delivered to Sir Urian Leigh, on his election as Mayor, in 1623, this brank is described as "a brydle for a curste queane."
At Congleton, a similar one is preserved in the Town Hall. In the corporation ac counts is the following mention of it: — "Oct. 6, 1662. Matthew Lowndes, sworn gaol-keeper, and a list of the mace, Bridle for Scolding Women, bolts, locks, and mana cles, given to him." It appears to have been used as late as 1824, and the following curious account is given in the paper to which we have re ferred : — "It was formerly in the hands of the Town jailer, whose services were not unfrequently called into requisition. In the old-fashioned, halftimbered houses in the Borough, there was gen erally fixed on one side of the large open fire places, a hook, so that when a man's wife in dulged her scolding propensities, the husband sent for the Town jailer to bring the bridle, and had her bridled and chained to the hook until she promised to behave herself better for the future. I have seen one of these hooks, and have often heard husbands say to their wives, ' If you don't rest with your tongue, I'll send for the bridle, and hook you up.' The mayor and justices frequently called the instrument into use, for when women have been brought before them charged with street brawling, and insulting the constables and others while in the discharge of their duty, they have ordered them to be bridled, and led through
the borough by the jailer. The last time this bridle was publicly used was A.D., 1824, when a woman was brought before the mayor (Bulkeley Johnson, Esq.,) and magistrates, one Monday, charged with scolding and using harsh language to the church wardens and constables as they went, on the Sunday morning, round the town to see that all the public-houses were empty and closed during divine service. On the examination, a Mr. Richard Edwards stated on oath ' that on going round the town with the church wardens on the previous day, they met the woman (Ann Run corn) in a place near 'The Cockshoot'; and that immediately on seeing them, she commenced a sally of abuse, calling them all the scoundrels and rogues she could lay her tongue to, and telling them ' it would look better of them if they would look after their own houses, rather than go look ing after other folks,' which were far better than their own.' After other abuse of a like character, they thought it only right to apprehend her, and so brought her before the bench on the following day. The mayor then delivered the following sentence : — ' That it is the unanimous decision of the mayor and justices that the prisoner (Ann Runcorn) there and then have the town's bridle for scolding women put upon her, and that she be led by the magistrates' clerk's clerk through every street in the town, as an example to all scolding women; and that the mayor and magistrates were much obliged to the church wardens for bringing the case before them.' " " In this case," Mr. Warrington adds, " I both heard the evidence and saw the decision carried out. The bridle was put on the woman, and she was then led through the town by one Prosper Haslam, the town clerk's clerk, accompanied by hundreds of the inhabitants; and on her return to the TownHall the bridle was taken off in the presence of the mayor, magistrates, constables, church wardens, and assembled inhabitants." In the Warrington Museum, the brank formerly used at Carrington, is preserved. It is a very heavy and cumbrous instrument, furnished with four rings, probably for the purpose of tying it to the shoulders, and the gag is a fan-shaped one. The one in Mr. Mayer's museum is a remarkably fine speci men, consisting of a hoop with a band, open at front for the nose, and the crown of the
