Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/117

 discovered. The last to perform pennance in this church and sit upon the stool was a woman, who seems to have been living as recently as 1836. A public pennance was exacted by the Church from all frail maidens, who desired to obtain pardon for the sins into which they had fallen. The ceremony consisted of parading the aisles of the parish church with a candle in each hand, bare-*footed, and clothed in white. Jane Breckal, of Poulton, was the last to undergo the ceremony at that place, some time during the ministry of the Rev. Thos. Turner, 1770 to 1810. The sobs and cries of the unfortunate girl aroused the indignation of the inhabitants against the pennance, and the cruel and degrading exhibition was never repeated.

Riding Stang was another plan of punishment formerly inflicted on quarrelsome or adulterous persons, and a woman named Idle, of Great Layton, is mentioned as being the last of its victims in that locality, and very likely in the whole of the Fylde. There seem to have been two ways adopted of Riding Stang, one of which was to mount the offending party or parties on a ladder, supported at each end on the shoulders of one or sometimes two men, and carry them about the neighbourhood for several hours, accompanied by a band of men and boys beating tin kettles, frying-pans, etc.; the other mode, and perhaps the more antique one, was to place a youth astride a ladder, borne as in the previous case, and arm him with a hand-bell, so that he was fully equipped to undertake the duties of town crier. A procession was then formed, and, amidst the discordant sounds of the instruments just alluded to, paraded through the streets of the village, whilst the crier, who usually did his part with great gusto, shouted out the following doggrel rhymes, varying some portions of them when occasion required:—

"Ran a dan, ran a dan, dan, dan, But for * * * has been banging his good dame. He banged her, he banged her, he banged her, indeed, He banged her, poor woman, before she stood need; For neither wasting his substance nor spending his brass, But she was a woman, and he was an ass. Now, all good people that live in this row, I would have you take warning, for this is our law, And if you do your good wives bang, For you three nights we will ride this stang.                     Hurrah! hurrah!"