It may
be only that antiquaries in those counties have been more industrious
in unearthing and preserving these curious relics of a barbarous age.
The latest recorded occasion of its use was at Congleton in 1824, when
a woman named Ann Runcorn was condemned to endure the bridle for
abusing and slandering the churchwardens when they made their tour of
inspection of the alehouses during the Sunday-morning service. There
are some excellent drawings of branks, and full descriptions of their
use, in Mr. Andrews's _Bygone Punishments_.
Another relic of old-time punishments most gruesome of all are the
gibbet-irons wherein the bones of some wretched breaker of the laws
hung and rattled as the irons creaked and groaned when stirred by the
breeze. _Pour l'encouragement des autres_, our wise forefathers
enacted that the bodies of executed criminals should be hanged in
chains. At least this was a common practice that dated from medieval
times, though it was not actually legalized until 1752.[56] This Act
remained in force until 1834, and during the interval thousands of
bodies were gibbeted and left creaking in the wind at Hangman's Corner
or Gibbet Common, near the scene of some murder or outrage. It must
have been ghostly and ghastly to walk along our country lanes and hear
the dreadful noise, especially if the tradition were true
That the wretch in his chains, each night took the pains,
To come down from the gibbet--and walk.
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