Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/566

 A few Notes on Ducking Stools. chine on which she was mounted was then drawn to the pond — the Weir pond — and pushed in backwards. The shafts were then

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no less than twenty-three feet six inches in length, and is worked on a pivot on the "see-saw" principle. When drawn through the streets the woman was as high as the first-floor windows. The last time it was used for actual ducking was on the occasion of the punishment of a woman known by the name of Jenny Pipes, in 1809. In 181 7, a woman named Sarah Leeks was placed in it, and wheeled round the town, but not

let go, and the scold thus tipped backwards into the water, the shafts flying up, and being recovered after the immersion by means of the ropes attached to them. At Neath there was formerly one, and the following curious order occurs in the laws of the town, enacted in 1542 : — "Item. — If any person do scolde or rage any burgesse or hys wyfe, or any other person and hys wyfe. If she be found faulty in the same by sixe men, then shee to be brought at the first defaulte to the Coocking-stoole, and there to sit one houre; at the second defaulte, twoe houres; and at the thirde defaulte, to lett slipp the pynn, or els pay a good fyne to the king."

At Leominster, a tumbrell is still pre served, and is of singular construction, as will be seen by the accompanying engraving. The beam on which the chair is placed is

ducked, the water being too low. It appears that it was usual to duck the poor creature in three different parts of the town, and wheel her, dripping wet, from one place to the other, and home again. In the museum at Scar borough, one of these chairs is preserved. It is said that there are persons still living in the town, who remember its services being employed when it stood upon the old pier. It is a substantial arm chair of oak, with an iron bar extending from elbow to elbow, just as the wooden one is placed in a child's chair, to prevent the occupant from falling forward. The form of this chair is shown in the accompanying engraving.