A wonderful book entitled 'The Fatal Gallows Tree' (John Dean Potter 1965 - probably unobtainable now) gives a superb thumb-nail sketch of 'the British habit of hanging', from the early days when the condemned were dragged on a horses tail to their deaths, right through the once considered 'entertaining' spectacle, to the final days, when it was finally abandoned, despite opposition from 'the guardians of British values.
One of the most memorable sections touched on was the events surrounding the last woman to be hanged, Ruth Ellis in 1955.
She had had a miscarriage in her cell previous to the execution and, to add to her punishment, she went to the gallows wearing canvas draws, because the insides of the last woman who had suffered the same fate before her 'fell out' during the 'ceremony' - justice at its very highest!
The book finishes;
"The House of Lords, much to most people's surprise, passed it (the abolition bill) with majority of 100 votes. After a thousand years the story of English hanging had come to an end. It had gone the way of boiling, branding, beheading and the burning of witches. At last civilization had triumphed.
Jim Carroll