Oxford.
[Fosbroke says that "the brank is a sugar-loaf cap made of iron
hooping, with a cross at top, and a flat piece projecting inwards to
lie upon the tongue. It was put upon the head of scolds, padlocked
behind, and a string annexed, by which a man led them through the
towns." (See also Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii. p. 108.,
Bohn's edition.) Engravings of them will be found in Plot's _History of
Staffordshire_, p. 389., and in Brands _History of Newcastle_, vol. ii.
p. 192. In the _Historical Description of the Tower of London_, p. 54.,
edit. 1774, occurs the following libellous squib on the fair sex:
"Among the curiosities of the Tower is a collar of torment, which, say
your conductors, used formerly to be put about the women's neck that
cuckolded their husbands, or scolded them when they came home late; but
that custom is left off now-a-days, to prevent quarrelling for collars,
there not being smiths enough to make them, as most married men are
sure to want them at one time or another." Waldron, in his _Description
of the Isle of Man_, p. 80., thus notices this instrument of
punishment: "I know nothing in the Manx statutes or punishments in
particular but this, which is, that if any person be convicted of
uttering a scandalous report, and cannot make good the assertion,
instead of being fined or imprisoned, they are sentenced to stand in
the market-place, on a sort of scaffold erected for that purpose, with
their tongue in a noose made of leather, which they call a _bridle_,
and having been exposed to the view of the people for some time, on the
taking off this machine, they are obliged to say three times, 'Tongue,
thou hast lyed.'"]
_Not caring a Fig for anything._--What is the origin of this expression?