HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 365 



extensive or populous in former times, hut on the contrary, that 

 from having at first consisted of a few houses only, it has gradually 

 and regularly advanced, to the present period, in size, population, 

 and importance. 



Dr. Plot having already celebrated the curious device of an an- 

 cient Iron Bridle, which is kept by the Mayor of this Borough for 

 the punishment of Scolds, we shall close our observations on the 

 town by quoting his quaint remarks upon this subject. " They 

 have a peculiar artifice at Newcastle and Walsall for correcting 

 of scolds, which it does too so effectually, and so very safely, 

 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 transgres- 

 sion, and humility thereupon before it is taken off. This instrument 

 being put upon the offender by order of the Magistrate, and fastened 

 by 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 shew all ex- 

 ternal signs imaginable of humiliation and amendment."* To the 

 credit of the females of the present age, this whimsical method of 

 correction has not been frequently called for of late years. 



Dr. Plot mentions an instance of a stone having been found in a 

 place called Gallows Field, near the town, being the place where 

 malefactors were formerly hung, in which stone was an entire skull 

 of a man, with the teeth, &c. in it. Of this fact, an alderman of 

 Newcastle assured the doctor, that he had such an one long in his 

 possession. This curious circumstance Plot endeavours to account 

 for by saying, that it is probable, that the place, when it was used 

 for executions, was nothing else but a sandy land, in which they 

 used to bury the bodies of the persons executed, which, in process 

 of time, turned into stone, about the head of a man, inclosing it in 

 it. This is not at all unlikely ; it being well known that sands have 

 been observed to petrify. 



This same writer also, in mentioning several instances of men of 

 extraordinary strength living in this county, adduces one in God- 

 frey Witrings, a butcher of this town, whom he saw take up a form 

 six feet and ten inches long, and fifty-six pounds in weight, by one 

 end in his teeth, and, holding both his hands behind him, lifted up 

 the other end the whole height of the room, striking it thrice against 

 * Plot's Staffordshire, p. 389. 



