BRANK, or BRANKS, an instrument formerly used for the punishment of scolds in England and Scotland, and often in the former country called " the scold's bridle." It seems to have come in place of the ducking-stool or cocking-stool (q.v.). "I look upon it," says Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, published in 1686, "as much to be preferred to the cocking-stool, which not only endangers the health of the party, hut also gives the tongue liberty betwixt every dip: to neither of which is this at all lia ble; it being such a bridle for the tongue as not only quite depraves them of speech, but brings shame to the transgression, and humility thereupon, before it is taken off." The B., in its simplest form, is a hoop of iron, opening by hinges at the sides, so as to inclose the head, and fastened by a staple with a padlock at the back: a plate within the front of the hoop projecting inwards, so as to fit into the mouth of the culprit, and by pressing upon the tongue, be an effectual gag. There must have been difficulty in keeping such a hoop in its place; and so it received the addition of a curved baud of iron, having a triangular opening for the nose, passing over the forehead, and so clasping the crown of the head that escape from it was scarcely possible. This may be regarded as the second form of the brauk. In the third form, the curved band was hinged in the middle, and, passing over the whole head, was locked into the staple at the back of the hoop. The next addition seems to have been a second band crossing the first at right angles. so as to clasp the sides of the head, and keep the a still more thinly in its place. In its last most complicated shape, the B., by the multiplication of its hoops and bands, took the form of a conical cage or lantern, with a door behind opening by a hinge and fastened by a staple, the front being fashioned into a rude mask, with holes for mouth, nose, and eyes. In one instance, the mask quite covers the face, the iron plate being hammered out to fit the nose, with apertures for the nostrils and the eyes, a long hollow conical peak, perforated with holes, being affixed before the mouth. The way in which the punishment of the B. was inflicted, may be described in the words of an eye-witness, reported by a country gentleman of Northumberland, Ralph Gardiner of Chilton, in a work, called England's Grievance Discovered in Relation to the Coal Trade, published in 1055, and dedicated to Cromwell: "John Willis of Ipswich, upon his oath, said that he was in Newcastle six months ago, and there he saw one Anne Bidlestone drove through the streets by an oflicer of the same corporation holding a rope in his hand, the other end fastened to an engine called the branks, which is like a crown, it being of iron, which was muzzled over the head and face, with a great gap or tongue of iron forced into her mouth, which forced the blood out; and that is the punishment which the magistrates do inflict upon chiding and scolding women, and that he hath often seen the like done to others." When the B. first came into use is unknown. It is found at Edinburgh iu
1567, at Glasgow in 1574, at Stirling in 1600, and at Macclesfield, in Cheshire, in 1623. One B. in the church of Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey, has the date of 1633. In another, called "the witches' bridle of Forfar," dated in 1661, the gag for the mouth is not a flat plate, but a long piece of iron with three sharp spikes. Of two examples in private cus tody in England, one has the date of 1688, the other the crowned cipher of king William III. The B. was used at Langhohn, in Dumfriesshire, in 1772; it was used still more recently at Manchester and at Macclesfield; and in the Archaologieal Journal for 1836, it is stated that "at Bolton-le-Moors, in Lancashire, the iron bridle was still in use, not many years since, for the correction of immorality: it was fixed in the female's mouth. and tied at the back of the head with ribands, and thus attired, the offender was paraded from the cross to the church steps, and back again." Examples of the B. may he seen in the Ashmolean museum at Oxford, in the National museum of the antiquaries of Scotland at Edinburgh, in the county hall at Forfar, in the Guildhall at Litchfield, in the town ball at Macclesfield, in the parish church of Walton in Surrey, and in St. Mary's church at St. Andrews in Fife.—Brank was at one time a common name in Scotland for any sort of bridle. The word is supposed to be derived from the Teutonic pranghe, a bridle. In the Dutch Netherlands, the pillory was called pranghe, from the yoke or collar in which the neck of the culprit is held. An instrument resembling the B. in its simplest form is said to have been in usa among the Spaniards in the West Indies for the punishment of refractory slaves. See JOUGS.