Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/288

 236

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. SEPT. 19,

landed in Hayle mouth, they visited her dwelling hard by. She was displeased at this arrival of fresh colonists, and declined to have anything to do with them. Accord- ing to William of Worcester, she died and was laid at what is now called St. Ives. This is likely enough, for she has left no cult in Ireland. Hia had a second church at Camborne. William of Worcester says her feast was on 3 February ; it is still so kept at St. Ives, but at Camborne on 22 October. St. Hia's well, called Venton Eia (ffynnon la), on the cliff under the village of Ayr, over- looking Porthmeor, was formerly held in reverence. Her figure is sculptured on the churchyard cross. She should be repre- sented as an Irish abbess, clothed in white wool, with a white veil, and holding a leaf (in allusion to the story that on a leaf she floated across from Ireland).

P. JENNINGS. St. Day.

THROAT-CUTTING AT PUBLIC EXECUTIONS (10 S. x. 128). There is an account of the trial, conviction, sentence, and execution of Tresilian Brambre (not Brembre), Salis- bury, and Uske (not Usk) in Hargrave's ' State Trials,' vol. i. pp. 1-15, and in Howell's ' State Trials,' vol. i. pp. 90-123. The date is Richard II., 1388. It was no part of the sentence on a traitor that he should have his throat cut. In Tresilian' s case he was ordered to be " drawn and hanged." The report says : " After he had hanged some time, that the spectators should be sure he was dead they cut his throat." In Froissart's ' Chroii.,' part ii. fol. 110, it is stated that "Sir Robert Tri- silian was delivered to the hangman, and so led out of Westminster and there be- headed, and after hanged on a gibbet." The report of the trial also states that Brambre was " suddenly turned off, and the executioner cutting his throat, he died." Uske was ordered to be " hanged and drawn." " Salisbury was drawn from Tower Hill to Tyburn, and there hanged." In the last-mentioned case the " House of Commons urged that execution should be performed according to law."

The full form of the sentence in a case of high treason may be seen in Howell's 4 State Trials,' vol. xviii. p. 351, and Har- grave's ' State Trials,' vol. ix. p. 551, in the case of Townley and others in 1746. A complete form of sentence will also be found in Andrews's ' Old-Time Punish- ments,' p. 202, but there is nothing said there to justify the statement in the passage

quoted by DR. FURNIVALL that the sentence on a traitor ever ordered the executioner to cut the traitor's throat. The hangman did not give the traitor a drop so as to break his neck, and so cause instantaneous death,, but he did sometimes allow him to hang until he was dead. If, however, the traitor was alive when cut down, the executioner, being ordered to cut off the head, used on some occasions to cut the throat first, so as to put the culprit at once out of his misery.

I may say by the way that in 1814 (45 George III. cap. 146) the law was altered,, and the traitor was thenceforward hanged by the neck until he was dead. Disembowel- ling and burning were at the same time abolished ; but the drawing on a hurdle, the beheading, and quartering, still remained part of the sentence. Power, however, was given to the king to remit the drawing on a hurdle, and to order, instead of hanging by the neck, a severing of the head from the body. See the sentence pronounced on Frost the Chartist in 1839 (' 4 State Trials,' N.S., 86). It was not until 1870 that the drawing on a hurdle, beheading, and quarter- ing were abolished. In early days draw- ing " meant that the traitor was to be dragged along the surface of the ground tied to the tail of a horse ; afterwards, in- stead of this, he was laid upon a sledge or hurdle, and so drawn to the place of execu- tion. I cannot say when this change was- made.

A great deal has been written in *N. & Q.' about the sentences and executions in cases of high treason (see 7 S. xii. 129), but there- is no trace anywhere that it was ever " judged for treason " that the throat of the traitor was to be cut.

HARRY B. POLAND.

Inner Temple.

["Brembre" is the spelling in the account of" him in the ' D.N.B./ and in the Indexes to Letter- Books G and H, edited by Dr. R. R. Sharpe for the City Corporation. SIR HARRY POLAND s article supplies a good deal of the information asked for by K. P. D. E. in the present number (ante, p. 229).]

"PEARL" (10 S. v. 409, 493; vi. 118,. 137 ; x. 177). MR. HILL'S remarks at the last reference respecting peninim are very instructive. I wa always taught to trans- late the word as " pearls," but on looking closely into the matter, I find that, despite Luther's authority, it must be given up. On comparing Job xxviii. 16-19 with Exodus xxxix. 10-13 I notice this curiosity.. Three kinds of most expensive gems are cited in order to appraise chochma, or wisdom