- Ceffyl Pren
The Ceffyl Pren ("wooden horse") was a traditional Welsh form of
mob justice . It was a form of ritualhumiliation in which offenders would be paraded around the village tied to a wooden frame. The custom was similar to practices known in England as "rough music" or in Scotland as "riding the stang". It seems to have persisted until the mid 19th century. In later times, an effigy was sometimes burned instead."Adulterers, harsh landlords, the fathers of bastard children who hid behind the hated provisions of the 19th century Poor Law making the mother entirely responsible for her own predicament, all faced the frightening, embarrassing (and not infrequently painful) effects of these riotous affairs " ["And they blessed Rebecca" or "An account of the Welsh Toll-gate Riots 1839-1844", Pat Molloy ISBN 0-86383-031-5] .
References
External links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/local_history/pages/horse.shtml - Judith Lloyd of Llanteg Historical Society writes about the 'Wooden Horse'
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
