Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1910 — ON THE WAY TO TYBURN TREE [ARTICLE]

ON THE WAY TO TYBURN TREE

Lord Ferrers’ Tragic Journey to Full! on ■ Old Gallows. Park lane was Tyburn lane, and it seems as if the gallows—described in an old document as movable —at one time stood at its east corner. It was there the ferocious Lord Ferrers was hanged in 1760. for murdering his servant. ' Horace Walpole’s words paint the picture well: “He shamed heroes. He bore the solemnity of a pdmpous and tedious procession of above, two hours from the tower to Tyburn with as much tranquillity as if he were only going to his own burial, not to his own execution.” , And when one of the dragoons of the procession was thrown from his horse Lord Ferrers expressed much' concern, and said: “I hope there will be no death to-day but mine.” ' —. — • -= —-• j—Oh went the procession, with a mob about it sufficient to make its progress slow and laborious. Small wonder that t the age of Thackeray, with Thackeray’s help, set up its scaffolds within four high walls. Asking for drink, Lord Ferrers was refused, for, said the sheriff, late regulations enjointed him not to let prisoners drink while passing from the place of imprisonment to that of execution, great indecencies having been committed by the drunkenness of the criminals in the hour of execution. “And though,” said he, according to the Sketch, "my lord, I might think myself excusable in overlooking this order out of regard for your lordship’s rank, yet there is another reason, which, I am sure, will weigh with you—ryour lordship is sensible to the greatness of the crowd; we must draw up at some tavern; the confluence would be so great that it would delay the expedition, which your lordship seems so much to desire.” But decency—so often paraded by those who outrage it—ended with the murderer’s death. “The executioners fought for the rope, and the one who lost it cried — the greatest tragedy, to his thinking, of the day!”