The Throes of Death

Galloway man John Mactaggart saw an public execution in Edinburgh and, in his book published in 1824, wished he hadn't.

“Death-Thraws – The throes of death. To the man of feeling, there is not a more horrible site to be seen, as a fellow creature in this wretched state; how alive we are then to the power of death, and how grieved to the soul that we can render no relief. I was never able to stand the scene but once, and will never try it again, unless abruptly compelled. I do not think death itself will be more difficult for me to endure than that appalling scene was.

“Once too, that restless being within me, Curiosity, dragged me to see the execution of a young man, when in Edinburgh, but she'll drag well if she drags me back again to see such a spectacle. I was not myself, Mactaggart, for a month afterwards, my mind was so disordered with the sight.

“In a curious way wrought the phrenzy (as I am one who speaks my mind) I tell this. I felt an inclination, both during night, when dream after dream whirled through my brain's airy halls, and in the day-time, to do some crime or other, that I might meet with a similar fate. Whether this is ever the way with any other person, I cannot tell, but so it opened on me, and which has caused me ever since to say, that hanging, instead of scaring from crime, has a strong tendency the other way. May God keep me far from seeing again any in the death-thraws.”

Pages 164-5. Mactaggart, John. The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia. Hamilton and Adams. 1876.