“It would seem that almost every English town of any importance had its ducking-stool for scolds. In 1741 old Rugby paid 2s 4d for a chair for the ducking stool. The parish of Southam, in Warwickshire, got a beautiful stool built in 1713 at an expense of £2. 12s 4d. Ancient Coventry had two stools.”

The most noteworthy of all the instruments designed for the correction of Eve’s offending daughters was the ducking-stool, known as the tumbrel and the trebuchet. A post, across which was a transverse beam turning on a swivel and with a chair at one end, was set up on the edge of a pond. Into the chair the woman was chained, turned toward the water--a muddy or filthy pond was usually chosen for this purpose when available--and ducked half a dozen times; or, the water inflamed her instead of acting as a damper, she was let down times innumerable, until she was exhausted and well nigh drowned.

From the frequency with which we find it mentioned in old local and county histories, in church wardens’ and chamberlains’ accounts. and by the poets, we shall probably not be wrong in concluding that at one time this institution was kept up all over the country.--London Graphic.”