THE HANGING TREE, Execution and the English People, 1770-1868

Written by: V. A. C. Gatrell

This is a scholarly account of popular attitudes towards capital punishment in early modern England and Wales - not Scotland, because the law was (and remains) different there. It's a splendid book which combines meticulous history with a fine indignation against the vast sea of injustice which lay behind the gallows.