i62 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



that in the beginning of the present century a woman 

 had been found guilty for some trifling offence, 

 the penalty for which was death, and she was 

 sentenced to be hung at Aylesbury. By some 

 accident the warrant for her execution had not been 

 sent to the High Sheriff, and she continued in 

 prison for some two or three years, and performed 

 the ordinary work of washing in the gaol. It was 

 the custom at that time for prisoners to be allowed, 

 as a favour, to go out to the private houses in 

 the town, and do ordinary household work. Some 

 years after her condemnation, some officious clerk, 

 in looking through the records of the Home Office, 

 discovered that the warrant for her execution had 

 never been despatched. 1 1 was therefore forwarded at 

 once to the sheriff for due process. It was, after some 

 time, discovered that the miserable woman was still 

 living. The governor of the prison found she was 

 out in the town washing, when one of the turnkeys 

 waited on her at the wash-tub, and said, ' Well, 

 missus, you be to be hanged. The warrant has 

 arrived at last, and we must carry the sentence out 

 not later than to-morrow morning.' ' Werry well, 

 then,' the poor woman replied, ' I suppose I must 

 go ' ; so she washed the soapsuds off her arms and 

 hands, and departed with the official, and was hung 

 the next morning ! This statement has been 

 vouched to be true, and was told me by a man who 

 knew the circumstances. 



