THE LAST ENGLISH DECAPITATION
The last occasion of decapitation for high treason in England waa, I fancy, that of Thistlewood and hie four companions for the Cato street conspiracy. I take the following from Thorubury's "Old Stories Retold." "Exactly a quarter of an hour after the last man was hung, the order was given to cut the bodies down. The heads were then haggled off with brutal clumsiness with a surgeon's knife. The mob expressed loudly their horror and disgust, more especially when the turnkey who exhibited the heads dropped that of Brunt. ' Hallo, butter-fingers 1' shouted a roueh voice from the rolling crowd below. The day hud gone by for such useless brutality." This horrible scene was enacted on May Ist, 1820.— Notes an* Queries.
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Press, Volume LII, Issue 9132, 17 June 1895, Page 2
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126THE LAST ENGLISH DECAPITATION Press, Volume LII, Issue 9132, 17 June 1895, Page 2
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