ed to stand a
full hour with the jougs round her neck.

At Rothesay, a woman gave the members of the Kirk-Session a great deal
of trouble through departing from the path of sobriety. Persuasion and
rebuke were tried without avail. At last, in the year 1661, the Session
warned her that "if hereafter she should be found drunk, she would be
put in the jouggs and have her dittay written on her face."[35]

Mr. James S. Thomson read a paper before the Dumfries Antiquarian
Society, supplying some interesting glimpses of bygone times, furnished
by the Kirk-Session Records of Dumfries. Not the least important
information was that relating to punishments of the past. It will not be
without interest to notice a few of the cases. In the year 1637, a man
named Thomas Meik had been found guilty of slandering Agnes Fleming, and
he was sentenced to stand for a certain time in the jougs at the tron,
and subsequently on his bare knees at the market cross to ask her
pardon.

The case of Bessie Black was investigated, and it was proved that for
the third time she had been found guilty of leaving the path of virtue,
and for her transgressions she was directed for six Sabbaths to stand at
the Cross in the jougs. In another case it was proved that two servants
had been found guilty of scolding each other, and sentence was given
that they were "to be put into the jougs presently." A curious sentence
was passed in the year 1644. A man and his wife were ordered to stand at
the Kirk-style with the branks in their mouths.

[Illustration: THE JOUGS, PRIORY CHURCH, BRIDLINGTON.]

Exposure of persons to the contempt of the public was formerly a common
form of punishment in Scotland. Curious information bearing on the
subject may be gleaned from the old newspapers. We gather from the
columns of the _Aberdeen Journal_, for the year 1759, particulars of
three women, named Janet Shinney, Margaret Barrack, and Mary Duncan, who
suffered by being exposed in public. "Upon trial," it is reported, "they
were convicted, by their own confessions, of being in the practice, for
some time past, of stealing and resetting tea and sugar, and several
other kinds of merchant's goods, from a merchant in the town. And the
Magistrates have sentenced them to be carried to the Market Cross of
Aberdeen, on Thursday the 31st [May, 1759], at twelve o'clock at noon,
and to be tied to a stake bareheaded for one hour by the executioner,
with a rope about each of their necks,