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Rh of shoppe-keepers,&rdquo; the court ordered them to be stripped naked and whipped. The flogging of women was common. Judge Jeffreys, in so sentencing a female prisoner, is reported to have exclaimed, &ldquo;Hangman, I charge you to pay particular attention to this lady. Scourge her soundly, man: scourge her till her blood runs down! It is Christmas: a cold time for madam to strip. See that you warm her shoulders.&rdquo; Lunatics, too, were whipped, for in the Constable's Accounts of Great Staughton, Hunts, occurs the entry, &ldquo;1690-1, Paid in charges taking up a distracted woman, watching her and whipping her next day &mdash; 8/6d.&rdquo; A still more remarkable entry is &ldquo;1710-1, Pd. Thomas Hawkins for whipping two people yt had smallpox &mdash; 8d.&rdquo; In 1764 the Public Ledger states that a woman who is described as &ldquo;an old offender&rdquo; was taken from the Clerkenwell Bridewell to EnCeld and there publicly whipped at the cart's tail by the common hangman for cutting wood in Enfield Chase. A statute of 1791 abolished the whipping of females.

WHISKER, a word chiefly used in the plural in the sense of the hair worn by a man on the cheeks as opposed to the beard on the chin and the moustache on the upper lip (see ). It is also applied to the bristly feelers growing round the mouth of a cat or other animal. The word by derivation means that which &ldquo;whisks&rdquo; or &ldquo;brushes.&rdquo;

WHISKY, or Whiskey, a potable spirit distilled from cereal grains. The name is probably derived from the Celtic uisgcbcalha (water of life), which was subsequently contracted to usquebaugh, and still later to whisky (cf. Skeat, Elyin. Diet. s .v .). The liquor known as "usquebaugh" in the 17th and 18th centuries was not, however, of the same character as the whisky of modern times, but was a compound of plain spirit with saffron, nutmegs, sugar and other spices and flavouring matters. Whether the term whisky to denote a plain type of spirit was used concurrently with usquebaugh, or whether the latter name covered both varieties, is not clear. It is certain, however, that an alcoholic liquor, derived mainly from grain, has been prepared for very many centuries in both Ireland and Scotland (see Spirits). There are three main types of whisky, namely, Scotch, Irish and American. Scotch whiskies may be broadly divided into two main groups, namely (a) pot-still or malt whiskies, and (i) patent-still or grain whiskies; the former are made practically without exception from malted barley only, the latter from a mixture of malted barley and other unmalted cereals, chiefly rye, oats and maize (see Spirits), (a) There are four main varieties of Scotch malt whiskies, namely, Highland Malts, Lowland Malts, Campbeltowns and Islays. The Highland Malts are produced (if we except a few distilleries on the islands in the west and north) in the district on the mainland lying north of an imaginary line drawn through Dundee on the east and Greenock on the west. The largest group of distilleries is in the famous Speyside or Glenlivet district. The Lowland Malts are made south of the imaginary line alluded to. The Campbeltowns are distilled in or near the town of that name at the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula. The Islays are produced in the island of that name. These different varieUes of whisky, although made in much the same way, yet possess distinctive characteristics of flavour. The type of barley employed, the quantity of peat employed in curing the malt, the quality of the water, the manner of carrying out the various distillery processes— particulari that of distillation— the shape and size of the stills, &c., all these are factors which affect the flavour of the final product. The Islays, which, as a rule, are considered to be among the most valuable of Scotch whiskies, possess a very full and peaty flavour together with a strong ethereal bouquet. For this reason they -are much used for blending with whiskies of a lighter type. The Highland Malts proper (Speyside type) are less peaty than the Islays, yet possess a full flavour, although many of them are inchned to be " elegant " rather than " big." The Lowland Malts, again, are, as a class, less peated than the Highland Malls, and indeed, nowadays, in view of the growing taste for a more neutral class of beverage, there are some Lowland Malt distilleries which dispense with the use of peat altogether. Many of the Lowland Malts possess considerable body and flavour, but, on the whole, they are lighter and not so fine as those of the Highland variety. Lowland distillers are now running their spirit at much the same strength as their Highland colleagues, whereas formerly it was the custom to work at a far higher strength. The result is that the difference between the two classes of spirit is not so marked as it was. The Campbeltowns, although in some respects simOar to the Islays on the one hand, and the Highland Malls on the other, are somewhat rougher and less elegant than these. They usually possess a full peaty flavour, (i) Patent-still or grain whiskies are, as a class, lighter in flavour and " body " than the poi-sii!I types. This is due to the fact that the rectification of these whiskies is carried a good deal further than is the case with the " malts." They are made from a mixture of malted and unmalted cereals, and, as no peat is employed in the curing of the malt, they lack the " smoky " flavour of the other varieties. Some controversy has arisen as to whether these patent-still spirits have a right to the name of " whisky " or " Scotch whisky, " but although, no doubt, this controversy is largely due to conflicting trade interests, it has also, in the author's opinion, been caused by a very general popular misconception as to the true character of these whiskies. The idea that they are true " silent " or " neutral " spirits — i.e. alcohol and water pure and simple— is quite incorrect. They possess a distinct flavour, which varies at different distilleries, and analysis discloses the fact that they contain very appreciable quantities of the" secondary " products which distinguish potable spirits from plain alcohol. Indeed, as a result of an extensive investigation of the question

1)1 ari Composition of Scotch Whiskies. Note. — The figures below are based on a large number of analyses of typical samples. Cf. Schidrowitz and Kaye, Journal Soc. Chem. Ind. (June 1905). Where two figures are given in the same column, they do not indicate extremes, but merely normal variation.