Peter Ackroyd Quote
Yet, of course, and more especially, the executioners themselves became notorious. The first known public hangman was one Bull, who was followed by the more celebrated Derrick. And Derrick must be his host, Dekker wrote of a horse-thief in his Bellman of London (1608), and Tiburne the land at which he will light. There was a proverb—If Derrick’s cables do but hold—which referred to an ingenious structure, like a crane, upon which twenty-three condemned could be hanged together. This device was then put in more general use for unloading and hoisting vessels on board ships, and still bears the executioner’s name.
Peter Ackroyd
Yet, of course, and more especially, the executioners themselves became notorious. The first known public hangman was one Bull, who was followed by the more celebrated Derrick. And Derrick must be his host, Dekker wrote of a horse-thief in his Bellman of London (1608), and Tiburne the land at which he will light. There was a proverb—If Derrick’s cables do but hold—which referred to an ingenious structure, like a crane, upon which twenty-three condemned could be hanged together. This device was then put in more general use for unloading and hoisting vessels on board ships, and still bears the executioner’s name.
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About Peter Ackroyd
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984 and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003.