Having dealt in accurate detail with the classification and identification of rogues, we come next to the chapter on treatment, which is best given in the simple words of the original. "The Punishment is after this manner. The Constable, Headburrough or Tythingman assisted by the Minister and one other of the Parish, is to see (or do it himself), That such Rogues and Vagabonds, etc., be stript Naked from the middle upwards and openly Whipped till their Body be bloody and then forthwith to be sent away from Constable to Constable, the next straight way to the place of their Birth; and if that cannot be known then to the place where they last Dwelt, by the space of one whole Year before the time of such their Punishment; and if that cannot be known then to the Town through which they last passed unpunished." If, however, none of these habitats was discoverable, the vagrom man was sent to the house of correction or common gaol, where he was put to hard labour for twelve months. It is only fair to remember, "that after such Vagabond is whipt as aforesaid he is to have a Testimonial"--is this the origin of people asking for testimonials?--"under the Hand and Seal of the Constable or Tything-man and the Minister testifying the day and place of his Punishment; as also the place to which he is to be conveyed, and the time limited for his own Passage thither: And if by his own default he exceed that time then he is again to be whipt--and so from time to time till he arrive at the place limited." In the good old days of Merrie England the chief entertainment of the villagers must have been to crowd round the stocks and the whipping post on the village green--some of which are existing to this day--just as their city cousins swarmed along the road to Tyburn. And if you had suggested that the players or the fiddlers were a more wholesome amusement for the people than these cruel sights, you would not only have shocked the minister but would have rendered yourself liable to be treated as a vagrom man and to receive a testimonial from the constable. It is easy to-day to see the wrongdoing of much of this, but it was not to be expected that the citizens of the time should see any evil in the everyday cruelties they were used to. The law seems to have been hard on the poor then, but very few worried about it.