"_Branks_" (Vol. ix., p. 336.).--The word _branks_ does occur in Burns, and
signifies "wooden curb," but it is not in that sense it is used by Wodrow.
The _branks_ of the Covenanters was an iron collar and chain firmly fixed
to a tree, or post, or pillar, about three feet from the ground. This was
locked round the neck of the luckless offender, who was thus obliged to
remain in a most inconvenient and painful crouching posture, being neither
able to stand nor lie. Many of these are still to be seen in the
neighbourhood of the residences of old Highland families who, ere Lord
Hardwicke's Jurisdiction Act, exercised the powers of pit and gallows.
There is one at the entrance to Culloden House, near Inverness.