doubted whether we can in
this country show anything so bad as the record furnished by Dickens
in describing some of the schools of England.

-------------------------

THE BRANK.

An instrument of punishment formerly much used in England, but never,
we think, introduced into this country, called the "brank," or "scold's
bridle," or "gossip's bridle," is thus described by Mr. L. Jewitt,
F.S.A., in Mr. William Andrews's "Book of Oddities,"--a very
interesting and instructive book recently published in London:--

"It consisted of a kind of crown or framework of iron, which was
locked upon the head, and was armed in front with a gag, a plate,
or a sharp cutting knife or point, which was placed in the poor
woman's mouth so as to prevent her moving her tongue, or it was
so placed that if she moved it or attempted to speak, the tongue
was cut in a most frightful manner. With this cage upon her head,
and with the gag firmly pressed and locked against her tongue,
the miserable creature, whose sole offence, perhaps, was that she
had raised her voice in defence of her social rights against a
brutal and besotted husband, or had spoken honest truth of some
one high in office in the town, was paraded through the streets,
led by a chain held in the hand of the bellman, the beadle, or
the constable, or, chained to the pillory, the whipping-post, or
market-cross, was subjected to every conceivable insult and
degradation, without even the power left her of asking for mercy
or of promising amendment for the future; and when the punishment
was over, she was turned out from the town hall (or other place
where the brutal punishment had been inflicted), maimed,
disfigured, faint, and degraded, to be the subject of comment and
jeering amongst her neighbors, and to be reviled by her
persecutors."

Mr. Andrews adds that the use of the brank was not sanctioned by law,
but was altogether illegal; and he concludes his remarks on the
subject by saying that "to everybody it must be a matter of deep
regret that the instrument should ever have been used at all."

Dr. Henry Heginbotham, of Stockport, England, says in speaking of the
brank preserved in that town: "There is no evidence of its having been
actually used for many years; but there is testimony to the fact that
within the last forty years the brank was brought to a termagant
market-woman, who