es" of John Tremayne the Recorder was, in the same
way, held to justify a public exhibition of the impudent and imprudent
person. So, too, anti-social forestalling.

There were cases, however, in which this common method of advertising
paltry offences was thought not to involve an adequate degree of
notoriety and reprobation. We have already adduced one instance--that of
the unscrupulous baker--in which it was attempted to evoke superior
indignation. There were others. The natural destiny of impostors was, as
we have seen, the pillory; among the qualifications for this shadow of
crucifixion being "pretending to be a physician."

The civic fathers endeavoured to cope with the "social evil" by
drenching all engaged in immoral traffic with nauseous doses of public
ridicule. Thus, if a man were convicted of keeping a house of ill-fame,
immediately his hair and beard were shaved off, save for a fringe
(_liste_) on his head two inches in breadth. He was then conveyed to the
pillory, accompanied by minstrels, and there he had to abide at the
discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen. If he was found guilty of the
offence a third time, he was compelled to abjure the City.

A woman convicted of being a common night-walker was committed to
prison--probably the Tun, on Cornhill--and thence she was led to Aldgate
with a hood of rayed cloth on her head and a white wand in her hand.
Next she was escorted by musicians to the thewe (pillory)--in Cheap,
probably--and there the character of her offence was proclaimed.
Finally, she was taken through Cheap and Newgate to "Cokkeslane" without
the walls, where she was required to dwell. If guilty a third time, her
hair was cropped close, while she stood in the pillory, and she was
marched to one of the gates and made to abjure the City for the
remainder of her life. A procurer or procuress was also set in the thewe
to the accompaniment of music, with a "distaf with towen"--i.e., a
distaff dressed with flax--in his or her hand; and the transgressor was
made to serve as a public spectacle for such time as the Mayor and
Aldermen deemed fit. A priest detected in the company of a loose female,
if she were single, was conveyed to the Tun, attended by musicians; and
upon a third conviction he was forced to abjure the City for ever, the
woman meanwhile being taken to one of the Sheriff's Counters and thence
to the Tun. If his partner in guilt chanced to be married, both of them
were conducted to one of