72 Ancient Wiltshire Customs. 
their tongues as to disturb their neighbours, as well as their own 
families; to check this, the instrument here mentioned was in- 
‘vented. It is generally called a Cucking Stool, or chair, bnt the 
true name probably is a Ducking Stool, or chair. If there was a 
pond in the parish, a post was set up in it; across this post was 
placed a transverse beam turning on a swivel, with a chair at one 
end of it, in which, when the culprit was properly placed, that end 
was turned to the pond, and let down into the water. This 
was repeated as often as the virulence of the distemper required. 
This disorder, like the leprosy, being no longer known here, the 
Cucking Stool is probably not now to be found.” 
It should here be remarked, that Messrs. Manning and Bray, in 
their work, describe a trebuchet, although it is clear that the 
Cucking Stool to which they are referring, viz., that at Kingston- 
upon-Thames, was a tumbrel, as is manifest from its having 
wheels, as stated in the account for its construction, published by 
the Rey. D. Lysons. 
That Cucking Stools of the trebuchet kind must have been com- 
mon in the time of the poet Gay, is evidenced by the fact, that in his 
Pastorals called “the Shepherds’ week,” in the pastoral of Thursday, 
or “The Dumps,” Sparabilla, the heroine, who thinks of committing 
suicide, says— 
‘‘T’1l speed me to the pond, where the high stool 
On the long plank, hangs o’er the muddy pool ; 
That stood the dread of ev’ry scolding quean ; 
Yet sure a lover should not die so mean.” 
In the Gentleman’s Magazine of December, 1803, (page 1104,) 
is a letter from Mr. James Neild to Dr. Lettsom, the celebrated 
physician, dated from Liverpool, October 16, giving an account of 
the prisons at Liverpool, and in it Mr. Neild says, “ The House of 
Correction built in 1776, is much improved since my former visit ; 
the wanton severity of the Ducking Stool used upon a woman’s 
first admission, is now discontinued; (it was formerly the punish- 
ment in almost every country town in Cheshire and Lancashire, 
for scolds and brawling women,) but the whipping-post for females 
is the pump in the men’s court, and this discipline still continues, 
