By F. A. Carrington, Esq. 37 



were provided for scolds ; and the ancient Custumal of Sandwich 

 ordained that any woman guilty of brawling should carry a large 

 mortar round the town with a piper or minstrel preceding her, and 

 pay the piper a penny for his pains. This practice was established 

 prior to the year 1518, and a representation of the mortar may be 

 seen in Boys' History of Sandwich.^ The suggestion of Mr. 

 Fairholt, in his notice of a grotesque iron mask of punishment 

 obtained in the Castle of Nuremberg, that the Branks originated 

 in certain barbarous implements of torture of that description, 

 seems well deserving of consideration. The example which he 

 has described and figured in the Transactions of the Historic Society 

 of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. vii. p. 61, is now in Lord Londes- 

 borough's collection at Grimston Park ; it is a frame of iron made 

 to fit the head like the scolds'-bridle ; it was attached by a collar 

 under the chin, and has a pair of grotesque spectacles and ass's 

 ears. There are other examples in various collections ; one of 

 wood, in the Goodrich Court 

 Armory, was assigned by 

 the late Sir S. Meyrick to 

 the times of Henry VIIL 



The fashion and construc- 

 tion of the brank varies 

 considerably, and a few 

 specimens may deserve par- 

 ticular notice. The most 



simple form consisted of a The witch's Bridie, Forfar. 



single hoop which passed round the head, opening by means of 

 hinges at the sides, and closed by a staple with a padlock at the 

 back: a plate within the hoop projecting inwards pressed upon the 

 tongue, and formed an effectual gag. I am indebted to the late 

 Colonel Jarvis, of Doddington, Lincolnshire, for a sketch of this 

 simple kind of bridle, and he informed me that a n object of similar 



' I was informed by Mr. Alchin the Librarian to the city of London, that in 

 the Journals of that Corporation of the reign of Henry VIIL [Jour. 8 H. 8 91 

 there 13 an entry that eight scolds were brought under the Pillory in Cheapside 

 preceded by Minstrels. Has the saying as to "paying the piper " any reference 

 I o any matter of this kind ?" F. A. C. 



