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The Drunkards Cloak

The Drunkards Cloak.jpg The Ducking-stoolThumbnailsThe Burning of booksThe Ducking-stoolThumbnailsThe Burning of booksThe Ducking-stoolThumbnailsThe Burning of booksThe Ducking-stoolThumbnailsThe Burning of booksThe Ducking-stoolThumbnailsThe Burning of booksThe Ducking-stoolThumbnailsThe Burning of booksThe Ducking-stoolThumbnailsThe Burning of books

This “barrel-shirt,” which was evidently so frequently used in our Civil War, was known as the Drunkard’s Cloak, and it was largely employed in past centuries on the Continent. Sir William Brereton, in his Travels in Holland, 1634, notes its use in Delft; so does Pepys in the year 1660. Evelyn writes in 1641 that in the Senate House in Delft he saw “a weighty vessel of wood not unlike a butter churn,” which was used to punish women, who were led about the town in it.