one hundred and twenty years ago. "Observed," he writes, "on a pillar of the door of Calder church a joug, i.e., an iron yoke or ring, fastened to a chain; which was in former times put round the necks of delinquents against the rules of the Church, who were left there exposed to shame during the time of divine service, and was also
Drawbridge: Cawdor Castle.
used as a punishment for defamation, small thefts, &c., but these penalties are now happily abolished."[1] From such penance as this there was perhaps an escape for those who were well-to-do. From Hudibras we learn that the Presbyterian saints could "sentence to stools or poundage of repentance," which passage is explained by the commentator as "doing penance in the Scotch way, upon the stool of repentance, or commuting the penance for a sum of money."[2]
