ABSTRACT

As will have been gathered from previous chapters, the birch has played its part in “the government of the family” from a very early period. A hundred years ago the Rod was in extensive use among all classes. Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, mentions a story of a small laird, who not only whipped his daughter severely, but turned her out of the house, because she had fallen in love with a tailor. Not very many years ago, a farmer in Wilts ordered his daughter to give up the company of her lover. He discovered one day that she had not obeyed his commands, and he forthwith gave her a horsewhipping, whereupon she went to her room and committed suicide.