s found guilty of blasphemy should be
punished by the iron brank. In North Britain, it appears to have been
used for punishing persons guilty of immorality. On the 7th October, the
Kirk-Session of Canongate sentenced David Persoun, convicted of this
offence, to be "brankit for four hours," while his associate in guilt,
Isobel Mountray, was "banisit the gait," that is, expelled from the
parish. Only a week previously, the same Kirk-Session had issued a
proclamation that all women found guilty of this lawlessness "be brankit
six houris at the croce."

We close this chapter by directing attention to the Bishop's brank, kept
at St. Andrews, respecting which a singular story is told. A woman in a
humble walk of life, named Isabel Lindsay, stood up in the parish church
of St. Andrews, during the time of divine service, when Archbishop Sharp
was preaching, and declared that when he was a college student he was
guilty of an illicit amour with her. She was arrested for this
statement, and brought before the Kirk-Sessions, and by its members
sentenced "to appear for a succession of Sundays on the repentance
stool, wearing the brank."

FOOTNOTES:

[43] Dobson's "Preston in the Olden Time," 1857.

[44] "The Reliquary," October, 1860.

[45] Morris's "Obsolete Punishments of Shropshire."

Riding the Stang.

The ancient custom of riding the stang still lingers in some remote
parts of the country. Holding delinquents up to ridicule was a favourite
mode of punishment practised by our forefathers, and riding the stang
was the means generally employed for punishing husbands who beat their
wives, or allowed themselves to be henpecked, or were profligate in
their conduct. There are various designations for the custom. In
Yorkshire, riding the stang is the name used; in Scotland the same term
is applied; in the South of England skimmington-riding is the title
generally employed, and on the Continent it is known by other
appellations.

[Illustration: RIDING THE STANG.]

The mode of carrying out the ceremony is as follows: A man having beaten
his wife, the young men of the village assume the attitude of public
censors, and arrangements are made for riding the stang three nights in
succession. A trumpeter blows his horn loud and long as day gives way
to night, and the villagers are brought together. A pole or a ladder is
procured, and the most witty man in the village is placed thereon,
mounted shoulder-high, and carried i