subs. phr. (old).—An instrument of torture invented by Sir W. Skevington, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, temp. Hen. VIII.: see quot. 1889.
1580. Diarium Rerum Gestarum in Turri Londiniensi, 10 Dec. Thomas Cotamus et Lucas Kirbæus, presbyteri, SCAVINGERI FILIAM ad unam horam et amplius passi; ex quo prior copiosum sanguinem è naribus emisit.
1604. Commons Journal, 14 May. [The Committee] found in Little Ease in the Tower an engine of torture … called SKEVINGTON’S DAUGHTERS.
1840. W. H. AINSWORTH, The Tower of London, xxiii. We will wed you to the SCAVENGER’S DAUGHTER, my little man.
1889. Answers, 9 Feb. The SCAVENGER’S DAUGHTER was a broad hoop of iron, consisting of two parts, fastened by a hinge. The prisoner knelt on the pavement, and the executioner having introduced the hoop under his legs, compressed the victim, till he was able to fasten the extremities over the small of the back. The time allotted was an hour and a half, it commonly happened that the blood started from the nostrils; sometimes, it was believed, from the extremities of the hands and feet.
