There were always on these occasions a sufficiently large number to help one another in countenance and encourage the more debased, to “help up the game”, there was never any want of low lived men and women, boys and girls, thieves and miscreants of every description, and to increased the misery of the wretch put up for their amusement, and to enjoy themselves in the exercise of their villainous propensities. A human being was stuck up to be “shied at”, and the blackguard John Bull would “have his shy”. The time for standing, or rather walking round, on and in the Pillory, was one hour usually, from 12 to 1 O Clock at noon, the common dining hour of all sorts of persons who earn their livings by the labour of their hands, and consequently the time when the streets were crowded by such people.įormerly every one who was put in the pillory was pelted, the populace would not forgo the “fun”.
Even the very populace better taught and more humane than their parents will hear with incredulity the tales which may perchance be told of the pillory. So atrocious was the conduct of the mob when a man was “pilloried”, so debased and cruel were they, that those who are now children, will scarcely be able, when grown up, to conceive the existence of such enormities, much less to believe they were permitted and encouraged by lawyers, juries and what are usually termed respectable people. This barbarous punishment, this disgrace to the laws to the nation, may be said to exist no longer.