of Scotland, at Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES:

[26] Rogers's "Social Life in Scotland," 1884.

[27] Chambers's "Book of Days," Vol. I., page 728.

[28] David Maxwell's "Bygone Scotland," 1894.

Mutilation.

In the earlier laws of England, mutilation or dismembering was by no
means an uncommon punishment, more especially amongst the poor. Men,
says Pike, branded on the forehead, without hands, without feet, without
tongues, lived as an example of the danger which attended the commission
of petty crimes, and as a warning to all men who had the misfortune of
holding no higher position than that of a churl.[29] Wealthy people
might do wrong with impunity. It has been clearly shown that there was
one law for the rich, and another for the poor, in England during the
four centuries which preceded the Norman Conquest.

According to Pike, under the Danes, mutilation was practised with
perhaps greater severity than under the rule of the Saxons. Amongst the
horrors of the Danish conquest were eyes plucked out; the nose, ears,
and the upper lip were cut off; the scalp was torn away, and sometimes
even, there is reason to believe, the whole body was flayed alive.

Under the first two Norman kings mutilation of offenders was largely
employed to preserve game in their forests. They, however, only appear
to have enforced earlier laws. The earliest forest laws of which we have
any knowledge are those which were promulgated about 1016 by Canute, the
Dane, and probably much the same as had existed for a long period
previously. The principal points of their tyrannical laws were, that if
a freedman offered violence to a keeper of the King's deer, he was
liable to lose his freedom and property; if a serf did the same, he lost
his right hand; if the offence was repeated, he paid the penalty with
his life. For killing a deer, either the eyes of the offender were put
out, or he was killed; if anyone ran down a deer so that it panted, he
was to pay at least ten shillings in the money of the day. Such was the
law under the Saxon and the Danish Kings. The laws protected the private
estate owner, and it was not until the Conqueror came that all the
forest land was considered the property of the King.

In the reign of Henry I. coiners of false money were brought to
Winchester and suffered there in one day the loss of their right hands
and of their manhood. Under the Kings of the West Saxon dynasty the
loss of the right hand was a comm