Next up in our annual selection of entries from other blogs we love is this lovely little tale from “Beauty and the birch”, in which nineteen-year old Sally finds herself before the judge:
It is the sentence of this court that you be taken, at a time convenient to the Governors, to the square at St Margaret’s, there to be whipt with birch rods upon your naked breech. Forty lashes! And may God grant you the courage to endure your stripes with patience and humility. Take her away!
There’s a wonderful description of her admission to the gaol, where she waited in vain hope for a reprieve:
The morning of her punishment began like any other at the Bridewell, with the booming of the drum and the pounding of hammers. Sally yawned and brushed aside the straw from her face. Reluctantly she opened her eyes. There, to her instant and overwhelming horror, stood three of the blue-coated beadles, peering down at her where she lay on her palette. “Come with us, missie,” one of the men grunted and took her by the arm, pulling her towards him. “No!!” she cried, but a second pair of hands got hold of her and she was dragged untidily to her feet.
“Stark naked and shivering in front the assembled multitude”, she was tied to the whipping bench, and a detailed account of her flogging follows. Highly recommended!
Great story! I enjoyed following the link and reading the entire thing! It was just the thing to get me all hot and bothered on this already sweltering summer afternoon!
I love to birch a naughty woman on her bare bottom. The music of the twigs descending on her naked derriere, would be most harmonizing, with her painfull outcries.