Hong Kong.
_The Cucking-stool, when last used._--Can any of the correspondents of "N.
& Q." inform me of the latest period at which this instrument of punishment
for scolds is recorded to have been used {261} in England? The most recent
instance mentioned by Brand was at Kingston-upon-Thames, in 1745. In
Leicester, however (and probably elsewhere), the practice continued to a
much later period, as appears by the following entry in our municipal
accounts for the year 1768-69:
"Paid Mr. Elliott for a cuckstool by order of Hall, 2l."
I have been informed by an octogenarian inhabitant of this town, that he
recollects, when a boy, seeing the cucking-stool placed, as a mark of
disgrace, against the residence of a notorious scold; and the fact of this
use of it here at so comparatively recent a period has been confirmed by
another aged person, so that this practice probably obtained for some years
after the punishment by immersion, or exposure upon the cucking-stool, had
fallen into desuetude.
Did a similar use of the instrument prevail in other places about the same
period?
I may mention that an ancient cucking-stool is still preserved in our
town-hall.