Note 3 — THE LIFE AND CONVERSATIONS OF ROBERT EMMET, ESQ.

It is said that the North Cork Regiment were the inventors—but they certainly were the intruders of pitchcap torture into the county of Wexford. Any person having their hair cut short, (and therefore called a Croppy, by which appellation the soldiery designated a United Irishman) on being pointed out by some loyal neighbour, was immediately seized and brought into a guard-house, where caps either of coarse linen, or strong brown paper, besmeared inside with pitch, were kept always ready for service. The unfortunate victim had one of these, well heated, compressed on his head: and when judged of a proper degree of coolness, so that it could not easily be pulled off, the sufferer was turned out amidst the horrid acclamations of the merciless torturers, and to the view of vast numbers of people, who generally crowded to the guard-house door, attracted by the afflicting cries of the tormented.