ch.

[Illustration: WALTHAM ABBEY WHIPPING-POST AND STOCKS.]

Some of the authorities regarded with greater favour the punishment at
the whipping-post than at the cart tail. An old writer deals at some
length with the benefit of the former. Says he: "If to put in execution
the laws of the land be of any service to the nation, which few, I
think, will deny, the benefits of the whipping-post must be very
apparent, as being a necessary instrument to such an execution. Indeed,
the service it does to a country is inconceivable. I, myself, know a man
who had proceeded to lay his hand upon a silver spoon with a design to
make it his own, but on looking round, and seeing the whipping-post in
his way, he desisted from the theft. Whether he suspected that the post
would impeach him or not, I will not pretend to determine; some folks
were of opinion that he was afraid of _habeas corpus_. It is likewise an
infallible remedy for all lewd and disorderly behaviour, which the
chairman at sessions generally employs to restrain; nor is it less
beneficial to the honest part of mankind than the dishonest, for
though it lies immediately in the high road to the gallows, it has
stopped many an adventurous young man in his progress thither." The
records of the Worcester Corporation contain many references to old-time
punishments. In the year 1656 was made in the bye-law book a note of the
fact that for some years past a want has been felt "for certain
instruments for applying to the execution of justice upon offenders,
namely, the pillory, whipping-post, and gum-stoole." The Chamberlain was
directed to obtain the same. We gather from the proceedings of the
Doncaster Town Council that on the 5th of May, 1713, an order was made
for the erection of a whipping-post, to be set up at the Stocks,
Butcher-Cross, for punishing vagrants and sturdy beggars.

Notices of whipping sometimes appear in old church books. At
Kingston-on-Thames, under date of September 8th, 1572, it is recorded in
the parish register as follows: "This day in this towne was kept the
sessions of Gayle Delyverye, and ther was hanged vj. persons, and xvj.
taken for roges and vagabonds, and whypped aboyt the market-place, and
brent in the ears."

At the Quarter Sessions in Devonshire, held at Easter, 1598, it was
ordered that the mothers of illegitimate children be whipped. The
reputed fathers had to undergo a like punishment. A very strange order
was made in the same county duri