Her feet were securely tied to the top of the
pole to prevent them from being hurt when passing through the town, and
to hinder her from using them to keep her head above the water. The poet
describes the "engine called a ducking-stool" as the "joy and terror of
the town," but the "joy" could only have been that of the men, women,
and children who could be spared to see the show, and knew the woman's
scolding propensities. If she continued scolding after the first "duck,"
down she went again, and again, until, as we imagined, half filled with
water, she was unable to scold further, and so the water triumphed in
the end:
No brawling wives, no furious wenches
No fire so hot, but water quenches.
The tower of St. Mary's Church was built on four lofty arches, one of
which formed the entrance to the church while the other three formed
entrances to the street, the footpath passing through two of them.
[Illustration: LORD LEICESTER'S HOSPITAL AND GATE.]
We passed alongside the ancient and picturesque half-timbered building
known as Lord Leicester's Hospital, which was one of the few buildings
in the town that escaped the fire in 1694. It had been built by Robert
Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth and of
Kenilworth fame, to accommodate twelve poor men or brethren besides the
master, who, according to Dugdale the famous antiquary, "were to be
clothed in blew cloth, with a ragged staff embroydered on the left
sleeve," and not to go into the town without them.
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