26 ALEXANDER WII^ON : POET-NATURAUST 



preserve the notices of shoe-thieves who were ban- 

 ished the town on pain of "being whipped, burned, 

 and again banished" if they returned.* One of the 

 penalties exacted of an immoral woman was to 

 stand by the market cross with shaven head while 

 the hangman stood by her. 



As late as 1775 petty robberies were punished at 

 Glasgow by escorting the culprit with "tuck of 

 drums and head bare" to the limits of the city and 

 banishing him on pain of imprisonment and whip- 

 ping if he ever returned to the city.f On the bor- 

 ough records of Stirling is the following very sug- 

 gestive entry : "March, 1722. For tow for binding 

 Catherine M'Cullock to the tron 2s. Scots. For a 

 penknife for cutting off her ear 3s. Scots." 



Not until 1793$ was the custom of flogging pub- 

 licly in the streets abolished, and there is good 

 reason to believe that in many of the smaller towns 

 it continued to a much later date. 



When we have examined thus carefully into these 

 conditions of society in a country that was after- 

 ward to become so famed for its enlightenment and 

 learning, it is worth our while to consider the edu- 

 cational institutions of this period. Though even 

 then in Scotland education was, perhaps, more 

 widely disseminated than in most other countries 

 at the same era, yet it was for the greater part of a 

 very rudimentary nature. 



Though Scotch universities, indeed, offered re- 

 markable advantages to the poor but ambitious boy, 



* Burgh Records of Lanark. 



t Graham's "Social Life," II, p. 227. 



t "Glasgow, Past and Present," I, 339. 



