A mouthful of the same she'd take,
Sure not to scold, if not to speak."

A note informs us, "To the honour of the fair sex in the neighbourhood of R****y, this machine has been taken down (as useless) several years."

(7) Borlase, in his "Natural History of Cornwall," p. 303, tells us : "Among the punishments inflicted in Cornwall, of old time, was that of the Cocking-stool, a seat of infamy where strumpets and scolds, with bare foot and head, were condemned to abide the derision of those that passed by, for such time as the bailiffs of manors, which had the privilege of such jurisdiction, did appoint."

Morant, in his "History of Essex," vol. i. p. 317, speaking of Canuden, in the hundred

of Rochford, mentions "Cukingstole Croft, as given for the maintenance of a light in this church; as appears by inquisition, 10 Eliz."

In "The Regiam Majestatem," by Sir John Skene, this punishment occurs as having been used anciently in Scotland: under "Burrow Lawes," chap. lxix., speaking of Browsters, i. e. "Wemen quha brewes aill to be sauld," it is said" gif she makes gude-ail, that is sufficient. Bot gif she makes evill ail, contrair to the use and consuetude of the burgh, and is convict thereof, she sall pay ane unlaw of aucht shillinges, or sal suffer the justice of the burgh, that is, she sall be put upon the Cock-stule, and the aill sall be distributed to the pure folke."

THEY have an artifice at Newcastle-underLyme and Walsall, says Dr. Plott, in his "History of Staffordshire," p. 389, for correcting of scolds, which it does too, so effectually and so very safely, that I look upon it as much to be preferred to the Cucking-stoole, which not only endangers the health of the party, but also gives the tongue liberty 'twixt every dipp; to neither of which this is at all liable: it being such a bridle for the tongue as not only quite deprives them of speech, but brings shame for the transgression and humility thereupon before 'tis taken off': which being put upon the offender by order

of the magistrate, and fastened with a padlock behind, she is led round the town by an officer, to her shame, nor is it taken off till after the party begins to show all external signes imaginable of humiliation and amend

ment.

Dr. Plott, in a copper-plate annexed, gives a representation of a pair of Branks. They still preserve a pair in the town court at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the same custom once prevailed. See Gardiner's "England's Grievance of the Coal Trade," and my History of that Town, vol. ii. p. 192.

It appears from Gardiner's "England's Grievance in Relation to the Coal Trade," that in the time of the Commonwealth the magistrates of Newcastle-upon-Tyne punished scolds with the Branks (just described), and drunkards by making them carry a tub with

holes in the sides for the arms to pass through, called the Drunkard's Cloak, through the streets of that town.

See my

"History of Newcastle," wherein is also given a representation of it in a copperplate, vol. ii. p. 192.

Cic. de Divinat. lib. i. sect. 46.

THE word Omen is well known to signify a sign, good or bad, or a prognostic. It may be defined to be that indication of something future, which we get as it were by accident, and without our seeking for.

A superstitious regard to Omens seems anciently to have made very considerable additions to the common load of human infelicity. They are now pretty generally disregarded, and we look back with perfect secu

rity and indifference on those trivial and truly ridiculous accidents which alternately afforded matter of joy and sorrow to our ancestors. (1) Omens appear to have been so numerous that we must despair of ever being

able to recover them all and to evince that in all ages men have been self-tormentors, the bad Omens fill a catalogue infinitely more extensive than that of the good.

(1) Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall," &o., vol. viii. p. 201, speaking of the wars of the Emperor Maurice against the Avars, A.D. 595, tells us that, on setting out," he (the Emperor) solicited, without success, a miraculous answer to his nocturnal prayers. His mind was confounded by the death of a favourite horse, the encounter of a wild boar, a storm of wind and rain, and the birth of a monstrous child; and he forgot that the best of omens is to unsheath our sword in the defence of our country. He returned to Constantinople, and exchanged the thoughts of war for those of devotion."

Apposite is the following from Joh. Sarisber. de Nugis Curialium, fol. 27: "Rusticanum et fortè Ofelli Proverbium est-Qui Somniis et Auguriis credit, nunquam fore securum. Ego Sententiam et verissimam et fidelissimam puto. Quid enim refert ad consequentiam rerum, si quis semel aut amplius sternutaverit? Quid si oscitaverit? His mens nugis incauta seducitur, sed fidelis nequaquam acquiescit."

"Omens and Prognostications of things," says Bourne, Antiq. Vulg. p. 20, "are still in the mouths of all, though only observed by the vulgar. In country places especially they are in great repute, and are the directors of several actions of life, being looked upon as presages of things future, or the determiners of present good or evil." He specifies several, and derives them with the greatest probability from the heathens, whose observation of these he deduces also from the practice of the Jews, with whom it was a custom to ask signs. He concludes all such observations at present to be sinful and diabolical.

The following lines, which have more truth than poetry in them, are from "Wythers's