al dramas, states:--"In wilful murder done upon pretended
(premeditated) malice, or in anie notable robbery, the criminal is
either hanged alive in chains near the place where the act was
committed, or else, upon compassion taken, first strangled with a rope,
and so continueth till his bones come to nothing. Where wilful
manslaughter is perpetrated, besides hanging, the offender hath his
right hand commonly stricken off."

We glean an important item from "England's Mourning Garment," written by
Henry Chettle, a poet and dramatist, born about the year 1540, and who
died in 1604. He lived in the days of Queen Elizabeth. "But for
herselfe," wrote Chettle, "she was alwayes so inclined to equitie that
if she left Justice in any part, it was in shewing pittie; as in one
generall punishment of murder it appeared; where-as before time there
was extraordinary torture, as hanging wilfull murderers alive in chains;
she having compassion like a true Shepheardesse of their soules, though
they were often erring and utterly infected flock, said their death
satisfied for death; and life for life was all that could be demanded;
and affirming more, that much torture distracted a dying man." This
subject is fully discussed in _Notes and Queries_, 4th series, volumes
X. and XI. A work entitled "Hanging in Chains," by Albert Hartshorne,
F.S.A., (London, 1891), contains much out-of-the-way information on this
theme.

Bewick, the famous artist and naturalist, in his pictures of English
scenery introduced the gibbet "as one of the characteristics of the
picturesque."

The old custom of hanging the bodies of criminals in chains was
abolished by statute on July 25th, 1834, and thus ends a strange chapter
in the history of Old England.

[Illustration: THE GIBBET (_from Bewick's "British Birds_.")]

FOOTNOTES:

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

[9] M'Lauria (Lord Dreghorn) "Arguments and Decisions," etc., Edinburgh,
1774.

[10] Andrews's "Bygone Hertfordshire," 1898.

[11] Sheahan's "History of Buckinghamshire," 1862.

[12] Stevenson's "Bygone Nottinghamshire," 1893.

[13] Sharp's "History of Ufton Court," 1892.

[14] Trial of William Lewin, 1791, Chester, n.d.

[15] Madeley's "Some Obsolete Modes of Punishment," Warrington, 1887.

[16] "Criminal Chronology of York Castle," 1867.

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

[18] See "Bygone Leicestershire," edited by William Andrews, 1892.