s of the land. The punishments
for correcting scolds differed greatly in various parts of the country.
It is clear, from a careful study of the history of mediaeval times, that
virtue and amiability amongst the middle and lower classes, generally
speaking, did not prevail. The free use of the tongue gave rise to riots
and feuds to an extent which it is difficult for us to realise at the
present day. A strong feeling against scolding women came down to a late
period. Readers of Boswell's "Life of Johnson" will remember how the
Doctor, in reply to a remark made by a celebrated Quaker lady, Mrs.
Knowles, observed: "Madam, we have different modes of restraining
evil--stocks for men, a ducking-stool for women, and a pound for
beasts."

The cucking-stool in the early history of England must not be confounded
with the ducking-stool. They were two distinct machines. It appears,
from a record in the "Domesday Book," that as far back as the days of
Edward the Confessor, any man or woman detected giving false measure in
the city of Chester was fined four shillings; and for brewing bad ale,
was placed in the _cathedra stercoris_. It was a degrading mode of
chastisement, the culprits being seated in the chair at their own doors
or in some public place. At Leicester, in 1467, the local authorities
directed "scolds to be punished by the mayor on a cuck-stool before
their own doors, and then carried to the four gates of the town."
According to Borlase's "Natural History of Cornwall," in that part of
the country the cucking-stool was used "as a seat of infamy, where
strumpets and scolds, with bare feet and head, were condemned to abide
the derision of those that passed by, for such time as the bailiffs of
the manors, which had the privilege of such jurisdiction, did approve."
Ale-wives in Scotland in bygone times who sold bad ale were placed in
the cucking-stool. In the year 1555, we learn from Thomas Wright that
"it was enacted by the queen-regent of Scotland that itinerant singing
women should be put on the cuck-stoles of every burgh or town; and the
first 'Homily against Contention,' part 3, published in 1562, sets forth
that 'in all well-ordered cities common brawlers and scolders be
punished with a notable kind of paine, as to be _set on_ the
cucking-stole, pillory, or such-like.' By the statute of 3 Henry VIII.,
carders and spinners of wool who were convicted of fraudulent practices
were to be _sett upon_ the pillory or the cukkyn