Rankin, Miss. Not identified. "Not very long ago," writes the contributor, "the course of duty carried me abroad, and I spent some time in a little continental town. ..." The name and location of the town she takes pains to conceal, for, she says, "I am about to tell the true tale of a person living in that town, and wish so to do without directing anybody's eyes towards him." The tale that she tells is the life of the town executioner, as the account was told her by the priest whose services she was in the habit of attending.

      One Miss Rankin flourishing at the time was Jessica Rankin, an occasional contributor to Once a Week. Another Miss Rankin, a cousin of Harriet Martineau, was governess in the family of Sir Isaac and Lady Goldsmid; she accompanied Martineau and a friend to the Continent in 1839 (Webb, Harriet Martineau, p. 247). Martineau was a H.W. contributor at the time that  Rankin's contribution appeared.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971