Ducking-Stool

“An apparatus at one time in use in Britain for the punishment of wives. The ducking-stool grew out of the cucking-stool, which was not, as many have supposed, a mere difference of name for the same thing. The cucking-stool of itself did not admit of the ducking of its occupants. It was a simple chair in which the offender was placed, usually before her or his (for the cucking-stool was not so specially for women as the ducking-stool) own door, to be pelted and insulted by the mob.” — Chambers’ Encyclopedia, 1875

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