Sexy thought for the day 2

Today I have been thinking about punishments of times past.  This one is the scold's bridle.  Now in reality these were rather cruel in reality, and hark back to an age when Men ruled the world (dropped the ball there guys didn't you!).  Now given my propensity to let my tongue run away with me I imagine I would have experienced this had I not been born in the 20th Century. 

A scold was defined as: "A troublesome and angry woman who by brawling and wrangling amongst her neighbours breaks the public peace, increases discord and becomes a public nuisance to the neighborhood." It remains unclear why men should not be pulled up on a similar charge. It was up to the judges to pronounce on whether a woman was indeed a scold. Frequently, it was a disgruntled husband bringing his wife to court.  Below are an interesting couple of accounts that really got me going...

In 1858 William Andrews gave a talk before the Architectural, Archaeological and Historic Society of Chester which gave further clues to the use of the scold's bridle.  "In the old-fashioned, half-timbered houses in the borough, there was generally fixed on one side of the large open fireplaces a hook so that when a man's wife indulged her scolding propensities, the husband sent for the town gaoler to bring the bridle and had her bridled and chained to the hook until she promised to behave herself better for the future." This was presumably carried out as a favor to the husband, to spare him the trouble of appearing in court.

Some scold's bridles were horrifically cruel, which I will not describe here, but other simply gagged the mouth and had a bell attached to humiliate the scold as she was forced to wear it in public.  In the streets, the scold would be subjected to the taunting and jeering of the crowds which gathered to witness the spectacle. "In Ipswich the scold was drawn around the town on a cart in the 'gagging' chair or 'tewe,' as it was known."

Now, given this week I have let my tongue get me into trouble more than once during this past week I should perhaps take heed of this post...