An old prep sketch that never got turned into anything. I have A LOT of these sorts of scribbly ‘beginnings’. But, I have learned over the years that there is no such thing as a wasted hour of sketch time. It’s not time wasted, it’s time thinking, researching, practicing. So much emphasis is put on outcome (and how purposeful or financially lucrative it is). I draw to relax. I draw to fathom things out. I draw to learn. I draw in reaction. I draw to document. I draw, I draw, I draw. Some people make notes in the margins……I draw

Also, this is precisely what this blog is for, all the stuff I’m not sure where to put, arty utterances which haven’t always fully formed. Seeds and prefaces and possible potentials, but without the expectation or the pressure. And, actually, my insistence on illustrating a portrait of a lesser known woman in history, and rambling on about it, is perhaps the purpose in itself? Sharing a story someone might a) read and b) appreciate, is enough. And so, more of my favourite topic ‘witchcraft’ has me drawing again. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say ‘women with words’, as a mouthy lass does appear to count as absolute witchery.

This time, inspired by the story of Glaswegian Marion Walker who spoke out and stood up to a massacre of a witch-hunt In 1597. She took on the most powerful and vengeful men in the land. Hardcore in them old days.

Using methods of the modern day whistleblower, she cleverly obtained, copied and leaked documents. She wanted the guilty held to account for the horrors of the Glasgow witch-hunt, a shocking miscarriage of justice even by the standards of the day.

“She’s a clear and active resister of the new Protestant religion over three decades,”

“She’s a widow, she’s not wealthy but she’s got an ability to be heard.” This moment was so significant.

Marion would slander the Witch finder over and over again as false accusations were thrown in the direction of many powerless and vulnerable women.

As well at being threatened, she received punishments involving torture devices such as the branks; known as the ‘Witch’s Bridle’ or ‘Scold’s bridle’. A heavy duty gag and face cage, often with a metal prong to stop the mouth. Serious head gear. As a fan of medieval contraptions and Victorian over-engineered curiosities, researching human bridles brought me a strange joy. I am guilty of being a woman who talks a lot. And by guilty, I mean proud. I’m quite sure I’d have deserved the bridle back in the day, although it may have been for reasons an altruistic . More likely I’d be summoned to court for shouting reactionary abuse at a chap mansplaining how my resting witch face curdled his milk or something……

The witch’s bridle or the ‘scold’s bridle’

Interestingly she was never accused of being a witch herself, perhaps on account of her caring so much for mere mortals……

She endured each humiliation whilst her networks of resistance managed to get her hands on the most incriminating document of all, to prove this entire show had been full of deceit and lies, exposing the execution of innocent women.

‘A lot of times when we think about women in the early modern religious context we think of this quiet, meek kind of devotion but that is not Marion Walker.” ~Dr Daniel MacLeod

The Witch’s Bridle; women and their words

©KARIS HARRINGTON 2026