CIVIC LIFE 85

half-round holes in each board, so that when the
boards were touching and in the same vertical plane,
the ankles were completely surrounded by wood.

To its political importance York owed the ghastly
exhibition of heads and odd quarters of traitors
and others who had gained punishment of national
importance, which usua% consisted of " hanging,
drawing and quartering/' when the quarters and
the head were sent to London and the principal
towns of the kingdom to be exhibited on gateways,
towers, and bridges. This practice served to provide
the public with convincing proof that a traitor was
actually dead, and was very necessary in an age
when Rumour, " stuffing the ears of men with false
reports " held sway over " the blunt monster with
uncounted heads, the still discordant wavering
multitude/7 Micklegate Bar was so used* In
Shakespeare's Henry VI. Queen Margaret makes,
with reference to the Duke of York, this bitter
play of words :—

" Ofi with, his head and set it on York gates;
So York may overlook the town of York."

One very interesting practice in connection with
the mediaeval system of law and policing was the
use of the right of sanctuary. The monasteries,
the Minster, and all churches had this right of
giving a sacrosanct safety to criminals and others
flying from their pursuers, whether officers of the
law or the general mob, whose right, be it noted,
it was to join in the chase after offenders (the fl hue
and cry ") and help to arrest them. Provided the
pursued reached the prescribed area, which in some
cases, as at the nationally famous sanctuary of St.
John of Beverley, prevailed for some distance from
the church itself, he was safe from his pursuers.
Hexham Abbey and Beverley Minster still exhibit