The Walnut Tree : Women, Violence and the Law – a Hidden History by Kate Morgan'A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more they are beaten, the better theyll be.' So went the proverb quoted by a prominent MP in the Houses of Parliament in 1853. His words intended ironically in a debate about a rise in attacks on women summed up the prevailing attitude of the day, in which violence against women was waved away as a part and parcel of modern living a chilling seam of misogyny that had polluted both parliament and the law. But were