Birching, 1526
Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulder. A birch rod is a bundle of leafless twigs bound together to form an implement for administering corporal punishment. In some prisons and reformatories a wooden apparatus known as birching donkey or birching pony was specially constructed for birchings. As there were no detailed rules, prisons and police stations devised, adapted and used many different contraptions under various names that juvenile and adult offenders were bent over for punishment; some models also allowed a standing or leaning position for other implements. A simple alternative position known from school discipline is horsing, where the person to be punished is held by the arms over the back of another person, or on the shoulders of two or more colleagues. However, at Eton College and schools of similar standing, the recipient was made to kneel on a special wooden block
