There are of Jafls or prisons ia eighteen.
And sixty whppins-pOsis aud 81 eks Hud cages
1t was also on record that on May 5, l7l3
the corporation of ID If ncsster gave orders Tor
whpping-pOst to be set up at the stock:
at Butcher Gross for furnishing Migrants and
sturdy beggars. Then, too, there were
the Parish stocks, which were either put
close TO the churcnyard or in more solitary
places. This was an arrangement for ex.
posing cllprit on a bench. confined b1
having his ankles made fat in holes under
movable board. In many country places
these may still be seen although frequently
little more than stump Is left. Even
WOMEN WERE PUNISHED
in this way; and, as an illustration, we NAV
quote the suhjoined extract from the parlsf
register Of Croft. Yorkshire: ''Jane BuItrey
of Darlington, WIS sect in tn s-t1x,' ri
third day of January, 1915" The whip
ping Of female Migrants. no ~ever, was abnl.
i'bed by statute 80 recently as the veal
1871.
Among the other modes of punishment
formerly in use may be mentioned th'
Drank, or scpld's Bird e. Of which one Of h.
earliest notices is that preserved in the
church at Walton-on Thames, Surrey, dated
1888, to which is affixed the following
rhyme:
Ches er presents Walton with bIide
To curb wsmens tongues that talk soidle-
ACCORDING to tradition this instrument o.
chastisement was presented to the Parish by
person named Chester, who, it appears
had lvss an estate through the indiscreet Ian
guage vi 4 mischievous WOMAN - an Uncle
from whom he had considerable exp eta
tions The apparatus was made. saws n CIR
respondent OF Chambers Book of Days." o
thin iron, and 20 contrived Ms to pass owe
and round the head. where the whole claspet
togetner and wss fastened at the back of tn.
neck by small paddock. The bride bit, a
it was called, was small piece OF iron, abou
two inches long and one inch broad, which
went into the mouth and kept down th'
tongue by tie pressure; while an aperture II
front admitted the Dose Various Specimens
are still TO be seen here and there in loca
museums 1t Was much in request in Scot