0th day of
June, 1553," it is stated, "was set a post hard by the Standard in
Cheap, and a young fellow tied to the post with a collar of iron about
his neck, and another to the post with a chain, and two men with two
whips whipping them about the post, for pretended visions and
opprobrious and seditious words." We have modernised the spelling of
Machyn.

Disregarding parental authority in Scotland was frequently the cause of
young folk being punished by the jougs, and in other ways. Harsh rules
of life were by no means confined to North Britain. In Tudor England
manners were severe and formal, parents exacting abject deference from
their offspring. A child did not presume to speak or sit down without
leave in presence of its parents. A little leniency was extended to
girls, for when tired they might kneel on cushions at the far end of the
room; but boys were expected to stand with their heads uncovered. It is
to be feared that true domestic bliss was almost unknown in olden times.
Teachers were equally tyrannical, and it is a matter of history that
Roger Ascham, the tutor of Queen Elizabeth, used to "pinch, nip, and
bob [slap] the princess when she displeased him."

Some very curious facts relating to this subject appear in the old
Kirk-Session records. "David Leyes, who struck his father," was, by a
Kirk-Session of St. Andrews, in 1574, sentenced to appear before the
congregation "bairheddit and beirfuttit, upon the highest degree of the
penitent stuool, with a hammer in the ane hand and ane stane in the
uther hand, as the twa instruments he mannesit his father,--with ane
papir writin in great letteris about his heid with these wordis, 'Behold
the onnaturall Son, punished for putting hand on his father, and
dishonouring of God in him.'" Nor was this deemed sufficient
humiliation, for the offender was afterwards made to stand at the market
cross two hours "in the jaggs, and thereafter cartit through the haill
toun." It was also resolved that "if ever he offended father or mother
heireafter, the member of his body quhairby he offendit sal be cuttit
off from him, be it tung, hand or futt without mercy, as examples to
utheris to abstein fra the lyke." At Glasgow, in the year 1598, the
Presbytery carefully considered the conduct of a youth who had passed
his father "without lifting his bonnet."

A servant in Wigtown, in 1649, was brought before the magistrates for
raising her hand and abusing her mistress, and was order