The Red Cloud chief., 1881-01-20

Corporation Records of Shrewsbury.
1863. we read Of "a duckirg-stsol to Dc
erected for the punishment of Al
scolds" Various -pc-imeusot these Ia
strumeni- of -rrecIio ace sill IN e..
~istence. preserved in local museums
One. which for many year. was in tn
Custom House Mt lpswica. is now in IL.
museum of that town: and another
which was formerly used in Leicester.
Is stiIl preserved in the Town Museum
there. The term cucking-.tool i.
sometimes applied to the duckiny-siool
the resemblance Of the names having
apparently led To an idea that they
me Ant the ssme thing. A learned writ
er on the subject, however. has pointed
out that the cucking-siocl was specially
used for the exposure of i!agItious
women lat their own doors or IN som.
other public place. n. a g of put
ting upon them the last degree of igno-
miny." In the year Ii57 We are told
of a scold who Wa put upon the ''cuck-
stool at Leicester. before her o~n
door. and hen carried To the four gates
Of the town; and Blometield in his
History Of Norfolk tells Us of one
Margaret Grove. n common scold. who
in the year 1891 was ordered TO be car
ried. with 4 basin rung before her, Ia
the cucke-stool AT Eve Bridge, and there
TO be three times ducked' Again. in
days gone by. the ..ducking pond
was a common adjunct "a any place
where n number of habitations were
collected together. and was in general
Use for the summary punishment of pet
ty offenders of various descriptions.
The ducking pond for the western part
OF London occupied the site Of part of
Trafalgar Square, and was very cele-
brated in the annals of the London mob.
Another mode IF punishment, which
was formerly carried To a cruel extent.
was the whipping of warrants and those
guilty Of slight offenses. BY an act
passed in y Henry VIII, beggars found
wandering about seeking their subsist-
ence from the aims OF the benevolent
were to be carried to some market
town or other place, and there tied 10
the end of a 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.
however, this act was slightly miti-
gated, and Migrants were only 10 be
stripped naked from the middle up
ward. and whipped till the body should
be bloody" Entries in some OF our old
church registers remain as witnesses of
the operation of this law. About the
year 1896 whipping posts came into
use. and at the time the writings of
John Taylor. 1.-the water poet" were
published, they appear to have been
very plentiful, for he narrates how
In London, and within a mile, I ween,
There are of jails or prisons full eighteen,
And sixty whipping-posts, and stocks and
cages.
1t is also on record that on May 5.
17l3. the corporation of Doncaster gave
orders for a whipping post to be set up
at the stocks ut Butcher Cross for pun
ishing Migrants and sturdy beggars.
Then, too, there were the parish stocks.
which were either put close To the
~churchyard or in more solitary places.
This was an arrangement for exposing
a culprit on q bench, confined by hav-
ing his ankles made fast in holes under
a movable board. In many country
places these may still be seen. although
frequently little more than a stump of
them is left. Even women were pun
ished in this way; and, as an illuStra-
ton, we may quote the subjoined ex-
tract from the parish register of Croft.
Yorkshire: Jane Buttrcy. of Darling
ton, was sect in the stoke at Crofte,
and was whipte out of the towne the ;
day of Jan, 1872" The whipping of
female Migrants, however. was abOl-
ished by statute SO recently as the year
1891.
Among other modes of punishment
formerly in use may be mentioned the
Drank, or scOld's bride. OF which one of
the earliest notices is that preserved in
rev, dated 1888, to which is affixed tae
following rhyme:
Chester presents Walton with a bride
To curb women's tongues that talk so idle.
According to tradition this instrument
OF chastisement vas presented to the
parish by a person named Chester, who.
it appears. had lost an estate through
the indiscreet language of a mischiev-
Gus woman to IN uncle from whom he
had considerable expectations. The
apparatus was made. says a corresponds
ent of Chambers Book of DAYS" of
thin iron, and SO contrived as to pass
over and round the head, where the
whole clasped% together and was fasten-
ed ut the back of the neck by a small
paddock. The bridle-bit, as it was
called, was a small piece OF iron, about
two inches long and one inch broad.
.l.al ,,ark - H. ,o .- ..t
down the tongue by its pressure; while
an aperture in front admitted the nose.
Various specimens are still t. be seen
here and there in local museums. 1t
was much in request in Scotland. and
is mentioned BY Pennant in his Tour
in Scotland in 1772. In st. Mary's
Church. st. Andrews, a famous speci-
men still exists. known as the :" Bishops
Drank" of which a representation is
given in the Abbotsford edition Of the
monastery" In the time of the
Commonwealth the Magistrates of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne punished drunk
ards by making them carry a tub, with
holes in the sides for the arms to pass
through. along the streets of that town
"A punishment popularity called the
'drunkard's cloak" | must not omit
to mention the ''pillory," that ignO-
minious and barbarouS meal of pun
ishment which was finally done away
with only in 1887. In early times in
England it was the punishment most
generally inflicted upon cheats, thieves,
scandal-mongers and such-like culprits;
but later on it figured conspicuously in
political disputes. A pillory is said
still to be standing at the back of the
market place of C~oleshill. in Warwick
shire; and another is reported to lie
with the town engine in an unused
chancel of Rye Church. in Sussex. The
s.pilliwiukles" was q mode of torture
formerly used in Scotland for suspected
witches; and that horrible practice of
pressing to death" was in force within
the last two centuries. According to
Norwich SDectafor this cruel sentence