SALE OF TORTURE RELICS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3135, 18 September 1922, Page 2

SALE OF TORTURE RELICS.

What moans and what groans, .ighings and cryings were recalled by con "lots" which were put up for sale in Loudon lately. beginning with an iron "hrauk," or scold's bridle, which went for CM, and including an iron gauntlet, secured at die wrist with padlock, and fastened on an iron hot-plate (£8), the little collection included implements of torture which would have set Harrison Ainsworth up in enough horrors for another book or two. These nasty little contrivances of steel and iron were origin" 1 in the Tower of London. .After the fire in tliey were acquired by an official of the Armoury, in whose family they have remained ever since. The particular form of scold's bridle which was disposed of resembled a horse's bridle, but Mas cut roughly to the form of a human head, and was made from uncompromising iron. There was also a prisoner's spiked collar of iron (€6). an iron flail, with six short chains at the end (£8), a pair of leg-irons with, padlocks, known as "Rilboes" (£3 10s), a vicious-looking little instrument ingeniously catalogued as a nostril distender (£4). and an instrument (use unknown), but certain to have been employed for some unpleasant purpose. All these things were bought by the same buyer, and will find decent burial in a private collection.