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At Nottingham there were both pillory and cuckstool in the market place, for the punishment of culprits. In 173 1, Thomas Trigge, the then mayor, caused a woman to be placed in the cuckstool for prostitution, and left her at the mercy of the mob. The poor creature was so ill-treated and ducked so much that she lost her life. The mayor was prosecuted for it, and the cuckstool taken down. Of examples of the suspended ducking stool, the curious facsimile from an engrav ing in an early chap-book of the " Strange and Wonderful Relation of the Old Woman who was Drowned at Ratcliffe Highway a Fortnight Ago," at the head of this article is extremely curious. It exhibits the sus pended chair affixed to a transverse beam, working in an upright post, in a tumbrell. It was to these suspended chairs that Gay, in his pastoral of " The Dumps," al ludes, when he makes his heroine, Sparabilla, who thinks of committing suicide say : — •• I'll speed me to the pond where the high stool. On the long plank, hangs o'er the muddy pool; That stool, the dread of every scolding quean; Yet sure a lover should not die so mean?" An excellent example of this kind of chair still exists at Ipswich. It is very strongly made, and has an iron framework by which it could be suspended to a lever or crane, and raised and lowered at will. The seat is formed of bars. Mr. Clark's "History of Ipswich," gives the following note of a scene where the punishment was about to be put in force: — "It is a strong-backed arm-chair, with a wrought-iron rod, about an inch in diameter, fastened to each arm in front, meeting in a seg ment of a circle above; there is also another iron rod affixed to the back, which curves over the head of a person seated in the chair, and is connected with the others at the top : to the centre of which is fastened an iron ring for the purpose of slinging the machine into the river. It is plain and substantial, and has more the ap pearance of solidity than antiquity in its con

struction. It is thus spoken of by a writer of some discernment : ' In an unfrequented apart ment in the Custom House is still preserved the ducking stool, a venerable relic of ancient cus toms. In the Chamberlain's book are various entries of money paid to porters for taking down the ducking stool, and assisting in the operation of cooling, by its means, the inflammable passions of some of the female inhabitants of Ipswich.' Entries for the payment of persons employed in taking down this instrument do certainly appear, and in the year 1597 three unfortunate females underwent this opprobrious ceremony, but from delicacy we forbear to mention their names. The fee for inflicting this punishment was 1s. 6ii., and we blush to think it was ever necessary to enforce it."

A good specimen preserved in the middle of the last century at Sandwich, showed by its construction the origin of the punishment. On its arms and back were painted f1gures of men and women scolding, and using words not over polite or complimentary, while on the cross bar are the words: — "Of members ye tonge is worst or best, An yll tonge ofte doeth breede unrest." The accompanying engraving shows the form of this remarkable chair, and its pecu liar ornamentation. It is stated in Boys's "History of Sandwich" (1792) to have been preserved in the second story of the town hall, along with arms, offensive and defen sive, of the trained bands. Of the one at Cambridge, Cole, writing in