Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/363

 and Sentiments. 343 his Diftionary, from a manufcript at leaft as old as the fifteenth century, recounting the punilhnients to which fome mifdoers were condemned, fays:- And tiventy of thes oder ay in a pytt, Injiokkes and feturi for tofytt. The flocks are frequently referred to in writers of the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries, and they have not yet become entirely obfolete. The Leeds Menu ry for April 14, i8i5o, informs us that, "A notorious charafter, named John Gambles, of Stanningley (Pudfey), having been convifted fome months ago for Sunday gambling, and fentenced to fit in the flocks for fix hours, left the locality, returned lately, and futfered his punifliment by fitting in the flocks from two till eight o'clock on Thurfday laft." They were formerly employed alfo, in place of fetters, in the infide of prifons — no doubt in order to caufe fuflering by irkfome reflraint ; and this was fo common that the Latin term cippus, and the French ceps, were commonly ufed to defignate the prifon itfelf. It may be remarked of thefe flocks, that they prelent a peculiarity which we may perhaps call a primitive character. They are not fupported on ports, or fixed in any way to the fpot, but evidently hold the people 'ho are placed in them in confinement merely by their weight, and by the impoflibility of walking with them on the legs, efpecially when more perfons than one are con- fined in them. This is probably the way in which they were ufed in prifons. A