at the Cross; and next, this deplorable procession moved through several of the contiguous streets, and at each of certain stations or halting places were laid on a number more, we suspect, in whole, exceeding the Jewish "forty stripes." The last instance of female whipping was in 1793. A case happened within my own recollection (perhaps thirty-five to forty years ago), of two men publicly whipped and pilloried for, I think, cutting or weakening the rope of a hutch by which the operatives descended to a coal pit, but timeously discovered to save life. The ancient banishment, or drumming out of the town, as it was commonly called, sometimes extended no farther than to Gorbals. Branks (of which I have examined an old specimen) was a sort of iron case which covered the back part and top of the head, with an iron strap that firmly bound up the lower jaw, often put on those of unbridled and calumnious tongues. In some instances, in addition a small piece of iron was introduced into the mouth to prevent the motion of the organ of speech. The Jugs or Jougs might, not much later than twenty years ago, be found dangling on the Tolbooth steeple, near the "houf door." A pair suspended from the wall by an iron chain of about sixteen inches in length, and at the end of each chain was attached an iron collar for encircling the neck. They hung about eight feet up, and the persons confined in them must have stood on some stone or block of wood, placed on the pavement for proper elevation. It used to be great fun for the boys to catch them for "a speel up the wall," as they termed it. However much the cold bath may be desirable and recommended by physicians, the Dowkin (or ducking) had then been rather a tremendous affair. The Kirk as well as the Magistrate appear to have considered it salutary both for men and women; and, accordingly, we find a pulley ordered to be erected on the Old Bridge, whereby the incontinent might be let down and submerged in the Clyde. The Burning on the cheek, no doubt performed with a hot iron, must have been a barbarous operation, which sturdy beggars and other idle vagrants experienced. We are not, however, to conclude that there was inhumanity displayed to the deserving poor of the town, who, on the contrary, were treated most kindly. Stocks affected the feet, by limiting the prisoner either to a horizontal or to a half upright position, while the Goifis were likely to have been a kind of gloves, or manacles, or hand-cuffs. In the various descriptions of Amends, Homage, and Repentance, both of a public and private character, the Magistrates, in their judicial sentences, seemed sometimes to have played a little into the hands of the Kirk; indeed, taking a survey of this department of those remote times, the Kirk and the civil power had often copied each other, and cannot very well be separated. The pecuniary fines, which need no commentary to explain, occasionally assisted somewhat to garnish the civic exchequer. In comparatively modern dates to those just mentioned, the Pillory, in the form which I recollect, was a large red painted machine, that may have been about ten or twelve feet high. A cross piece of wood, rather below the height of a man's ordinary stature, was perforated with six or seven circular holes. The upper half of this piece of wood was moveable, and the neck being inserted into one of these holes, and the wood fixed down, the face projected, without the possibility of turning it away. Within was some board on which the culprits supported themselves, aud who appeared with a slight inclination of the body forward. The machine stood at the Cross, the centre of the four diverging streets, and at two o'clock on a Wednesday the culprits were exposed an hour, and for each quarter of the hour made to front each street. In this pitiful condition, the "babes in the wood," as they were popularly phrased, had to submit to every kind of derision, and might think themselves fortunate if they escaped being pelted with dead cats, mud, and rotten eggs, from the ruffians among the crowd of spectators. A modification of the pillory was that of "standing on the stair-head," as it was commonly called. This was a wooden platform above the "houf door" of the steeple, with two of its sides defended by an iron rail, on which delinquents, also on the market day, were submitted to the observation of the multitude. The latest occurrence of this kind which I remember, was that of a woman for the resetting of "bowl weft," with a spyndle or two of the cotton yarn about her neck, and a printed paper on her breast setting forth the circumstance. For the variety of offences committed, and the petty misdemeanours incident to society, there was verily no lack of ingenuity in getting up whatever were opprobrious and derogatory to human feeling. The punishment which was the severest doom of the law presented the melancholy spectacle of death by hanging. In times of remote antiquity, the place of public execution is noticed as being on the Gallowmuir, at the east end of the city, from whence we have drawn the title of one of our streets leading to the Cross, viz., the Gallowgate, or Gallows-gate, or road to the gallows. The place was afterwards changed to the How-gate-head (or Hollow gate, from a deep cavity in the highway, filled up about thirty-five years ago), on the north side of the city beyond the Cathedral, and was again changed the Castle yard, the ground of the Archbishop's castle, near the present Infirmary. At what period the gallows was first erected on the two last-mentioned sites is not ascertained, but executions are stated as far back as 173 years, which must have occurred at one or other of those spots. This frightful enginethe gallows-as I have understood, was a permanent fixture. coarse representation of it may still be seen cut on a stone of the wall of the Cathedral on the north side, a few feet up, to commemorate a hangman's grave, dated 1769-a high post with transverse beam for suspension, and the ladder on which the criminal ascended, who was pushed off by the executioner. It is thus mathematically described and immortalised by Professor Moor of Glasgow, in a MS. piece of invective against some one of his friends: "And when in airy dance he dangles, The world and he will then part fair." On these mournful occasions, we are informed, "the criminal was led out from the Tolbooth at the Cross, arrayed in a loose dress of white linen with trimmings of black. His arms being pinioned, he had his station at the end of a cart, on which lay extended before his eyes the coffin or shell in which his body was about to be deposited. He had an open Bible in his hand, and was usually attended by one or two clergymen, who encouraged him in his devotions by the way, and aided him in his preparations for eternity. The magistrates of the city, preceded by the town-officers with their halberts, and accompanied by a strong military guard, formed the procession. On its arrival at the Bell o' the Brae it stood still, when, occasionally, a verse or two of a psalm were sung, the malefactor himself giving out the line, and the multitude raising their hats in token of sympathy, whilst every window adjacent was crowded with spectators. The affecting ceremony was sometimes performed in front of the Almshouse in Kirk Street, where the tremulous notes of the criminal were intermingled with the plaintive intonations of the passing bell, and the whole catastrophe was summed up by a psalm and a prayer, and frequently a last speech at the place of execution." About 1788 the place of public execution was transferred from the Castle yard to the outside of the Tolbooth at the Cross. The gal lows had then likely undergone the improvement upon the former clumsy plan. When required, a large scaffolding was put up, extending from the "houf door" of the prison onward to the west. On the floor of this erection was placed a red painted table, ascended by a few steps, and on this table the hangman and the criminal stood, before the former drew the fatal pin or bolt which loosened the machinery and launched the criminal. A huge projecting beam was fastened to some part of the Tolbooth, from which all day swung the rope, as an admonitory lesson to the passers by. Part of these apparatus lay till lately in the entrance to the crypt of the Cathedral. The first execution I ever saw, when a mere child, held up in a man's arms, was that of Adamson and Scott, two engravers, for forging the note plates of, I think, the Ship Bank. They were well dressed in black, and their fate was much bewailed by the inhabitants, having previously borne a respectable reputation. From no peculiar pleasure in such scenes so much as the imposing spectacle of the masses assembled, I attended for many years of after-life at every execution, and the then sanguinary criminal code offered not rare opportunities. When a condemned mortal was left by the Lords of Justiciary, six weeks elapsed till his execution. During this period much interest and pious earnestness were felt for him generally among the citizens-for whether or not deserving his unhappy fate, he was always an individual for commiseration. religious families he was specially recommended in their domestic devotions to Him who hears "the prisoner's groans and sighs;" and in the churches on Sunday the precentor regularly read aloud his line to the congregation and minister-"Remember in prayer a man under sentence of death." The scaffold was erected in the course of the night before the day of execution; and from the vicinity of the "iron room" to the spot, the prisoner might hear the knocking of it up. Many curious people waited on the street all night to witness this operation, as well as from sympathy to look to the window of the cell and scan the thoughts of its short-lived tenant. The momentous hour of execution was at three o'clock P.M. on a Wednesday. The dinner hour being mostly at two o'clock, afforded liberation for the working classes, who flocked in prodigious numbers to the scene. All the villages around the city contributed to the throng, and it was proverbially said that "when a hanging was in Glasgow, Paisley was emptied." Many who were morbidly fond of such exhibitions, even came a much farther distance. Along with the outpouring D All of the city inhabitants, every window and house-top were crowded that commanded a view. Some who considered themselves pretty high in the world did not think it below their dignity to be present. It was currently reported that a lantern storey of the old "Merchants' Land" opposite, was often appropriated to magistrates' wives and their children. By the time the hammer of the bell of the Cross steeple had struck the doleful hour of three o'clock, the three streets-Saltmarket, Trongate, and Gallowgate-were densely packed, each as far down as a distinct sight could be obtained, and the moving swell of sometimes thirty to forty thousand persons was, to say the least of it, really a sublime spectacle. Surveying the immense mass of human heads, nothing was more singular to the eye than the innumerable white mutches or caps of the women. in a species of breathless silence, there were to be discerned in slow movement on the scaffold the criminal, attended by the hangman, with usually a clergyman or two, and some of the authorities. Often a longer and shorter time elapsed in bidding adieu, and offering up prayers, but which seldom exceeded ten minutes. The criminal and hangman then mounted the table, and the latter proceeded with his preparations by adjusting the rope, placing it round the neck, putting on the white night-cap, and giving into the hand of the pinioned arms of the trembling criminal the white handkerchief for his last signal. In a minute or two afterwards the handkerchief was dropped, the hangman drew the bolt or pin, and the criminal suspended, writhed his body, struggling with his last enemy-Death. At this moment the excitement throughout the assembled multitude was intense. Weeping might be witnessed, deprecations and curses heard, and the mingled opinions whether the criminal had got justice or not in his trial and exit, and whether he died soon or not, as gathered from his convulsions. In the hum, noise, and confusion, resounded every here and there hoarse voices that bawled out for sale ready-manufactured halfpenny broadsides of the "last speech and dying words" of the criminal. After hanging an hour, he was cut down-the shell or coffin destined to receive the corpse lay on the scaffold, and, if his crime was that of murder, it was conveyed immediately on a cart to the College for dissection. The scaffold was forthwith taken down, the spectators dispersed, and the Cross resumed its ordinary appearance. The last execution at which I was present at the Cross was that of a highway robber, named Ferguson. He was a little well-built man, |