END OF VOL. I.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Different countries have different modes of inflicting capital punishments. Beheading was military punishment among the Romans, known by the name of decollatio. Among them the head was laid on a cippus, or block, placed in a pit dug for the purpose; in the army, without the vallum; in the city, without the walls, at a place near the porta decumana. Preparatory to the stroke, the criminal was tied to a stake, and whipped with rods. In the early ages the blow was given with an axe; but in after-times with a sword, which was thought the more reputable manner of dying. The execution was but clumsily performed in the first times; but afterwards they grew more expert, and took the head off clean, with one circular stroke.
In England, beheading is the punishment of nobles; being reputed not to derogate from nobility, as hanging does. In France, during the revolutionary government, the practice of beheading by means of an instrument called a guillotine (so denominated from the name of its inventor) was exceedingly general. It resembles a kind of instrument long since used for the same purpose in Scotland, and called a maiden.
It is universally known, that, at the execution of King Charles the First, a man in a vizor performed the office of executioner. This circumstance has given rise to a variety of conjectures and accounts; in some of which, one William Walker is said to be the executioner; in others, it is supposed to be a Richard Brandon, of whom a long account was published in an Exeter newspaper of 1784. But William Lilly, in his “History of his Life and Times,” has the following remarkable passage. “Many have curiously inquired who it was that cut off his (the king’s) head: I have no permission to speak of such things; only this much I say, he that did it, is as valiant and resolute a man as lives, and one of a competent fortune.” When examined before the parliament of Charles II., he states, “That the next Sunday but one after Charles the First was beheaded, Robert Spavin, secretary to Lieutenant-General Cromwell at that time, invited himself to dine with me, and brought Anthony Pierson and several others along with him to dinner. That their principal discourse all dinner time was only who it was that beheaded the king. One said it was the common hangman; another, Hugh Peters; others also were nominated, but none concluded. Robert Spavin, so soon as dinner was done, took me by the hand and carried me to the south window: saith he, ‘These are all mistaken; they have not named the man that did the fact; it was Lieut. Colonel Joice. I was in the room when he fitted himself for the work; stood behind him when he did it; when done, went in with him again. There is no man knows this but my master, (viz. Cromwell,) Commissary Ireton, and myself.’—‘Doth not Mr. Rushworth know it?’ saith I.—‘No, he doth not know it,’ saith Spavin. The same thing Spavin hath often related to me when we were alone.”
The following description of the Maiden, by Mr. Pennant, may not prove uninteresting:—“This machine of death is now destroyed; but I saw one of the same kind in a room under the Parliament-house in Edinburgh, where it was introduced by the Regent Morton, who took a model of it as he passed through Halifax, and at length suffered by it himself. It is in form of a painter’s easel, and about ten feet high; at four feet from the bottom is the cross bar on which the felon lays his head, which is kept down by another placed above. In the inner edges of the frame are grooves; in these is placed a sharp axe, with a vast weight of lead, supported at the very summit with a peg: to that peg is fastened a cord, which the executioner cutting, the axe falls, and does the affair effectually, without suffering the unhappy criminal to undergo a repetition of strokes, as has been the case in the common method. I must add, that if the sufferer is condemned for stealing a horse or cow, the string is tied to the beast, which, on being whipped, pulls out the peg, and becomes the executioner.”
[2] This celebrated painter, whilst decorating the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, nearly fell a victim to his zeal in that undertaking. One day, when pursuing his task on the scaffold erected round the dome for that purpose, he kept walking backwards, surveying the effect of his work, until he had nearly approached the edge, from which another step would have precipitated him. At this instant his servant, who perceived the danger his master was in, with a wonderful presence of mind seized a pot of colour, and threw it over the painting. This caused Sir James to rush forward for the preservation of his work, and he was thus saved from being dashed to pieces, which, but for this timely intervention, must have been his fate. This eminent man painted the whole of the cupola of St. Paul’s, and also the halls of Greenwich Hospital and Blenheim. He was born in 1675, and was originally a house-painter, but afterwards applied himself to historical subjects, and equalled the best painters of his time. In 1719 he was appointed Historical Painter to George I., and shortly afterwards was created a knight. He was employed in several extensive works, for which he was in general very inadequately paid; and, at times, even found it difficult to obtain the stipulated price. His demands were contested at Greenwich Hospital, although he only received 25s. a square yard; about the same time a foreigner, for doing less work at Montague House, received 2000l. for his work, besides 600l. for his diet. For St. Paul’s he received 40s. a square yard. He also decorated More Park, but was obliged to sue Mr. Styles for it; he, however, not only recovered 3,500l. the sum agreed to be paid him, but 500l. more for decorations about the house. Notwithstanding these difficulties, he acquired a considerable fortune, and was several years in parliament; he was also a Fellow of the Royal Society. His genius was equally happy in history, allegory, landscape, and architecture; he even practised the last science as a man of business, and built several houses. He died in 1734, in the same place where he was born. He left a son, who followed his father’s profession; and a daughter, who married the celebrated Hogarth.
[3] It may not be uninteresting to the reader to know that Murphy was executed on the 27th of March, 1728, for stealing plate.
[4] It was formerly customary to oblige persons suspected of murder to touch the murdered body, for the discovery of their guilt or innocence.