| 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 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.
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.
* Armstrong was executed at Gloucester Prison in 1922 | 
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