TEN THOUSAND WONDERFUL THINGS.
PUNISHMENTS IN PROVINCIAL TOWNS IN THE OLDEN TIME.
The instruments most in vogue with our ancestors were three—the cucking-stool, the brank, and the tumbrel.
The Cucking-stool was used by the pond in many village greens about one hundred years ago or little more, and then deemed the best corrective of a scolding woman.
The CUCKING-STOOL.
By the sea, the quay offered a convenient spot. The barbican, at Plymouth, was a locality, doubtless terrible to offenders, however careless of committing their wordy nuisance of scolding. Two pounds were paid for a cucking-stool at Leicester in 1768. Since that it has been placed at the door of a notorious scold as a warning. Upon admission to the House of Correction at Liverpool, a woman had to undergo the severity of the cucking-stool till a little before the year 1803, when Mr. James Neild wrote to Dr. Lettsom. The pump in the men's court was the whipping-post for females, which discipline continued, though not weekly.
Kingston-upon-Thames.
| s. | d. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1572, | The making of the cucking-stool | 8 | 0 |
| Iron work for the same | 3 | 0 | |
| Timber for the same | 7 | 6 | |
| Three brasses for the same, and three wheels | 4 | 10 | |
| —— | —— | ||
| £1 3 | 4 |