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WILLIS'S CURRENT CURRENT NOTES.

No. XXXVIII.]

"Takes note of what is done-
By note to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

CUCKING OR DUCKING STOOLS FOR SCOLDS. THE Cucking-stool was a means adopted for the punishment of scolds and incorrigible women by ducking them in the water, after having secured them in a chair or stool, fixed at the end of a long pole, serving as a lever by which they were immersed in some muddy or stinking pond. Blount notices it was in use in the time of the Anglo-Saxons, by whom it was called Scealpingrzole, and described to be 'Cathedra in qua rixosæ mulieres sedentes aquis demergebantur; he also observes it was anciently a punishment inflicted upon bakers and brewers transgressing the laws.

"In Germany, cowards, sluggards, debauchees and prostitutes were suffocated in mires and bogs;" Henry* adds, "it is not improbable that these useless members and pests of human society were punished in the same manner, in this island;" questioning at the same time, in a note-" Is not the Ducking-stool a relic of this last kind of punishment?"

The practice of ducking scolds, though now obsolete, continued till within the last century; and corporate bodies were required to furnish themselves with these appliances, as they are now enforced to provide and maintain fire-engines.

In 1552, at the Manor-court of Edgeware, the inhabitants were prosecuted for not having a Tumbrel and Cucking-stool; the former for the punishment of braciatores. The accompts of the Corporation of Banbury, in Oxfordshire, notice

1556. Paid to Jhon Awod for making of sarten Staples and Hokes for the Kockestoll.

The Staples here mentioned, are shewn in the annexed wood-cut,+ as fixed to the oak-chair; the hooks being attached to the ropes, for lowering the scold, seated in the machine, into the water, and raising it again.

The Proceedings in the Vice-Chancellor's Court of Cambridge, 1559, 1st Eliz., record

Jane Johnson, adjudged to the Duckeing-stoole for scoulding, and commuted her penance.

History of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 214.

†The woodcut represents the old Cucking-stool, formerly belonging, as it was said, to the Corporation of Worcester, and sold fifteen years since at Oxenham's Rooms, in Oxford Street.

VOL. IV.

[FEBRUARY, 1854.

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Three brasses for the same, and three wheels 48 10d And in those for Lichfield, in 1578, occurs a similar charge

For making a Cuck-stool with appurtenances 8s.

Clarke* describes a Chair at Ipswich, that was formerly used there as a Ducking-stool, and from the accompanying minute representation will be seen to have been a machine, formed as a common chair, but by the iron frame, was affixed and suspended by a rope, at the end of a transverse beam, or crane, above the water, for lowering or raising it, and the delinquent was thus soused into the water. The seat and the back, are alike open.

The Corporation Accompts of Gravesend, have frequent entries in reference to the Cucking-stool, and are probably indicative of the occasions it was required for the public service

1628. Nov. 9. Paid unto Mildman for mend-
ing the Cucking-stool

1629. Sept. 4. Paid unto the Wheeler for
timber for mending the Cucking-stool
1635. Oct. 23. Paid for two Wheeles and
Yeekes for the Ducking stool

1636. Jan. 7. Paid the porters for ducking
of Goodwife Campion

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1646. June 12. Paid two porters for laying up the Ducking-stoole

1653. Paid John Powell for mending the Ducking-stoole

1680. Paid Gattlett for a proclamation, and

38 4d

38 6d

332

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- for carrying the Ducking-stoole in market 18 6d The Cucking-stool, or as it was sometimes called the Ducking-stool, was in use long after the date of these History of Ipswich, 1830, 8vo. p. 298.

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entries; but the practice having been discontinued, the machine with its appendages are not now found among the Chattels of the Corporation. That belonging to Gravesend, was placed upon wheels, and by the ministration of porters, was run or plunged with the occupant into the Thames, at an inclined plane called the Horse Wash' at the Town Quay; no other place being adapted for the operation, within the town; and farther, the Corporation Accounts show that the porters were not only recompensed for ducking the scold, but also for replacing it in its wonted deposit in the market. In Whimsies: or a New Cast of Characters, 1631, duod.; the author speaking of a Xantippean says He, (her husband) vowes therefore to bring her in all disgrace to the Cucking-stoole, and she vowes againe to bring him, with all contempt to the Stoole of repentance.'* Misson describes the operation of the Cucking-stool, as witnessed by him—

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The way of punishing scolding women is pleasant enough, they fasten an arm chair to the ends of two beams, twelve or fifteen feet long, and parallel to each other, so that these two pieces of wood with their two ends, embrace the chair, which hangs between them upon a sort of axle, by which means it plays freely, and always remains in a horizontal position, that a person may conveniently sit in it, whether you raise it up or let it down. They set a post upon bank of a pond or river, and over the post they lay almost in equilibrio, the two beams, at the ends of which, the chair hangs just over the water; they place the woman in the chair, and so plunge her into the water, as often as the sentence directs, in order to cool her immoderate heat. Gay in his third Pastoral, entitled 'The Dumps,' thus describes the Cucking-stool

I'll speed me to the Pond, where the high Stool
On the long plank, hangs o'er the muddy pool;
That Stool, the dread of ev'ry scolding Quean.

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"The stools of infamy are the Ducking-stool and the Stool of repentance. The first was invented for taming female shrews. The stool of repentance is an ecclesiastical engine, of Popish extraction, for the punishment of fornication and other immoralities, whereby the delinquent publicly takes shame to himself, and receives a solemn reprimand from the minister of the parish."-Gentleman's Magazine, 1732, p. 740.

ESCROQUER. In the Quarterly Review, for September last, in an excellent article on 'The Institute of France,' it is related, p. 322, as an instance of the proneness of lexicographers to make their dictionaries the vehicle of their prejudices, or their wrongs, that Richelet, in his once popular dictionary, thus exemplifies the word Escroquer:

'The son of François Herrard de Vitri (escroqué) swindled M. Richelet of ten louis-dores, and that scoundrel, instead of retrieving the misconduct of his son, by restoring what he had basely (escroqué) swindled, had the insolence to approve what he had done, and in a foolish note, to thank M. Richelet for his generosity.'

On turning to my 'nouvelle edition' of Richelet, printed in 1759, I find under the word Escroqué, no such statement, but the following: - Brusquet, fameux Boufon escroqua subtilement une chaine d'or que le Roi avoit donnée à un Boufon de l'Empereur,' for which he cites Perroniana, p. 39. Some of your readers may possibly be able to say, if any other edition of Richelet's Dictionary contains the anecdote stated by the writer of the article in question.

In the same article, p. 343, the author says, “We might really even parody the famous line of Molière:

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'Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans l'âme des savans." Is this not an error, in ascribing the line on which the parody is made to Molière, instead of to Boileau, who in his Lutrin has the line,

"Tant de fiel entre-t-il dans l'âme des devôts." a well known parody of the line in Virgil,— "Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ ?"

En. lib. 1. v. 15.

ROBERT BURNS' SIX "BELLES OF MAUCHLINE." Died, last week, at Edinburgh, Mrs. Candlish, formerly Miss Jean Smith, the last of the six belles of Mauchline,' to whom the verses of Burns have given celebrity

Miss Miller is fine, Miss Markland's divine,

Miss Smith she has wit, and Miss Betty is braw, There's beauty and fortune to get wi' Miss Morton, But Armour's the jewel for me o' them a'. Miss Miller became the wife of the poet's friend, Dr. Mackenzie; Miss Markland was married to Finlay, an excise officer at Greenock; Miss Betty Miller became a Mrs. Templeton; and Miss Morton a Mrs. Paterson. The husband of Jean Smith was Mr. Candlish, a medical man; and her son is the Rev. Dr. Candlish, of Edinburgh, whose eloquence and ability confirm the shrewd discrimination of the poet.

North British Daily Mail, Feb. 3.

SCOTLAND'S CURSE.-Why is the playing-card, the nine of diamonds, said to be the Curse of Scotland?' Totteridge. EUPHEMIA.

William, Duke of Cumberland, is said to have dispatched his sanguinary orders, at the close of the battle of Culloden, written on the back of a playing-card, the Nine of Dia. monds; no other or better writing-material being at hand.

+ Travels in England, transl. by Ozell, 1719, 8vo. p. 65. Hence its popular denouncement.

BEWICK. Current Notes, vol. iv. p. 2.-My friend, Mr. J. G. Bell, is mistaken as to the number of Wild Bulls' taken off on vellum. This singularly beautiful production originated on the suggestion of the late Marmaduke Tunstall, the founder of what is now a portion of the Newcastle Museum, and if S. F. refers to Fox's Synopsis of that collection, he will there find some interesting notices of Bewick, his Wild Bull, and his History of British Birds. Six impressions were printed on fine vellum for Mr. Tunstall, and from my own enquiries I should think there are at least a dozen proofs in this state. One was sold in London, last autumn, and purchased by a bookseller in Newcastle at a very low price.

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KENNEDY. Current Notes, vol. iv. p. 3.-William Kennedy was a native of the North of Ireland, and educated at the Belfast Academical Institution. Like many another son of Irish genius, after giving numerous proofs of the brilliant powers of which he was possessed, he transferred his literary allegiance to England; and had not long settled there when he became editor of the Hull Advertiser. Subsequently he obtained a government appointment in Australia, and was murdered by the aborigines. The writer had the privilege of his early friendship, and a gentler spirit never wedded poesy. I am not sure that his poetry has been published in a collected form.

Recorder Office, Downpatrick.

JAMES A. PILSON.

EARLY SIGNIFICANCY OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE. CHRISTMAS in Berlin has its joys, even though the roast beef and old holly of Old England be not there: the bright clear air, through which one can see and hear to an incredible distance; the glittering snow that lies on the ground and covers the trees, retaining its purity for weeks; the happy family groups out on their festag walk; the children parading in the last night's tippet and muff; the hilarity of the skaters; the merry tinkling of the bells on the harness of the sledge, as it glides by with its happy freight, and its horses flaunting in many coloured feathers and their long housings of white kerseymere. These are the out-of-doors joys to which the foreigner has free access; but the in-doors delights of the Christmas Tree and the bescheerung, or present-giving, of the children, and of everybody, from and to everybody, are confined to those only who are members of families, and are not extended to the stranger who is within the gates. The all but universal jubilee leaves him alone in his domicile, uninvited to break the spell of any family circle. The Christmastree has become a prevailing fashion in England at this season, and is by most persons supposed to be derived from Germany; such, however, is not the fact; the Christmas-tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from The a period long antecedent to the Christian era. palm tree is known to put forth a shoot every month, and a spray of this tree, with twelve shoots on it, was used in Egypt, at the time of the winter solstice as a symbol of the year completed.

Egyptian associations of a very early date still mingle with the tradition and custom of the Christmas

DINING WITH DUKE HUMPHREY.-Whence the origin tree; there are as many pyramids, as trees used in of this saying?

R. F.

Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, who died in 1446, was the founder of the library at Oxford, subsequently so enriched by Sir Thomas Bodley and others, that it has now the wide world appellation of the Bodleian. When a student remained reading in the library, during the hours of dinner, at which time the doors are closed, he was said, on missing him at the college table, to be " Dining with Duke Humphrey "-dinnerless in the library, devoted to his studies.

THE KINGES AND GOUERNOURS OF ENGLAND.

Two Wills, Hal, Stephen, Henry then againe;
Dicke, Jacke, third Henry, Edwards three in traine;
Second Dicke, three more Hals, Ned the fourth, and
y'other,

Crumpe Dicke, seventh, eighth Hals, Ned, Moll, Besse noe mother;

Jemmye, Charles, and C. and? may bee nere another:
Parliaments five or six, Oliuer and Red Jumpe
Instrument and Humblement, Richard and the Rumpe.
1659.
Contemporary Manuscript.

Germany, in the celebration of Christmas by those whose means do not admit of their purchasing trees and the concomitant tapers. These pyramids consist of slight erections of slips of wood, arranged like a pyramidal epergne, covered with green paper, and decorated with festoons of paper chain-work, which flutter in the wind, and constitute a make-believe foliage; this latter, however, is an innovation of modern days. The palm tree spray of Egypt, on reaching Italy, became a branch of any other tree; the tip of the fir being found most suitable, from its pyramidal or conical shape, was decorated with burning tapers lighted in honour of Saturn, whose saturnalia were celebrated from the 17th, to the 21st of December, the period of the winter solstice; the lighted tapers, the saturnalitia, or presents given, and the entertainment of the domestics on a footing of equality, date from this age. After the saturnalia came the days called the sigillaria, when presents were made of impressions stamped on wax, which still form part of the furniture of a Christmas-tree. To the sigillaria succeeded one day, called the juvenalia, on which every person, even adults, indulged in childish sports, and hence the romping close of our Christmas festivities.

Almost all the nations of the ancient world had their peculiar feast of mid-winter, but the Juel-fesé of the Northern mythology, is that which seems to have left the most discernible traces in our country. The circling year was represented as a wheel, the word itself being derived from juel; closing only to commence again; the yule log was heaped on the fire, and the boar, an animal obnoxious to the god of the Sun, was roasted whole in the open air. The most pleasing part connected with this observance of the mid-winter festival, was the custom of concealing the presents in as many wrappers as possible, and throwing them in at the windows, the practice being emblematical of the hidden blessings in store for the coming year.

JEWISH DISABILITIES.

THE tribute required of the Jews by Vespasian, on the subjugation of Judæa, was by Domitian rendered almost insupportable, and even the observance of the religious rites of their faith was permitted only on their complying with the Emperor's exactions, which were enforced with great rigour. Suetonius, recounting the various means of plundering his subjects, observes, - Above all others, the Jews were miserably harassed by the confiscation of their estates; those in particular, who, declining to give in their names as Jews, yet lived after the manner of Jews; or who, concealing their original, did not pay the tribute that had been imposed upon that nation.' The assassination of Domitian made way for the accession of Nerva, A.D. 96, when these oppressive taxes were remitted, and the event perpetuated on the reverse of one of Nerva's large brass coins, now of considerable rarity.

AVSEN

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It was not till several centuries after the birth of our Saviour, that the Church appointed the Nativity to be a high day, and a holyday; and not having specific information, as to the exact period of our Lord's birth, December 25 was fixed on, as being more likely than any other to be the correct day. With the Germans, the greatest festival is our Christmas-eve, the heilege abend, which has the more propriety, as whatever doubt attaches to the date of His birth, it is certain that our Lord was born in the night-time. The festival is called weihnacht, or night dedicated to the commemoration. As Christmas-eve always falls on the evening of Adam and Eve's day, an orthodox Christmas-tree will have the figures of our first parents at its foot, and the serpent twining himself round its stem. By a bold stretch of theological fancy, the tree with its branches and tapers, is with the abovementioned accessories, understood to typify the genealogy of our Lord, closing in the most luminous apex, the sun of light and life, "the seed of the woman should crush the serpent's head." The Romans had already affixed on the summit of their trees, a representation of a radiant sun in honour of Phoebus Apollo, to whom the three last days of December were dedicated. In connexion with this god, sheep were MENDIZABAL, who advanced in life from being a sometimes exhibited pasturing under the tree, or Apollo Jew boy named Mendez, selling old clothes at Cadiz or himself took charge of the herd, or taught the shep-wandering about the country as a pedlar, receiving on herds the use of the pipe. This was skilfully construed by the Christian clergy to be emblematic of the Good Shepherd.

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The sigillaria of the Romans were impressed with the images of saints and holy persons; the lighted tapers, also borrowed from the saturnalia, were retained here, as elsewhere, as portion of the religious ceremony. The giving of presents, another portion of the saturnalia, was understood to be expressive of Christian brotherly love, while the apples, nuts, and gingerbread, equally unmistakeable remnants of the Northern heathen mythology, have been retained in the service of the Christian festival, as accessories that sufficiently recommended themselves without typifying anything particularly holy.

TAVERN orgies tear asunder the stoutest constitution. as well as impoverish the weightiest purses.

IMP. NERVA CAES. AVG. P. M. TR. P. Cos. III. P. P.
Rev. FISCI JVDAICI CALVMNIA SVBLATA.

The word fiscus was derived from the hamper, or basket, in which the taxes were originally collected.

copper

his customers, which he was obliged to pocket with their account of his Hebrew origin many a cuff or a kick from Prime Minister of Spain, evincing in that position the monies-first became a millionaire, and lastly most enlightened patriotism towards the land of his birth, from which, in common with all his caste, he had received usages that might have turned the blood to gall, if the blood and spirit of his race had been like that of the rest of the sons of Adam.

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Southwick Vicarage, near Oundle. T. R. BROWN.

RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE CHINESE. mentions Mo ye (Mary), Moo kia ye (Mark), and Om i THERE are two languages, the Hebrew and the Chi-to Fo, i.e. Om (the Hindoo Triad) is the Fo, etc. From nese, every word of which may be literally interpreted their own records, we may therefore reasonably suppose, by means of the significations of the hieroglyphs which the Chinese might easily be persuaded to embrace the compose the words. This method of interpretation gospel of Jesus Christ. appears to be the only one for restoring the true history of such events, as from length of time have been so corrupted by glosses, as scarcely to leave a trace of their original meaning, even to those professing to be perfectly conversant with their intricacies. We may thus speak of the Chinese language in particular, and only by unfolding the compound structure of words can we be enabled to see and explain the historical events contained in them; let us then pursue this decomposition in order to shew what was the ancient religious belief of the Chinese.

Du Halde, Hist. of China, Svo. edit. vol. iii. p. 16, states: "The chief object of their worship is the Supreme Being, Lord and Chief Sovereign of all things, which they worshipped under the name of Chang ti." The literal meaning of Chang ti, or in English orthography, Shang te, Supreme Lord of Heaven, is as follows,-one piercing or extending from our heaven, or atmosphere, above the eight coverings, regions, or residences. Here we are referred, if I mistake not, to the pure Empyrean, or the Spirit that extends throughout infinite space, surrounding and supporting the whole of the creation, as the Alpha, or, as it is beautifully expressed in the Edda, the Ljosalfaheim, the region of pure light tending downwards, and which is above the other eight regions. Chang ti therefore means the essential part of the Deity, whom we are taught to call the Father. Here we have the pure worship of the Supreme; but this is not all; they had also, at the same time, a correct knowledge of the nature and future mission of the Messiah, whom they called the God Fo. This word literally signifies Man descending from above the third heaven, upon earth, and afterwards ascending thither. In Du Halde, vol. ii. p. 288, he is also described on a coin, called a superstitious coin, figured on the left hand, at the bottom of the plate; where the spiritual index is prefixed to Fo, instead of jin, man. The most ancient hieroglyphs on this coin describe that part of holy writ, contained in Genesis i. 2, 3; or, it may be from the same record, that was in common among mankind, handed down from the earliest ages.

I will mention but two more, most ancient records of the same nature; one, in Heuselii Synopsis Universe Philosophiæ, p. 46, plate 1; the descent of the Trinity, upon one man on earth to establish a kingdom, and return again to heaven.' The other in Hammer's Ancient Hieroglyphic Characters, pp. 91 and 22; the description of which is as follows,- The creation of the

universe, the fall of Adam and Eve in Paradise, and its cause; the coming of the Messiah at the appearance of a wonderful star, the establishment of his kingdom on earth, and his subsequent ascent to heaven.'

Du Halde, vol. iii. p. 34, in a confused and corrupted history of some few of the leading parts of the gospels,

CURIOUS SIGN-BOARDS IN SOMERSETSHIRE. WHILST passing through Yeovil, a short time since, I noticed the sign of a public house, "The Pall," and the inn adjoins the churchyard, now in the centre of this large and flourishing town. I should feel obliged if some reader of Current Notes' can give any account of its origin. Can it be that the inn was formerly used as a resting-place for the corpse on its way to the last home?

Another, and more remarkable sign, is to be seen at West Coker, a few miles from Yeovil, namely, ‘The Case is altered.' What can this possibly mean? Dorchester, Feb. 13.

JOHN GARLAND.

Your correspondent's conjectures may to a certain in the middle ages, a common adjunct or entrance to extent be right. The Lich-gate, covered overhead, was brief resting place for the corpse-bearers; but as palls grave-yards; ; some yet remain, and are still used as a are of great antiquity, the now inn may have been the house of some official connected with the church, and who had charge of the pall?

'Dear old Dorset' has more than one instance of The Case is altered.' The allusion is at once both obvious and self-interpreting,-a house from bad management falls into bad repute, and the new occupant retrieves the error, by adopting a different course, and in place of the old sign, has painted in large letters,— THE CASE IS ALTERED. His resolve is thus patent to certainty; I well remember a case in point, in years every one. This I have known done, and so speak with gone by, when at the grammar school in Wimborne.

CHARLES WARNE.

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