Gatrell: I find no common agreement on what it's like in terms of painful. In this era, as i said earlier, you would often see people hung on very short ropes that were like 12 inches long. He says there's a certain period of time where those being hanged know they're hanging. Gatrell quotes a doctor, alexander monroe, professor of demy at edinburgh in 17 74,. telling a guy named james boswell, that the man who is hanged suffers a great deal.