GALLOWAY

This article appears in Volume V11, Page 422 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: GAG-GEO

GALLOWAY , a

district

DISTRICT

in the south-west of Scotland, comprising the counties of Kirkcudbright and Wigtown. It was the Novantia of the Romans, and till the end of the 12th century included Carrick, now the southern division of Ayrshire. Though the designation has not been adopted civilly, its use historically and locally has been long established. Thus the Bruces were lords of Galloway, and the title of

earl

EARL

of Galloway (created 1623) is now held by a branch of the Stewarts. Galloway also gives its name to a famous indigenous breed of black hornless cattle. See KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE and WIGTOWNSHIRE.
GALLOWS' (a common Teutonic wordcf. Goth. galga, O. H. Ger. galgo, Mod. Ger. Galgen, A.S. galzan, &c.--of uncertain
i The word " gallows " is the plural of a word (galwe, galowe, gallow) which, according to the New English Dictionary, was occasionally used as

late

LATE

as the 17th century, though from the 13th century on-wards the plural form was more usual. Caxton speaks both of " a gallows," and, in the older form, of " a pair of gallows," this referring
Probably to the two upright posts. From the 16th century onwards gallows " has been consistently treated as a singular form, a new plural, " gallowses," having come into use. " The latter, thoughorigin), the apparatus for executing the sentence- of death by hanging. It usually consists of two upright posts and a cross-beam, but sometimes of a single upright with a beam projecting from the top. The Roman gallows was the cross, and in the older translations of the Bible " gallows " was used for the cross on which Christ suffered (so galga in Ulfilas's

Gothic

GOTHIC

Testament).' Another form of gallows in the middle ages was that of which the famous example at Montfaucon near Paris was the type. This was a square structure formed of columns of masonry connected in each tier with cross-pieces of

wood

, and with pits beneath, into which the bodies fell after disarticulation by exposure to the weather.
According to actual usage the condemned man stands on a platform or drop (introduced in England in 176o), the rope hangs from the cross-beam, and the noose at its end is placed round his neck. He is hanged by the falling of the drop, the knot in the noose being so adjusted that the spinal cord is broken by the fall and death instantaneous. In old times the process was far less merciful; sometimes the condemned man stood in a cart, which was

drawn

DRAWN

away from under him; sometimes he had to

mount

MOUNT, WILLIAM SIDNEY (1807-1868)

a ladder, from which he was thrust by the hangman. Until 1832 malefactors in England were sometimes hanged by being

drawn

DRAWN

up from the platform by a heavy weight at the other end of the rope. Death in these cases was by strangulation. At the present time executions in the United Kingdom are private, the gallows being erected in a chamber or enclosed space set apart for the purpose inside the

gaol

GAOL, or JAIL

.
The word " gibbet," the Fr. gibet, gallows, which appears in the first instance to have meant a crooked stick,' was originally used in English synonymously with gallows, as it sometimes still is. Its later and more

special

SPECIAL

application, however, was to the upright posts with a projecting arm on which the bodies of criminals were suspended after their execution. These gibbets were erected in conspicuous spots, on the tops of hills (Gallows Hill is still a common name) or near frequented roads. The bodies, smeared with pitch to prevent too rapid decomposition, hung in chains as a warning to evildoers. From the gruesome custom comes the common use of the word " to gibbet " for any holding up to public infamy or contempt.

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