'They put five[637] or six in a Cart (some gentlemen obtain leave to perform this journey in a coach) and carry them riding backwards with the Rope about their Necks, to the fatal Tree. The Executioner stops the Cart under one of the Cross Beams of the Gibbet, and fastens to that ill-favoured Beam one End of the Rope, while the other is round the Wretches Neck: This done, he gives the Horse a Lash with his Whip, away goes the Cart, and there swings my Gentleman Kicking in the air.
'The Hangman does not give himself the Trouble to put them out of their Pain; but some of their Friends or relations do it for them. They pull the dying Person by the Legs, and beat his Breast to dispatch him as soon as possible. The English are People that laugh at the Delicacy of other Nations, who make it such a mighty Matter to be hang'd; their extraordinary Courage looks upon it as a Trifle, and they also make a Jest of the pretended Dishonour, that in the Opinion of others, falls upon their Kindred.
'He that is to be hang'd, or otherwise executed, first takes Care to get himself shav'd, and handsomely drest, either in Mourning, or in the Dress of a Bridegroom. This done, he sets his Friends at Work to get him Leave to be bury'd, and to carry his Coffin with him, which is easily obtain'd. When his suit of Cloaths, or Night Gown, his Gloves, Hat, Perriwig, Nosegay, Coffin, Flannel Dress for his Corps, and all those Things are brought and prepar'd, the main Point is taken Care of, his Mind is at Peace, and then he thinks of his Conscience. Generally he studies a Speech, which he pronounces under the Gallows, and gives in Writing to the Sheriff, or the Minister that attends him in his last Moments, desiring that it may be printed. Sometimes the Girls dress in White, with great Silk Scarves, and carry Baskets full of Flowers and Oranges, scattering these Favours all the Way they go. But to represent Things as they really are, I must needs own that if a pretty many of these People dress thus gayly, and go to it with such an Air of Indifference, there are many others that go slovenly enough, and with very dismal Phizzes.
'I remember, one Day, I saw in the Park, a handsome Girl, very well drest, that was then in Mourning for her Father, who had been hang'd but a month before at Tyburn for false Coinage. So many Countries, so many Fashions.'
There were sad and revolting scenes at the gallows. The notorious Captain Kidd, the pirate, went to his death drunk, which as Paul Lorrain, the Ordinary of Newgate, observes, 'had so decomposed his Mind, that now it was in a very bad frame.' The rope broke, and he fell to the ground, which somewhat sobered him, and before he was finally strangled he listened to the chaplain's ministrations.
A previous chaplain, in 1691, was roughly treated by one Tom Cox, a highwayman,[638] 'for before he was turn'd off, Mr. Smith, the Ordinary, desiring him to join with the rest of his Fellow Sufferers in Prayer, he swore a great Oath to the contrary, and kickt him and the Hangman too off the Cart.'
When one Dick Hughes, a housebreaker, was in 1709 going to execution,[639] 'his wife met him at Saint Giles's Pound, where, the Cart stopping, she stept up to him, and whispering in his Ear, said, My dear, who must find the Rope that's to hang you, We or the Sheriff? Her husband reply'd, The Sheriff, Honey; for who's obliged to find him Tools to do his Work? Ah! (reply'd his Wife) I wish I had known so much before, 'twould have sav'd me two Pence, for I have been and bought one already. Well, well, (said Dick again) perhaps it mayn't be lost, for it may serve a second Husband. Yes (quoth his Wife) if I've any Luck in good Husbands, so it may.'
Another story is told, in the same book, of one Jack Witherington, a highwayman, who, when going up Holborn Hill to execution, 'he order'd the Cart to stop, then desiring to speak to the Sheriff's Deputy, who attends Criminals to the Place of Execution, he said to him, I owe, Sir, a small Matter at the Three Cups Inn, a little farther, for which I fear I shall be arrested as I go by the Door, therefore I shall be much obliged to you if you'll be pleased to carry me down Shoe Lane, and bring me up Drury Lane again to the Place for which I'm designed. Hereupon the Deputy Sheriff telling him that if such a Mischance should happen, he would Bail him; Jack, as not thinking he had such a good Friend to stand by him in time of Need, rid very contentedly to Tyburn.'
The system of strangulation then in vogue was favourable to the recovery of life, as is shown by the following extract from the Flying Post, Dec. 11/13, 1705: 'Yesterday one John Smith,[640] Condemned last Sessions for House breaking, was carried from Newgate to Tyburn to be executed. Some minutes after he was turned off, a Reprieve came for him, and being immediately cut down, he soon reviv'd, to the admiration of all Spectators, and was brought back to Newgate.'
The Newgate Calendar reports that,'being asked what were his sensations, after he was turned off; he answered That at first he felt great pain, but that it gradually subsided, and that the last thing he could remember, was the appearance of a light in his eyes, after which he became quite insensible. But the greatest pain was, when he felt the blood returning to its proper channels.'