Scolds; and how they Cured them. alluded to it; and Robert Burns in his poem on dining with the young Lord Daer, says drolly — "Sae far I sprackled up the brae, I dinner'd wi' a Lord! And goving as if led wi' branks, And stumpin' on my ploughman shanks, I in the parlour hammer'd." The Chesterfield brank, here for the first time engraved, is a remarkably good ex ample, and has the additional interest of bearing a date. It is nine inches in height, and six inches and three quarters across the hoop. It consists of a hoop of iron, hinged on either side, and fastening behind; and a band, also of iron, passing over the head, from back to front, and opening in front to admit the nose of the woman whose misfor tune it was to wear it. The mode of putting it on, would be this. The brank would be opened by throwing back the sides of the hoop, and the hinder part of the band, by means of the hinges, c,f,f. The constable, or other official, would then stand in front of
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through the opening, b. The hoop would then be closed behind, the band brought down from the top to the back of the head, and fastened down upon it, at E, and thus the cage would at once be firmly and im movably fixed so long as her tormentors might think fit. On the left side is a chain, d, one end of which is attached to the hoop, and at the other is a ring, by which the vic tim was led, or by which she was, at pleasure, attached to a post or wall. On the front of the brank are the initials " T. C. " and the date " 1688,"— the year of the "Glorious Revolution" the year of all years, memorable in the annals of Chesterfield, and of the little village of Whittington, closely adjoining, in which that revolution was planned. Strange that an instrument of brutal and tyrannical torture, should be made and used at Chester field, at the same moment that the people should be plotting for freedom at the same place. The brank was formerly in the old poor house at Chesterfield, and came into the hands of Mr. Weale, the assistant Poor Law Commissioner, who presented it to Lady Walsham. It is now (August, 1860) still in the hands of Sir John Walsham, Bart., and the drawing from which the accompanying woodcut is executed, was kindly made and furnished to me by Miss Dulcy Bell, Sir John's sister-in-law. It is to be hoped that this interesting relic may yet find its way back to Derbyshire, and may find a restingplace in the museum of the county to which it belongs. One of the earliest examples of the brank is that at Walton-on-Thamcs, which bears the date 1633, and the characteristic couplet: "Chester presents Walton with a Bridle, To Curb Women's Tongues that talk too Idle."
his victim, and force the knife, or plate, a, into her mouth, the dividing band passing on either side her nose, which would protrude
It is traditionally said that this brank was given to the parish of Walton by a gentle man named Chester, who had by the gossip ing and tattling of a woman to a rich kins man, from whom he had great expectations, lost a large and promising estate. An early example, of wood, said to be of the time of
