that her (Clarke's) husband brought home cloth worth three pounds, and that he said so himself in the ' spikehouse.' She was accordingly sent home in the Cuckstool. "In 1744 there was paid for bringing out the Cuckstool, 6d. "The last notice of it which I have met with in the Accounts, is the following one in 1768-9 : ' Paid Mr. Elliott for a Cuckstool by order of Hall £2.' And I was, indeed, somewhat sur prised to find that one had been purchased so recently, both from Throsby's statement beforementioned, and also that the latest period at which its use is recorded, was at Kingston-uponThames in the year 1745. "An aged inhabitant of the town has recently informed me, that he recollects having seen, many years ago, another ancient Cucking Stool, at that time kept in the Town Hall-yard, and which was a kind of chair without legs, fixed at the end of a long pole; he also remembers, when a boy, to have heard his mother say, that a few years before, she had seen the Cucking Stool placed at the door of a house in the Shambles Lane, but that the woman having managed to leave the house previously, escaped the ducking intended for her; and that a neighbor who had died some thirty years ago, at an advanced age, related to him that she once saw a woman ducked for scolding, and that the instrument was placed by the side of the river adjoining the West Bridge. He thinks this must have occurred about eighty years ago, and consequently from twenty-five to thirty years later than the period stated by Brand. Its use in this town at this comparatively recent period has also been con firmed by a gentleman now in his 81st year, who recollects the Cuckstool being placed as a mark of disgrace in front of a house in Bond Street; the woman residing there had also, it appears, twice done penance in St. Margaret's Church for slander. "References are, I find, made to another in strument of popular punishment — the Scolding Cart, that has not been noticed, I believe, by writers on the subject. It seems to have differed from the Cucking Stool only in being provided with wheels, and in the culprit being seated upon it, and drawn through the town. Thus, in the account for 1629, the following charge appears : —
"' Item — Paid to Frauncis Pallmer for mak ing two wheels and one barr for the Scolding Cart ijs.' "Whilst, in that for 1602, the two instruments are mentioned in the same entry, a payment ' for the charges of the Cucke-stool, the Carte, and the Stocks.'" Mr. Kelly, to whom the preservation of this chair is, I believe, owing, mentions the scolding cart as a distinct instrument. This was undoubtedly the tumbrell on which the culprit was wheeled round the town, either without immersion, or previous to it. It will be seen that beneath the arms of the chair are grooves, or openings, for the inser tion of the cord by which it was suspended. The seat is also removable, so as to offer no obstruction to the water in ducking. At Wooton Bassctt the chair is still pre served, and the tumbrell was, until a few
years ago, perfect. The form of chair we are here enabled to give through the kind ness of Mr. Kite, of Devizes. The chair is still preserved by the corporation of that town, and was exhibited at the temporary museum at Marlborough. The chair is of oak, very strongly made, and bears on its back the date 1686. The tumbrell to which it was attached consisted of a pair of long shafts, with ropes attached, and a pair of wheels of three feet three inches in diameter, as shown in the engraving below. When used, the delinquent was placed in the chair, and firmly tied in, and the ma
