Note 61 — CAVALIER SONGS AND BALLADS. (continued 2)

William Lord Monson, Viscount Castlemaine, was member for Ryegate in the Long Parliament. He was degraded from his honour at the Restoration, and was condemned to be drawn on a sledge with a rope round his neck from the Tower to Tyburn, and back again, and to be imprisoned there for life. It appears, by the satirical tracts of the day, that he was chiefly famous for being beaten by his wife. In one, entitled “Your Servant, Gentlemen,” 4to, 1659, it is asked, “Whether that member who lives nearest the church ought not to ride Skimmington next time my Lady Mounson cudgels her husband?” And in another (“The Rump Despairing,” 4to, London, March 26, 1660) we find the following passage:—“To my Lord Monson. A sceptre is one thing, and a ladle is another, and though his wife can tell how to use one, yet he is not fit to hold the other.”