Birching of daughters and domestic staff in the old days!

In Victorian times, and right up until the 1930's, the birching of recalcitrant daughters and young, female domestic staff, was not uncommon in well-to-do families.

It was either meted out by the matriarch; the governess; the male head of the household or a male senior staff member.

The girl would typically be restrained or held down astride a punishment bench, with her skirts raised or removed... stripped lower down to her undergarments, which would be knee-length pantalettes.

It was also common practice to tighten these old-fashioned knickers, so as to present a target that both increased the sense of shame of the miscreant, but also the sting of the birch itself.

Sometimes these knickers would also be dampened by a sponge or flannel... once again to heighten the sense of humiliation, but also to prevent the skin from breaking.

This last practice was exported to various colonies, and became known as 'Colonial caning', where it would equally well be applied to boys, teens and young adults.

Sometimes, these rituals could be quite formalised in front of several witnesses, which might include other family members, and local or church dignitaries.

Teenagers might receive 6 strikes, and young adults 12 or more.

Occasionally an individual might be chosen as a 'whipping boy or girl'... that is one specially chosen to take the punishment instead of the misbehaving child of the household. This practice could have been open to misuse, whereby the head of the household or governess might have their 'favourites' whom they wished to see punished for unsavoury gratification.

There are several accounts which imply that the prettier girls were more likely to be singled out for this ritual.

Boys of the time tended to be caned across the bare bottom in such instances, whereas the birch across a girl's knee-length knickers was considered a softer, more modest option.

Another perverse peculiarity was the hiring of pretty young maidens expressly for the birching, in gentlemen's clubs, smoking-rooms or drawing-rooms. The girls would be taken in off the street, fed, birched and then sent on their way with some sovereigns to feed their poor families. In that was it was itself an illicit profession which the police turned a blind eye to (perhaps because high-ranking judiciary were often present).

There are even accounts of punishment pants being provided for such occasions, and of certain judges or magistrates choosing the pants to fit the unfortunate girl 'to his liking' (as in tight enough to present a pleasing spectacle to the gathering).

There is an account of one such girl, Eliza, being adopted by a certain well-to-do gentleman after such a birching, whereupon she was well provided-for, but punished as to his whim, lending the story a kind of perverse romanticism akin to the story of Abelard & Heloise, whereby Abelard becomes Heloise's tutor encouraged to 'whip her if she transgresses' by the girl's father, which Abelard does... only to fall in love with the girl and try to abscond. The story doesn't end well!