verely punished for
drinking the Pretender's health. The particulars are briefly told as
follows in _Adams's Weekly Courant_ for Wednesday, July 20th, to
Wednesday, July 27th, 1737: "Friday last, a dragoon, belonging to Lord
Cadogan's Regiment, at Nottingham, received 300 lashes, and was to
receive 300 more at Derby, and to be drum'd out of the Regiment with
halter about his neck, for drinking the Pretender's health."

Whipping at Wakefield appears to have been a common punishment. Payments
like the following frequently occur in the constable's accounts:

1787, May 15, Assistance at Whiping 3 men 0 3 0
July 6, " " 3 " 0 3 0
Aug. 17, " " 2 " 0 2 0
Sept. 7, " " 3 " 0 3 0

A fire occurred at Olney in 1783, and during the confusion a man stole
some ironwork. The crime was detected, and the man was tried and
sentenced to be whipped at the cart's tail. Cowper, the poet, was an
eye-witness to the carrying out of the sentence, and in a letter to the
Rev. John Newton gives an amusing account of it. "The fellow," wrote
Cowper, "seemed to show great fortitude; but it was all an imposition.
The beadle who whipped him had his left hand filled with red ochre,
through which, after every stroke, he drew the lash of the whip, leaving
the appearance of a wound upon the skin, but in reality not hurting him
at all. This being perceived by the constable, who followed the beadle
to see that he did his duty, he (the constable) applied the cane,
without any such management or precaution, to the shoulders of the
beadle. The scene now became interesting and exciting. The beadle could
by no means be induced to strike the thief hard, which provoked the
constable to strike harder; and so the double flogging continued, until
a lass of Silver End, pitying the pityful beadle, thus suffering under
the hands of the pityless constable, joined the procession, and placing
herself immediately behind the constable, seized him by his capillary
club, and pulling him backward by the same, slapped his face with
Amazonian fury. This concentration of events has taken up more of my
paper than I intended, but I could not forbear to inform you how the
beadle thrashed the thief, the constable the beadle, and the lady the
constable, and how the thief was the only person who suffered nothing."
It will be gathered from the foregoing letter that the severity of the
w