MUZZLES FOR LADIES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2661, 26 May 1908, Page 7

MUZZLES FOR LADIES.

We are hearing a great deal nowadays about the emancipation of women and the equality of the sexes, but we have travelled a long way since the "good old times" when scolding women were muzzled and led about the streets ! The muzzle used was known as the blank, scold's bridle, or gossip's bridle, and was a most cruel instrument of torture. A writer in the "Strand Magazine " states that it was never a legalised instrument of punishment, but nevertheless, it was highly popular with local magnates, and was one of the means bv which the petty tyrants of provincial towns held the humbler folk in subjection. It was in general use from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, as is shown by tho many allusions to it in Corporation and municipal records. There are also specimens preserved in various museums. In the county of Cheshire there are no less than sixteen examples, Lancashire aod Staffordshire each contain five or six, while in Derbyshire there is but oik-. The brank consisted of a kind of crown made of iron, which was locked upon the head of the offender. It was armed in front with a gag plate or point of the same metal, which was fitted in such a manner as to be inserted iir the scold's mouth so as to prevent her moving her tongue. A chain fastened on the left side was used to lead the poor woman- about the streets or to fasten her to a post or wall. It bears the mark "T.C." and the date 1683.