its white and
weeping burden, towards the Westgate, and papa made haste to
follow.
Once again we
followed as the horse was driven, at a smart trot now, along the
mired and cobbled street, the naked woman receiving a fresh coating
of ordure from the evidence of horse and cattle in the street,
while the bouncing of her bare and beaten flesh on the rough woven
sticks of the hurdle must have caused her excruciating torment.
The small
procession of the horse with its postillion, ourselves, and several
other conveyances, including one containing several of the
vindictive ladies of fashion we had previously observed, revelling
in the widow's sufferings, proceeded for over a mile until we
reached Buttock Cross, where a weathered pillar bearing the faint
remains of a carved cross, marked the boundary in the midst of a
barren moor.
The woman was
cut free of her painful carriage, but at first could scare stand,
so weakened and exhausted was she. The harpies who had followed her
so far, called her harlot and bid her be gone, and, when she seemed
not to hear them, called on the postillion who had drawn her to the
place of parting to send her on her way, which he did, uncoiling
the long thin whip he carried and lashing the poor naked form until
she set off down the road, away from her home and erstwhile
friends, stumbling and limping, her hands clasped round her
breasts, her shoulders heaving with her sobs.
The party
watched her until she disappeared in a dip in the road, then turned
and went their different ways.
One cannot but
feel some compassion for the lady, for had she not worked
unselfishly to ease the throbbing excesses of poisonous matter
generated in several worthy men of the district? But we did not
know that at the time. In any case, had she not displayed blatant
indecency, and in a place of worship, as well as the public
thoroughfare. Several witnesses at the trial, including many of the
ladies most vociferous in their condemnation of her at her
flogging, had testified how, passing her kneeling in her pew, they
had looked down and seen her rosy nipples peeping through the lace
of her bodice, and had had to interpose themselves so that their
husbands or sons might not be offended by the sight. And others
claimed to have seen the whole of a kid leather boot, replete with
a dozen brass buttons, which her shortened skirts revealed as she
descended the steps outside, after service. Such indelicacy is not
to be borne in any well regulated community, and no doubt I am at
fault in sympathising with the woman at all.
In any event,
she left the district, and it was from that time that our regime
became more 'tight' and our discipline more rigid.
The new
drawers, that had been the pretext for our visit to Sexton Hinds
the day the widow was whipped through the streets, had little use,
for our fetters were ordered only a fortnight later, and the
delicate undergarments were soon languishing in our lingerie boxes,
being incompatible with our now permanent fettered condition.
Not long
after, as I have related, we were given the privilege of offering
that service, that the too indiscreet widow had heretofore provided
for Dr Boucher and Justice Rodsham.
In point of
fact, the lady's defection worked to our advantage, for did we not
now enjoy the inestimable boon of being guarded, guided and
corrected by representatives of the church, medicine and the law?
Until the advent of that worthy triumvirate, we had depended wholly
on papa for our spiritual and mental health, and the discipline he
deemed so essential, especially for the latter. His discipline
invariably took the form of a greater or lesser application of the
rod, but in future there were to be additions to the armoury of
those who fought so valiantly to save us from the dragons of sin,
lust and unwomanly forwardness.
This is not to
say that papa's reliance on the rod had been ineffectual. Indeed,
it had done much to keep us all in check. It was an experience that
always gave us
weeping burden, towards the Westgate, and papa made haste to
follow.
Once again we
followed as the horse was driven, at a smart trot now, along the
mired and cobbled street, the naked woman receiving a fresh coating
of ordure from the evidence of horse and cattle in the street,
while the bouncing of her bare and beaten flesh on the rough woven
sticks of the hurdle must have caused her excruciating torment.
The small
procession of the horse with its postillion, ourselves, and several
other conveyances, including one containing several of the
vindictive ladies of fashion we had previously observed, revelling
in the widow's sufferings, proceeded for over a mile until we
reached Buttock Cross, where a weathered pillar bearing the faint
remains of a carved cross, marked the boundary in the midst of a
barren moor.
The woman was
cut free of her painful carriage, but at first could scare stand,
so weakened and exhausted was she. The harpies who had followed her
so far, called her harlot and bid her be gone, and, when she seemed
not to hear them, called on the postillion who had drawn her to the
place of parting to send her on her way, which he did, uncoiling
the long thin whip he carried and lashing the poor naked form until
she set off down the road, away from her home and erstwhile
friends, stumbling and limping, her hands clasped round her
breasts, her shoulders heaving with her sobs.
The party
watched her until she disappeared in a dip in the road, then turned
and went their different ways.
One cannot but
feel some compassion for the lady, for had she not worked
unselfishly to ease the throbbing excesses of poisonous matter
generated in several worthy men of the district? But we did not
know that at the time. In any case, had she not displayed blatant
indecency, and in a place of worship, as well as the public
thoroughfare. Several witnesses at the trial, including many of the
ladies most vociferous in their condemnation of her at her
flogging, had testified how, passing her kneeling in her pew, they
had looked down and seen her rosy nipples peeping through the lace
of her bodice, and had had to interpose themselves so that their
husbands or sons might not be offended by the sight. And others
claimed to have seen the whole of a kid leather boot, replete with
a dozen brass buttons, which her shortened skirts revealed as she
descended the steps outside, after service. Such indelicacy is not
to be borne in any well regulated community, and no doubt I am at
fault in sympathising with the woman at all.
In any event,
she left the district, and it was from that time that our regime
became more 'tight' and our discipline more rigid.
The new
drawers, that had been the pretext for our visit to Sexton Hinds
the day the widow was whipped through the streets, had little use,
for our fetters were ordered only a fortnight later, and the
delicate undergarments were soon languishing in our lingerie boxes,
being incompatible with our now permanent fettered condition.
Not long
after, as I have related, we were given the privilege of offering
that service, that the too indiscreet widow had heretofore provided
for Dr Boucher and Justice Rodsham.
In point of
fact, the lady's defection worked to our advantage, for did we not
now enjoy the inestimable boon of being guarded, guided and
corrected by representatives of the church, medicine and the law?
Until the advent of that worthy triumvirate, we had depended wholly
on papa for our spiritual and mental health, and the discipline he
deemed so essential, especially for the latter. His discipline
invariably took the form of a greater or lesser application of the
rod, but in future there were to be additions to the armoury of
those who fought so valiantly to save us from the dragons of sin,
lust and unwomanly forwardness.
This is not to
say that papa's reliance on the rod had been ineffectual. Indeed,
it had done much to keep us all in check. It was an experience that
always gave us
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