NEWTOWN TO MONTGOMERY. 75 



was once in ufe at Montgomery. Whenever any 

 woman was found guilty, in the judgment of the 

 free burgelTes of the town, of caufmg ftrifes, fight- 

 ings, defamations, or other difturbances of the public 

 peace, fhe was adjudged to the goging-ftool, or 

 cucking-ftool, there to ftand, with her feet naked, 

 and her hair difhevelled, for fuch a length of time 

 as the burgefles fhould think proper, as a public 

 warning to all who beheld her. This is the fame 

 kind of inflrument which was ufed among the 

 Saxons. It was called by them fcealfing, or fcolding 

 ftool, that is, a chair in which they placed fcolding 

 women as public examples ; but, in addition to this, 

 if the enormity of the cafe required it, this people 

 alfo plunged them over the head in water. The 

 engine in general confided of a long beam, or rafter, 

 that moved on a fulcrum, and extended towards 

 the centre of a pond : at its end was fixed the 

 ftool, or chair, on which the offender was made to 

 fit. It was called by the Welfti Y Gadair Goch, 

 Yhe Red Chair*. 



* Jacob fays of the cucklng-ftool, (tumbrellum,) that it was 

 " an engine invented for the punifhment of fcolds and unquiet 

 women, by ducking them in water, called in ancient time a 

 Tumbrel, and fometimes a Trebucket. In Domefday it is called 

 Cathedra Stercoris f and the Saxons defcribed it to be Cathedra in 

 qua rixofa mul'teres fedentes, aqu'is demergebantur . It was anciently 

 a puniflAment inflidled upon brewers and bakers tranfgrefling the 

 laws, who were thereupon in fuch a ftool immerged over head 

 and ears in (Jiercore) ftinkiivg water. Some think it a corruption 

 from ducking-ftool, and others from choaking- ftool, quia hoc modo 

 demerfa aquis fere fiiffbcantur.^' See Jacob's Law Didlionary. 



Ye 



