Punishments of Former Days - Softcover

Pettifer, Ernest William

9781872870052: Punishments of Former Days

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1872870058 ISBN 13: 9781872870052

Publisher: Waterside Press, 1992

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Since this book was first published in the 1950s the description it contains of the history of crime and punishment in Britain over the previous 200 years or so has attracted interest across a wide spectrum. The work was reprinted in 1992 by Waterside Press having been out of print for decades. The contents cover a wide range of historic punishments from outlawry to the ducking stool, the pillory, stocks and whirligig to the branding iron and scold's bridle.From mutilation and torture to sanctuary and the emergence of private and then public prisons this is an essential addition to any criminal justice collection, imbued as it is by the comments of the author from the perspective of his own era, which provides for fascination in itself. Printed in the original style and format, together with a large number of the original illustrations. Quite absorbing, the book transports the reader to a time when punishment was often brutal, unrestrained and unregulated by standards, fairness or consistency. It also looks at the sometimes strange logic that was applied by judges, justices of the peace and those charged with carrying out the task.

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Review

'A good read'The Magistrate

About the Author

Ernest Pettifer was for many years the Justices' Clerk for Doncaster, Yorkshire in a bygone era: who (by way of an aside) recalled meeting his contemporary the Hay on Wye poisoner and solicitor Herbert Rowse Armstrong at a meeting of the Justices' Clerks' Society!* He also wrote several other books that are collectors' items when they occasionally turn up at sales, auctions or on the dusty shelves of some law libraries and solicitors' offices. Punishments of Former Days was only the fourth book to be published by Waterside Press and has been in print and in demand ever since.

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