Forest of Rossendale. 1 1 5 



particular faculty which had provoked the indignation of the law. 

 Above the bit was an aperture for admitting the nose. During the 

 last half of the seventeenth, and throughout the eighteenth century, 

 this was the popular mode of punishment for termagants and 

 shrews. Prior to that time the Ducking or Cucking-Stool was in 

 vogue. It is quite probable that the earlier accounts of the Greaves 

 of the Forest would include entries having reference to this engine 

 of punishment. 



The Ducking Stool was a much more formidable instrument 

 than the Bridle, though it is questionable whether it answered the 

 desired end as completely as the subsequent invention. We have 

 the testimony of a writer in the time of James II., no less than the 

 learned Dr. Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, that it did not. 

 Comparing the two modes of punishment, he says : — " They have 

 an artifice at Newcastle-under-Lyne and Walsall, for correcting of 

 Scolds, which it does so effectually that I look upon it as much to 

 be preferred to the Cucking-Stool, which not only endangers the 

 health of the party, but also gives the tongue liberty 'twixt every 

 dip, to neither of which this is at all liable ; it being such a bridle 

 for the tongue as not only quite deprives them of speech, but brings 

 shame for the transgression, and humility thereupon, before 'tis 

 taken off ; which being put upon the oftender by order of the 

 magistrate, and fastened with a padlock behind, she is led round 

 the town by an officer, to her shame. Nor is it taken off till after 

 the party begins to show all external signs imaginable of humilia- 

 tion and amendment." 



The Ducking Stool consisted of a plank or other Icver, from 

 twelve to fifteen feet long, supported in the middle by an upright 

 post which was driven into the ground, close by the side of the 

 river or pond, and arranged in such a manner as to allow of its 

 being raised and depressed, or swung round in any direction. To 

 the end of the plank a chair or stool was attached by means of a 

 pivot which allowed it always to retain the horizontal position. In 

 this the offender was securely fastened, and being swung round 

 over the water, the opposite end of the lever was raised, and the 



