The Garrote.
—The West India newspapers are filled with the details of General Lopez's second attempt on Cuba, and his subsequent capture and execution. The latter event took place at Havannah on the 1st September, in presence of 8000 troops, and the manner of it is said to have been the Garrote, which is thus described in a Jamaica Journal:—
"The prisoner is made to sit in a kind of chair with a high back, to which his head is fastened by means of an iron clasp, which encloses his neck, and is attached to the back by a screw. When the signal is given, the screw is turned several times, which strangles the victim, and breaks his neck."
The word Garrote being Spanish (derived probably from the French "garrotter"), and the punishment having been inflicted in a Spanish colony, it is to be presumed that we are indebted to the latter nation for the invention of it. Can any of your readers give any information as to the origin and use of this mode of punishment?
HENRY H. BREEN.
Monastic Establishments in Scotland.
—Will any of your correspondents be kind enough to furnish me with a list of the ancient monastic establishments of Scotland? Having communicated with many learned antiquaries, both in England and Scotland, and having failed in obtaining what I desired, I conclude that no complete list exists. Spottiswoode's list, now appended to Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, is very imperfect. But there are great facilities now for compiling a perfect list from such works as the publications of the Roxburgh, Bannatyne, and Maitland Clubs, Innes's Origines Parochiales, &c. I would like the list to be classed either according to the different counties, or by the respective orders of the religious houses, with a separate list of the mitred houses that had seats in parliament. The list is wanted for publication. Perhaps the writer of "Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals" in the Quarterly may have compiled such a list.
CEYREP.
Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook.
—Can you inform me where I can find the pedigree of the Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook, in the county of Gloucester?