Handbags   (The sad, the bad and the ugly. Non-productive stuff here.)

No. I menat to have a google about it and forgot.

"No, I will not, sir," replied the beadle: adjusting the wax-end which was twisted round the bottom of his cane, for purposes of parochial flagellation.

"Tell Sowerberry not to spare him either. They'll never do anything with him, without stripes and bruises," said the gentleman in the white waistcoat.

I'm puzzled about the 'wax-end'.

The only other thing I know of which had a wax-end was a nautical depth plumb.

The wax would, in cases, touch the bottom (no pun intended) and the imprints, or bits of sand/gravel etc would give the sailors an idea as to if they were above a sanbank or rocks etc.