Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/470

 Scolds; and how they Cured them. great gap or tongue of iron forced into her mouth which forced the blood out. And that is the punishment which the magistrates do inflict upon chiding and scoulding women, and that he hath often seen the like done to others. "He, this Deponent, further affirms that he hath seen men drove up and down the streets with a great Tub or Barrel opened in the sides,

with a hole in one end to put through their heads and so cover their shoulders and bodies down to the small of their legs, and then close the same, called the new-fashioned Cloak, and so make them wear it to the view of all beholders, and this is their punishment for drunkards and the like." It is described and figured by Brande, in his " History of Newcastle." For the reduced facsimile of Gardiner's curious plate, given above, I am indebted to my friend W. H. Brockett, Esq., of Gateshead. A curious al lusion to it also occurs in " Lackington's Me moirs," 1795 : — "At the Town Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne, I was shown a piece of antiquity called a brank. It consists of a combination of iron fillets, and is fastened to the head by a lock fixed to the back part of it. A thin plate of iron goes into the mouth, sufficiently strong however, to confine the tongue, and thus prevent the wearer from making any use of that restless member. The use of this piece of machinery is to punish notorious scolds. I am pleased to find that it is now considered merely as a matter of curiosity, the females of that town happily having not the smallest occa sion of so harsh an instrument; whether it is that

435

all females, apprehensive of being included in that description, have travelled southward to avoid the danger of so degrading an exhibition, or whether other reason is assigned, I forgot to enquire. It however affords me pleasure to re flect that the ladies of Newcastle are left at lib erty to adopt a head-dress of their own choosing, confident that they possess a more refined taste than to fix upon one by no means cal culated to display their lovely counte nances to advantage, as I am persuaded the brank would cast such a gloom on the fairest of them as would tend much to diminish the influence of their charms, and give pain to every beholder. It may be prudent notwithstanding, still to preserve it in terrorem, as who knows what future times may produce. As I esteem it a very ingenious contrivance, and as there may be parts of the country still to be found, where the application of such a machine may be useful in some Christian families (I will not say all, having sufficient grounds for asserting the contrary), I here present you with an accu rate sketch of it, together with the manner of its application; that if any ingenious artist should be applied to, he may not be at a loss how it is to be made. I would however, advise him to be cautious in offering them to public sale, and by no means to advertise them, especially if a mar ried man, or having any views toward matri mony." In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, is preserved one of the more harmless kind, the gag brank, one in which the plate is rolled over at the end so as not to injure the tongue, but merely to press it down and keep it still. In this specimen the chain is affixed to the front, immediately over the nose, instead of at the back or side, and thus the poor delinquent, besides being gagged, had the mortification of being " led by the nose" through the town. In the woodcut, for which I am indebted to the Archaeologi cal Institute, a is the gag, and b the aperture for the nose, (see cut page 436). A very remarkable brank, in the posses sion of my late much lamented friend, Mr.