summit of the Cave, in Melbourn
Street, which did duty for both civil parishes of Herts. and Cambs.,
stood the Royston pillory and also the stocks, but towards the end of
the century the pillory disappeared, and stocks had to be set up in
each parish. I can find no record of any actual punishments by the
Melbourn Street pillory, but one of the last cases of punishment by
pillory took place at Hertford, and was witnessed by Mr. Henry Fordham.
Closely connected with, and as a part of the stocks was the whipping
post, and this was very freely used until about 1800. In 1804 a
prisoner was sentenced at Ely to be publicly whipped, besides
imprisonment. In 1786, I find that George Rose was brought from
Cambridge to Royston and whipped at the stocks. What his offence was
is not stated, but that whipping was no trifle may be inferred from the
following laconic entry in the Royston parish books:---

"Relieved William C----, his back being sore after whipping him."

The offender had his wrists put through the rings on the upright posts
of the stocks, which formed the whipping posts, and in this position he
was flogged on his naked back "till his body was bloody." Vagrants had
no small share of this kind of punishment. The following entry occurs
in the Barkway parish papers:--

Hertfordshire to Witt.

To the Keeper of the House of correction at Buntingford.
This is to require you to Whip Elizabeth Matthewson upon her
naked Body, and for so doing this shall be your warrant.

G. Jennings.

In 1798 an item in the accounts for the same parish is charged for "the
new iron for the whipping post."

{84} The stocks for Royston, Cambs., stood in the middle of the broad
part of Kneesworth Street, nearly opposite the yard entrance of King
James' Palace, and just in front of some dilapidated cottages then
occupying the site of Mr. J. R. Farrow's shop. Here they remained as a
warning to evil doers till about 1830 or 1840. In Royston, Herts.,
after the abolition of the central prison-house in Melbourn Street, a
cage was erected with stocks attached on the Market Hill, on the east
side nearly opposite the Green Man, but they were removed at a later
date to the Fish-hill, when an addition was made to the west side of
the Parish-room, for the purpose, where the fire engines are now
placed. An estimate in the parish books for the erection of a cage and
stocks in Royston, Herts., at a cost of L10, in the year 1793,