"Leaving Nottingham you ascend a hill, and pass by a gallows."
NOTTINGHAM
(from Ogilby's "Book of Roads.")
Pictures found a prominent place in Ogilby's pages, and we reproduce one of Nottingham.
It will be noticed that the gallows is shown a short distance from the town.
It is twenty-six miles from London to East Grinstead, and in that short distance were three of these hideous instruments of death on the highway, in addition to gibbets erected in lonely bylanes and secluded spots where crimes had been committed. "Hangman's Lanes" were by no means uncommon. He was a brave man who ventured alone at night on the highways and byways when the country was beset[41] with highwaymen, and the gruesome gibbets were frequently in sight.
ANGLO-SAXON GALLOWS.
Hanging was the usual mode of capital punishment with the Anglo-Saxons. We give a representation of a gallows (gala) of this period taken from the illuminations to Alfric's version of Genesis. It is highly probable that in some instances the bodies would remain in terrorem upon the gibbet. Robert of Gloucester, circa 1280, referring to his own times, writes:—