MAIDEN, in ancient English customs, an instrument for beheading criminals. Of the use and form of this instrument Mr. Pennant gives the following account: "It seems to have been confuted to the limits of the forest of Hardwick, or the eighteen towns and hamlets within its precincts. The time when this custom took place is unknown ; whether Earl Warren, lord of this forest, might have established it among the sanguinary laws then in use against the invaders of the hunting rights, or whether it might not take place after the woollen manufactu rers at Halifax began to gain strength, is uncertain. The last is very probable ; for the wild country around the town was inhabited by a lawless set, whose de predations on the cloth-tent ers might soon stifle the efforts of infant industry. For the protection of trade, and for the greater terror of offenders by speedy ex ecution, this custom seems to have been established, so as at last to receive the force of law, which was, ' That if a felon be taken within the liberty of the forest of Hardwick, with goods stolen out, or within the said precincts, either hand habend, back-berand, or confession'd, to the value of thirteen pence half-penny, he shall, after three market days, or meeting days, within the town of Halifax, next after such his apprehension, and being condemned, be taken to the gib bet, and there have his head cut from his body.' The offender had always a fair trial : for as soon as lie was taken, lie was• brought to the lord's bailiff at Halifax : he was then exposed on the three mar kets (which here were held thrice in a week), placed in the stocks, with the goods stolen on his back, or, if the theft was of the cattle kind, they were placed by him ; and this was done both to strike terror into others, and to produce new informations against him. The bailiff then summoned four freeholders of each town within the forest to form a jury. The felon and prosecutors were brought face to face ; and the goods, the cow or horse, or whatsoever was stolen, produced.
If he was found guilty he was remanded to prison, had a week's time allowed for preparation, and then was conveyed to this spot, where his head was struck off by this machine. I should have premised, than if the criminal, either after apprehen sion, or in the way to execution, should escape out of the limits of the forest (part • being close to the town,), the bailiff had no further power over him ; but if he should be caught within the precincts at any time after, he was immediately exe cuted on his former sentence..
"This privilege was very freely used during the reign of Elizabeth : the re cords before that time were lost. Twen ty-five suffered in her reign, and at least twelve from 1623 to 1650 ; after which, I believe, the privilege was no more ex erted.
" This machine of death is now destroy ed; but I saw one of the same kind in a room under the parliament house at Edinburgh, where it was introduced by the regent Morton, who took a model of it as lie passed through Halifax, and at length suffered by it himself. It is in form of a painter's easel, and about ten feet high : at four feet from the bottom is a cross bar, on which the felon lays his head, which is kept down by another placed above. In the inner edges of the frame are grooves ; in these is placed a sharp axe, with a vast weight of lead, sup ported at the very summit with a peg : to that peg is fastened a cord, which the executioner cutting, the axe falls, and does the affair effectually, without suffer ing the unhappy criminal to undergo a repetition of strokes, as has been the case in the common method. I must add, that if the sufferer is condemned for stealing a horse or a cow, the string is tied to the beast, which, on being whipped, pulls out the peg, and becomes the executioner." This apparatus is now in possession of the Scottish Antiquarian Society.