eing affixed to the side of the ancient
"lock-up," known as the Black Hole.

At Lymm, Cheshire, there are some good stocks by the cross in that
village, and many others may be discovered by the wandering antiquary,
though their existence is little known and usually escapes the
attention of the writers on local antiquities. As relics of primitive
modes of administering justice, it is advisable that they should be
preserved.

Yet another implement of rude justice was the cucking or ducking
stool, which exists in a few places. It was used principally for the
purpose of correcting scolding women. Mr. Andrews, who knows all that
can be known about old-time punishments, draws a distinction between
the cucking and ducking stool, and states that the former originally
was a chair of infamy where immoral women and scolds were condemned to
sit with bare feet and head to endure the derision of the populace,
and had no relation to any ducking in water. But it appears that later
on the terms were synonymous, and several of these implements remain.
This machine for quieting intemperate scolds was quite simple. A plank
with a chair at one end was attached by an axle to a post which was
fixed on the bank of a river or pond, or on wheels, so that it could
be run thither; the culprit was tied to the chair, and the other end
of the plank was alternately raised or lowered so as to cause the
immersion of the scold in the chilly water. A very effectual
punishment! The form of the chair varies. The Leominster ducking-stool
is still preserved, and this implement was the latest in use, having
been employed in 1809 for the ducking of Jenny Pipes, _alias_ Jane
Corran, a common scold, by order of the magistrates, and also as late
as 1817; but in this case the victim, one Sarah Leeke, was only
wheeled round the town in the chair, and not ducked, as the water in
the Kenwater stream was too shallow for the purpose. The cost of
making the stool appears in many corporation accounts. That at
Hungerford must have been in pretty frequent use, as there are several
entries for repairs in the constable's accounts.[55] Thus we find the
item under the year 1669:--

"Pd for the Cucking stoole 01,10,00"

and in 1676:--

"Pd for nailes and workmanship about
the stocks and cucking stoole 00,07,00"

[55] The corporation of Hungerford is peculiar, the head official
being termed the constable, who corresponded w