Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/273

 10 s. xi. MAR. 20, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

221

LOXDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1909.

CONTENTS. No. 273.

NOTES : Hanging Alive in Chains, 221 Dr. Johnson's Ancestors, 223 T. L. Peacock's Literary Remains, 224 Herzegovina : its Pronunciation, 225 First of March : Sweep " Flees " Away " Care, vale ! " Daylight-Saving Vagrancy : its Suppression, 226 Westminster Abbey Almsmen Edward II. 's Death Anthony's Nose, 227.

QUERIES : Masburensis : its Identity Louisbourg : its Siege Col. Thomas Westbrook St. Alban's School, London-;-Civil War Documents, 228 Dryden's Satire ' The Tribe of Levi 'Society of Fine Arts F. Christopher Pack Great and Little New Street Cheese for Ladies- Heraldic Queries Tejegraph Wires : their Early Linking- up, 229 Joseph Harris Edward Medley English Topo- graphical Pottery " Quid est fides?" 'St. Christian,' Miracle Play, 230.

REPLIES : Burial half within and half without a Church, 230 The Manors of Neyte, Eybury, and Hyde, 231 "Before one can say Jack Robinson," 232 "Broken- selde" St. Anthony of Vienne Licences to Travel "Shibboleth," 233 " Bobbery " Potter's Bar: Seven Kings Index Saying Macaulay's Frederic the Great "Falsehood of extremes" 'The Monstrous Regimen of Women,' 234 Russian Names Tasso's 'Aminta,' 235 Coffee - drinking in Palestine William Bullock on Virginia Gray : Two References Jeffrey Hudson the Dwarf, 236 Anne Boleyn's Remains " Beeswaxers " Early Victorian Songs" Raised Hamlet on them "Rod of Brickwork Eastry in Kent, 237 " Lappassit " Caroline as a Masculine Name Jones=Francis Church Towers and Smuggled Goods" Handsome Tracy," 238.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' The Private Palaces of London '

' Quarterly Review' Vickers's ' Newspaper Gazetteer.' Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

HANGING ALIVE IN CHAINS.

IN mentioning in my book ' Tyburn Tree : Its History and Annals,' the numerous punishments in use in England at various times, I thought it sufficient to quote Harri- .on as to the practice of hanging alive in ohains, the persons so hanged being left to die of starvation. But, remembering that the question is one that has been the subject of frequent correspondence in ' N. & Q.,' I have since gone through this correspond- ence, and find, to my surprise, that corre- spondents have expressed the opinion that no such punishment was ever inflicted in England. In particular, SENNACHEBIB in 1873 (4 S. xii. 38) writes of " those who still cling fondly to the gibbeting-alive .superstition." Mr. Albert Hartshorne, F.S.A., wrote a book, ' Hanging in Chains ' (1891), in which he strongly condemned the " superstition," and gave his reasons for so doing. In examining the question it may be of advantage to take|Mr. Hartshorne's statement of the case, as summarizing the arguments produced.

He quotes Harrison and Chettle (whose statements will be given later), and says :

" These and many other arbitrary statements might seem conclusive evidence, but, on the other hand, the ' Statutes at Large ' may be vainly searched to find one directing the punish- ment of gibbeting alive. And when we recall the calm language in which persons are directed by statute to be boiled, disembowelled, or burnt alive, we may be quite sure that, if the English law had ever contemplated the infliction upon a subject of such lingering torture as gibbeting alive, it would have been as coldly and legally set forth, and by this time as legally repealed, which is, perhaps, more to the point still. And, further, it is difficult to believe that any English official would, at any time, whether under the pressure of the hardening influences of religious intolerance or politics, have taken upon himself so serious a responsibility, or that any section of the English people would have suffered such wanton barbarity. The conclusion we are happily driven to is that both Hollingshed, Chettle, and all the old and modern hare-brained, irresponsible chatterers have been carried away by a super- stitious belief hi a poor, vulgar fiction, 'a vain thing fondly imagined, ' and to which the multitude of to-day still appear to cling with a fatuous devotion which, probably, no amount of educa- tion or refutation will ever entirely eradicate. This shows the strong vitality of fiction." Pp. 97-9.

The reader in danger of being carried away by this vehement rhetoric may be reminded that the question is one to be settled, not by invective, but by careful examination of the evidence. But before we come to this we will consider Mr. Harts- horne's arguments. They fall under two heads :

1. The punishment is not found in the Statute Book, nor is its repeal.

2. No English official would have carried out a punishment so cruel, nor would the English people have tolerated it.

As to the first point : Mr. Hartshorne seems to assume that all punishments are recorded in the Statute Book. This is a misconception. It is true, as he says, that boiling to death and burning are to be found in the statutes, but he should have quoted the statute which, according to him, directs disembowelling, part of the punish- ment for treason. No writer on law whose works I have read is aware of a statute enacting disembowelling, nor have I been able to discover any statutory authority for this punishment. Where, again, is the statutory authority for pressing men and women to death by piling weights on their chests ? Where is the statutory authority for the Halifax guillotine ; or for burying men alive, as at Sandwich ; for throwing them from the top of a cliff, as at Dover ; or into a harbour ? The writer seems to