Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/466

 SCOLDS; AND HOW THEY CURED THEM IN THE "GOOD OLD TIMES."1 .

By Llewellyn Jewitt, F. S. A. Etc., Etc. I. "Whene'er I try to speak, athwart my tongue a brank is placed." "Of members ye tonge is worst or best, An yll tonge doeth breed unrest."

A FEW generations back, in the " good old times," our forefathers were wont to indulge in certain descriptions of punish ments which told not very well for their gal lantry or their seeming propriety. Amongst the most curious of these were the Brank, and the Ducking Stool, both instruments of punishment directed against scolding wives, and the Cage, Pillory, Stocks, Finger Stocks, Mortar, and Whipping Post, most if not all of which were also, in those times, used against refractory disturbers of domestic peace. With the former of these, only, we have now to do. Of the brank, that curious and exquisitely cruel instrument of punishment by which borough physicians sought to cure women of an ailment of the tongue, to which they are libellously said to be subject, viz., that of scolding, we give a few illustrations, not in the hope of restoring to use a punishment now happily obsolete, but for the purpose of drawing attention to one phase in the social life of past generations with which probably many of our readers are not familiar. The "Brank," or "Scolds' Bridle," or "Gossips' Bridle," as this strange instrument has been variously called was, apparently, from the many allusions to its application which occur in corporation accounts and other records, in very general use in this kingdom; and in some counties the speci mens still existing are sufficiently abundant to testify to its prevalence. In Cheshire alone, no less than thirteen examples are still ex tant — how many more have been used and

lost it is of course impossible to conjecture, — in Lancashire, five or six are still remain ing, and in Staffordshire also, five are known to be now in existence. In Derbyshire, to its honor be it spoken, only one specimen is known to have been kept, and that one was at Chesterfield. Others may have been used in the county, but at all events, the Chester field example is the only one known, and no allusion to the torture in any other place in the county has as yet come under my obser vation. Whether the women of Cheshire, Lancashire, and Staffordshire, were more violent with their tongues than those of Derbyshire, or whether the men of these counties were more barbarously and cruelly inclined, it would perhaps be difficult to say. The fact however remains that while in Ches hire thirteen branks now remain, in Derby shire which adjoins it, only one is ever known to have existed, and of its having been act ually used no record remains. Of the people of Cheshire an old author says : — "Their manners seem to be in the main of the best sort according to the general idea of man ners. They are sociable in their entertainments, cheerful at their meals, liberal in their hospitality, hasty, but soon brought to temper, impatient of dependence and bondage, kind to the distressed, compassionate to the poor, fond of their relations, sparing of labour, free from resentment, not given to excess in eating, undesigning, fond of borrow ing other people' s property, abounding in woods and pastures, rich in meat and cattle." While of those of Derbyshire, Philip Kin der two hundred years ago says: —

1 This article is taken from an old number of The Reliquary. 43'