It will demonstrate that the perceived heinousness of the crime had long prompted distinct and severe judicial responses and, throughout much of this period, the sentence passed against those convicted remained largely unchanged in that they were to be hung, drawn and quartered. Furthermore, the chapter will provide a brief discussion of the broad changes that occurred to executions for treason in the ‘Long Eighteenth Century’. The precedent for these punishments can be found in earlier centuries and sporadic decisions to use them in the mid-eighteenth century require further analysis when they are situated within a discussion of the long-term decline of aggravated executions. For example, one man was sentenced to be burnt to death and there were four cases where offenders were sentenced to have a hand severed as a prelude to their execution. However, the current study has identified the last examples of older execution practices in Scotland in the mid-eighteenth century. By the mid-eighteenth century, it was evident that the courts almost exclusively sentenced offenders to be hanged by the neck until dead, and aggravated executions that inflicted prolonged pre-mortem suffering upon the condemned, that were more characteristic of the Early Modern period, had declined significantly. 1 and combine this with the previously unexplored primary material utilised here. Although there is currently limited work that focuses upon Scottish execution practices, the discussion will draw upon the wider historiography discussed in Chap. The chapter will then move on to examine the changes made to execution practices. Despite these changes, the public execution continued to hold a pervasive attraction and drew large crowds throughout the period under investigation here. Notably there was a decline in the need for a lengthy procession to the place of execution which had historically been a focal part of the proceedings. In addition, other traditional elements of the scaffold ritual were subject to adaptation. At around the same time, and continuing into the early nineteenth century, Scotland’s circuit cities and towns began to follow suit, relocating their common place of execution from urban peripheries to locations closer to their places of confinement. However, in 1785 they were moved closer to the Tolbooth itself. In Edinburgh, between 16, executions were conducted at the Grassmarket following a procession from the Tolbooth through the Old Town. Following this exploration of the scene at the gallows, the chapter will examine the changes made to the logistics of the public execution including those related to its location. The multitude of behaviours and responses that the execution spectacle could generate will also be considered. The opening section will begin by questioning the role of the key actors of the event, namely the condemned criminals and the concourse of spectators gathered to witness them suffer their lamentable fate. The current chapter will provide some insight into the spectacle of the scaffold in Scotland between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth century by drawing upon the extensive source materials gathered, including newspapers and execution broadsides, which offer rich qualitative details of the scene at the public execution. It will also examine the implementation of the post-mortem punishments of dissection and hanging in chains, and situate their usage within the broader bodily punishment narrative. Part II will now turn to present a qualitative exploration of public executions in Scotland and an investigation into the changing nature of capital punishment and execution practices across the period. It provided an exploration of the contextual and judicial drivers that impacted upon its use and quantitative analyses of focal periods to enhance our knowledge of Scotland’s capital punishment history between 17. The focus of Part I of this volume was to gain an understanding of the implementation of the death sentence in Scotland.

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