ite as efficacious, although we have the
authority of St. James, "For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of
serpents, and of things of the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of
mankind, but the tongue can no man tame." It relates how, "at the
Mayor's Court, Stafford, last week, Mary, wife of Thomas Careless, of the
Broad Eye, a perfect termagant, was ordered to pay 1/- penalty, and 7/6
costs, for an unprovoked assault on Mary, the wife of Lewis Bromley.
During the investigation, her garrulity was so incessant that the mayor
was under the necessity of sending for the 'scold's bridle,' an iron
instrument of very antique construction, which, in olden times, was
occasionally called into use. It is formed of an elliptical bow of iron,
enclosing the head from the lower extremity of one ear to the other, with
a transverse piece of iron from the nape of the neck to the mouth, and
completely covers the tongue, preventing its movement, and the whole
machinery, when adjusted, is locked at the back of the head. The bridle
is to be put in thorough repair, and hung _in terrorem_ in the Mayor's
office, to be used as occasion may call it forth."

These "scold's bridles," or "branks," as they are sometimes called, are
not uncommon. The earliest dated one is preserved at Walton-on-Thames,
and bears the date 1633, with the inscription:

"Chester presents Walton with a bridle,
To curb women's tongues that talk to idle."

Brayley, in his "History of Surrey," says that it was given by a
gentleman named Chester, who lost a valuable estate through a gossiping,
lying woman; but, as there are several examples of branks in the
Palatinate, one being kept in the gaol at Chester, some people think it
was a present from that city. There is one at Leicester, and another at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, which used to hang in the mayor's parlour, and
tradition has it that many cases of disputes between women have been
speedily and satisfactorily settled on his worship's pointing to these
branks.

There is one in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, which is very tender as
far as the gag is concerned, but which has a leading chain fastened
between the eyes. Hainstall, Ridware, Lichfield, Morpeth, Shrewsbury,
Holme, Kendal, Altrincham, Macclesfield, Congleton (where it was last
used in 1824), all have examples, whilst Chester has four! There are
several in Scotland, and there are some in private hands, notably one
which used to be in the Mayer Mus