Merciless punishment

The description of Jesuit corporal punishment at Stonyhurst College (Mail) brought back memories of my schooldays.

At St Michael’s College, Leeds, a Jesuit day school, we suffered from a similar implement of punishment. It was shaped like the sole and heel of a shoe, about 12 in long, made of whalebone covered with gutta-percha (raw rubber) — and was made by an order of nuns called the Sisters of Mercy.

This implement was called a ferula, Latin for ruler, but we kids called it The Tolly. For acts of indiscipline such as talking in class, you could be ordered to

receive three, six, nine or 12 tollies in the next 24 hours.

At break time you knocked on a door, went in and said to the priest on duty: ‘Please, father, can I have six ferulas, ordered by Father X.’

The ferulas were administered on the hand and recorded in a ledger. It was then necessary to soak your hand in cold water to stop the pain and swelling.

JOHN RAMSDEN, Leeds.