"Three Centuries of
Derbyshire Annals," he saw the block on which these men were beheaded
and supplies a description of it as follows: "It consists of two two and
a half inch planks fastened together; it is six feet six inches long by
two feet wide. Six inches from one end a piece of wood is nailed across
three inches high. The whole is tarred over, but the old warder drew our
attention to the fact that, though the cell where it is kept is very
dry, the wood is still in places damp. It is a gaol tradition that the
blood of these unhappy men shed in 1817 has never and will never dry."

On May 1st, 1820, the Cato Street Conspirators were, after death by
hanging, beheaded. This is the latest instance of the ancient custom
being maintained in this country. In connection with this subject we may
perhaps be permitted to draw attention to a chapter by us in "England in
the Days of Old" (1897), entitled "Rebel Heads on City Gates;" it
includes much curious information bearing on this theme.

We must not omit to state that the great agitator against the
continuance of the barbarities of hanging, drawing and quartering was
Sir Samuel Romilly, who in the reign of George III., brought upon
himself the odium of the law-officers of the Crown, who declared he was
"breaking down the bulwarks of the constitution." By his earnest
exertions, however, the punishment was carried out in a manner more
amenable to the dictates of mercy and humanity.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] Cox's "Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals," 1888.

[20] The Examiner.

Pressing to Death.

One of the most barbarous and cruel of the punishments of our English
statutes was that distinguished by the name of _Peine forte et dure_, or
pressing to death with every aggravation of torture. It was adopted as a
manner of punishment suitable to cases where the accused refused to
plead, and was commuted about the year 1406 from the older method of
merely starving the prisoner to death. At that time the alteration was
considered to be decidedly according to the dictates of humanity and
mercy, as the sooner relieving the accused from his sufferings. Such was
the small value set upon human life in those dark days of British
justice.

The manner in which this exceedingly great torture was inflicted was as
follows: "That the prisoner shall be remanded to the place from whence
he came, and put in some low, dark room, and there laid on his back,
without any manner of coveri