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The Famous Stocking Case. A woman and her daughter, nine years old, were hanged in Huntingdon for selling their souls to the devil, and raising a storm by pulling off their stockings!- Ibid., p. 20. *(14) Leigh Hunt’s The Town, p. 408, quotation from an early tourist. *(15) From ‘The English Rogue’: London, 1665. *(16) Canting terms for various kinds of thieves, beggars and vagabonds, and their female companions. *(17) Enslaving. So young a king, and so ignorant a peasant were likely to make mistakes-and this is an instance in point. This peasant was suffering from this law by anticipation; the king was venting his indignation against a law which was not yet in existence: for this hideous statute was to have birth in this little king’s own reign. However, we know, from the humanity of his character, that it could never have been suggested by him. *(18) From ‘The English Rogue’: London, 1665. *(19) Death for Trifling Larcenies. When Connecticut and New Haven were framing their first codes, larceny above the value of twelve pence was a capital crime in England, as it had been since the time of Henry I.- Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull’s ‘Blue Laws, True and False.’ p. 17. The curious old book called The English Rogue makes the limit thirteen pence ha’penny; death being the portion of any who steal a thing ‘above the value of thirteen pence ha’penny.’ *(20) From many descriptions of larceny, the law expressly took away the benefit of clergy; to steal a horse, or a hawk, or woolen cloth from the weaver, was a hanging matter. So it was to kill a deer from the king’s forest, or to export sheep from the Kingdom.- Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull’s ‘Blue Laws, True and False,’ p. 13. William Prynne, a learned barrister, was sentenced-(long after Edward the Sixth’s time)- to lose both his ears in the pillory; to degradation from the bar; a fine of L3,000, and imprisonment for life. Three years afterward, he gave new offense to Laud, by publishing a pamphlet against the hierarchy. He was again prosecuted, and was sentenced to lose what remained of his ears; to pay a fine of L5,000; to be branded on both his cheeks with the letters S. L. (for Seditious Libeler), and to remain in prison for life. The severity of this sentence was equaled by the savage rigor of its execution.- Ibid., p. 12. *(21) Hume’s England. *(22) Christ’s Hospital or Blue Coat Scbool, ‘the Noblest Institution in the World.’ The ground on which the Priory of the Grey Friars stood was conferred by |
