THE DUCKING-STOOL. 271 



blackguards who were carrying a woman, apparently 

 drunk, in the midst of them. 



'"Hurrah for Roaring Peg!' cried the disorderly 

 mob. ' Hurrah for the ducking-stool ! * hurrah ! 

 hurrah ! ' and onward rushed the riff-raff down the 

 narrow avenue of Dirty Lane. Bellowing and shouting, 

 on they passed, and turning by ' Purgatory,' they 

 took their way to the river-side. 



" ' Shall we follow, and see the sport ? ' suggested 

 Dick Turpin. ' What the deuce does it all mean ? ' 



" ' Have you never seen the cooling discipline ? ' 

 asked King. 



" Dick replied in the negative. 



" ' Have with you, then,' said Tom ; and the friends 

 followed the riotous assemblage. 



" Arrived at the spot, they witnessed a curious scene. 

 The victim of this popular discipline was a muscular 

 virago of some forty years old, and displayed in her 

 neglected person and face the wreck of a once hand- 

 some woman, destroyed by a long course of drunken- 

 ness. In spite of her kicks and struggles, she was 

 thrust into a strong and clumsily-constructed arm-chair, 

 and a rod of iron being passed through a hole near the 

 extremity of each arm, her body was effectually secured 

 therein. This chair was attached by a chain and rope 

 to the longer lever of a huge wooden beam, and, by 

 the united efforts of a number of men, the drunken 

 scold was elevated in the air amid the vociferations of 

 the delighted mob. 



" ' Now, my lads/ exclaimed the beadle, who was 



* " The ducking-stool stood at the end of Dh'ty Lane, near the 

 building called Purgatory; it was removed about 173S." — See Smith's 

 "History and Antiquities of Westminster," London, 1807, where a 

 description of the apparatus is given. 



