EXPENSES OF THE SHRIEVALTY. 27 



hatbands were probably in vogue as signs of mourning at this 

 time — for they are especially mentioned as such by Pepys in 

 his Diary under date 31st December, 1667 — there seems no 

 reason for mourning being assumed for any public event at this 

 time, and it is inconceivable that the officials connected with 

 the court of assize should have had to show such signs of 

 respect for the felons doomed to be hanged. It will be 

 observed, however, that the chaplain of the gaol looked to the 

 High Sheriff for the payment of his fees both for giving them 

 instruction while in their cells and for attending them after- 

 wards to the gallows;* and the sexton was paid by him for 

 "knowling" or tolling the bell at the time of the execution, t 

 The last sentence of the law was carried out with some cere- 

 mony. Five men with halberds attended the prisoners. The 

 duties of the waits, J too, appear, by the position in the accounts 

 of the charge for their fee, to have had some connection with 

 the execution ; if so, the custom might have obtained at Derby, 

 as it formerly did at Newgate, for a special watchman to call 

 a reminder that a felon was to die the following morning, or, 

 as the items in the accounts are somewhat mixed, the waits 

 might have been there in their ordinary character of watch- 

 men, having no connection with the execution ; or, again, it 

 is quite possible that they might have been specially engaged 

 in honour of the criminal judge, who, when on circuit, repre- 

 sents the King in person. In that case, they would probably 

 have been musical watchmen, who piped the watch nightly in 

 the King's Court, and who saw that every door was secure 

 against " pyckeres and pillers."§ The bell is still tolled on 

 the occasion of an execution, and, under the rules issued by 

 the Home Office, it continues to be tolled for fifteen minutes 

 after it is over. This, with the official notice exhibited on the 

 prison doors, is the intimation to the outside world that 

 the sentence of the judge has been carried out. The only allow- 

 ance, however, for such expenses which can now be claimed 

 by the High Sheriff, whose duty it is, legally, to see that the 

 execution is properly performed, is the repayment of the 



* p. 31. t p. 35- + P- 31. § Rymer's Fcedera. 



