A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 511 



In Blount's Tenures* I find a very cu- 

 rious cuftom, which once prevailed at this 

 place. When any woman was found 

 guilty, by the free burgeffes of the town, 

 of caufing any ftrifes, fightings, defama- 

 tions, or other difturbances of the public 

 peace, me was adjudged to the goging- 

 ftool, or cucking-ftool, there to ftand with 

 her feet naked, and her hair diihevelled for 

 fuch a length of time as the burgeffes 

 mould think proper, as a public example, 

 and warning to all who beheld her. This 

 cucking-ftool is what the Saxons called 

 fcealfing or fcolding ftool, that is, a chair 

 in which they placed fcolding women as 

 public examples, and in which, befides 

 this, if the enormity of the cafe required 

 it, they ufed to plunge them over head in 

 water. This engine in general confined of 

 a long beam or rafter moving on a fulcrum, 



* Edited ty Eeckwith, p. 282. 



and 



