English Villages Part 19

VILLAGE SUPERSt.i.tIONS AND FOLKLORE

Belief in witches--Survival of water ordeal--Witches turned into hares-- Cruelties practised on witches--Bishop Jewel on the "evil eye"-- Fairies--Berks.h.i.+re popular superst.i.tions--Field-names--Homes of famous men--Was.h.i.+ngton Irving's description of an English village--Rural exodus--Conclusion.

There is yet another cla.s.s of subjects connected with old village life, of absorbing interest and importance. I refer to the old superst.i.tions and folklore which still linger on in the recollections of the "oldest inhabitant," and which ought to be at once treasured up, lest they should be altogether lost. The generation of those who believed firmly in the power of the "evil eye" of the witch, and who feared to disturb the revels of the fairies on their rings and mounds, is only just pa.s.sing away. An old gipsy has told me some strange stories of the superst.i.tions of former days. He has told me of the witch at Farnham who made the cows wild and prevented them from giving milk; of another witch who lived at Henley-on-Thames, and who when thrown into the river "floated like a cork." Here we have a survival of the old Saxon method of trying culprits by the water ordeal, often used in examining witches. This particular witch could turn herself into a hare, so my venerable gipsy friend, aged one hundred and six years, informed me, and the dogs hunted her. He told me of the Tadley witch, who "wished"

several people, and greatly injured them. It seems to have been a common practice of the old witches to turn themselves into hares, in order to vex the squires, justices, and country parsons, who were fond of hunting, as the old dames could elude the speed of the swiftest dogs. An old writer states "that never hunters nor their dogs may be bewitched, they cleave an oaken branch, and both they and their dogs pa.s.s over it." Mary Dore, a witch of Beaulieu, Hamps.h.i.+re, used to turn herself into a hare in order to escape detection when caught in the act of wood-stealing, to which she was somewhat addicted.

Old women were rather harshly used in the days when people believed in the power of witches. If any farmer's cattle died, it was immediately concluded that the animals were bewitched; and some wretched old woman was singled out, and summarily tried and burnt. If anyone fell ill, some "witch" had evidently a waxen image of the sufferer, and stuck needles into it; and such was the power of the witch that, wherever the person was, he felt the stab of the cruel needle. Hence the witch had to be found and burnt. If the corn crops failed, was not witchcraft the cause? for had not old Mother Maggs been heard to threaten Farmer Giles, and had not her black cat been seen running over his fields?

Even good Bishop Jewel did not disbelieve in the power of the evil eye.

In preaching before Queen Elizabeth he said: "It may please Your Grace to understand that witches and sorcerers are marvellously increased within Your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away even unto the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray G.o.d they never practise further than on the subject." To so great an extent did faith in the witches' fatal power prevail. Our forefathers used to believe in the existence of other, and more pleasant little companions than the old toothless witches--the bright little fairies who, on account of the neglect which they have received from the present generation of Englishmen, have, so it is reported, left our sh.o.r.es in disgust, never to return. The previous inhabitants of our villages did not so treat them; and did not the fairies always bring them luck? They nailed the horseshoe to the stable door to keep out the witches, lest the old beldams should ride their steeds by night to the witches' revels; but no one wished to exclude the fairies. Did not the dairymaids find the b.u.t.ter ready churned, and the cows milked by these kind a.s.sistants? Was there not an old lady in Yorks.h.i.+re who knew all about the fairies, had often heard them making b.u.t.ter, and had seen the b.u.t.ter smeared all over the gate by a little green man with a queer cap who had been seen slipping under a culvert? Canon Atkinson told us of this lady who knew all these strange things, and of the Hart Hall "Hob" who worked so hard with his flail, and of many other curious folk who frequented the Yorks.h.i.+re moors in olden days. The last witch had just died before he went to Danby, but he found the whole atmosphere of the folklore firmament so surcharged with the being and work of the witch, that he seemed able to trace her presence and her activity in almost every nook and corner of the neighbourhood.

The wells all over England were haunted by fairies, and is it not confidently a.s.serted that "the good people" (as the fairies are called) live in wilds and forests, and shun great cities because of the wickedness which exists therein? Have they never appeared to the lonely traveller, clothed in green, with long hair floating over their shoulders, and with faces more blooming than the blush of a summer morning? Then there were the fairy rings formed by the dancing of their merry feet.

"Some say the screech-owl, at each midnight hour, Awakes the fairies in yon ancient tower.

Their nightly dancing ring I always dread, Nor let my sheep within that circle tread; When round and round all night, in moonlight fair, They dance to some strange music in the air."

Then there were brownies; and knockers, who worked in mines, and showed rich veins of silver; and elves--all of whom were included in old village superst.i.tions, and many were the tales told of the good deeds they did, and the luck they brought. Nor must we forget the story of the invisible smith who inhabited Wayland Smith's Cave, in Berks.h.i.+re.

Whenever a farmer tied up his horse in the cave, and left the money on a particular stone, on his return he found his horse shod by the kind efforts of the invisible smith. There is also the old Berks.h.i.+re story of the old witch who lived in a cave by the roadside, and who, by the power of her "evil eye," could stop the strongest team of horses, so that, however much the carters lashed and swore at them, the animals would not budge an inch until she permitted them to go. Here are a few of the common superst.i.tions current in Berks.h.i.+re. If a corpse be kept over a Sunday another death will occur before the week is out; should a big b.u.mble-bee enter the window, a guest may be expected; and when the woodp.e.c.k.e.r, commonly called the yaffle, laughs, they say the rain is coming. When the thick mist lies in the valley, the people say it is the White Lady, a belief closely akin to the Dame Blanche, who is said in Normandy to haunt streams. If one row of freshly sown seeds or potatoes does not come up, it foretells a death in the family. If a girl mends her clothes on her back, she risks having a drunken husband.

A screech-owl is unlucky, and so also is it if a bird fly against the window.

A woman came to the rectory a few years ago for a drop of sacramental wine, which she wanted for an infant who had "the graspings." This complaint I discovered to be a craving for something, accompanied by restlessness; and it was supposed that a drop of sacramental wine would cure an infant so troubled. If the mother before the child was born craved for drink, this craving was communicated to the child, and could only be remedied by a drop of wine used in Holy Communion. This superst.i.tion, which I have met with elsewhere, probably is a relic of pre-Reformation days, and of sacramental Reservation.

A tramp was pa.s.sing through a Hamps.h.i.+re village a short time ago, and calling at a house, begged for a gla.s.s of water. The woman who lived there said that she was sorry she could not give him water to drink, as there was a child in the house unbaptised, and therefore it would be unlucky. The origin of this superst.i.tion it is difficult to trace.

These are some of the legends and superst.i.tions which linger amongst us. Every neighbourhood has its stories, its legends, and romantic histories. It is a sad pity that these should pa.s.s away without any record being made. Many curious customs and ceremonies relating to christenings, marriages, and burials linger in remote hamlets; and charms, curious remedies, and other relics of the quaint superst.i.tions of our forefathers, are full of interest to the lover of our English villages.

As we walk in the fields, or study the old map of the parish, the names of the fields invite our attention. These are full of interest, and often tell us about matters which would be entirely forgotten. Some names tell us of the great forests which used to exist all over the country, when kings and n.o.blemen, outlaws and poachers, used to hunt the deer and the wild boars in many a successful run. These forests were large tracts of country in its natural state, partly wood, partly heather and gra.s.s, which were owned by the king, and were especially brought under the harsh forest laws of the Norman sovereigns.

Some of our field-names remind us of the existence of these old forests where corn now grows, and also of swamps and islands where everything now is dry and far removed from water. Sometimes they tell us of the old common lands which used to be farmed by the villeins and borderers, and of the strange way in which they used to manage their farming. Each man used to keep one or more oxen for the village plough until they made up the team into eight; then they ploughed the land in strips of an acre or half-acre each, divided by a bit of unploughed turf called a balk. Each strip was a furlong, _i.e._ a "furrow long," _i.e._ the length of the drive of a plough before it is turned. This was forty rods, or poles, and four of these furrows made up the acre. These pieces of land were called "shots," and there were "headlands," or common field-ways, to each shot; and "gored acres," which were corners of the fields which could not be cut up into strips, and odds and ends of unused land, which were called "No Man's Land," or "Jack's Land." It is curious, too, that all the strips belonging to one man did not lie together, but were scattered all over the common land, which must have been a very inconvenient arrangement for farming purposes. There were also in each village community a blacksmith, whose duty it was to keep in repair the ironwork of the village ploughs, a carpenter for the woodwork, and a pound-keeper, or punder, who looked after the stray cattle. Many of the "balks" still remain on the hillsides where these old common lands existed, and the names of the fields bear witness to the prevalence of this old field system.

They tell us, too, of the way in which attempts were made to force the growth of particular crops, and in many parishes you will find a "flax piece," which reminds us of a foolish Act of Henry VIII. ordering the cultivation of that plant. Metals, too, which have long ago been worked out, and trades which no longer exist, have left their traces behind in the names of our lanes and fields. Also they speak of the early days when the wolf or the bear might be seen in our woods or fields, or of the beaver which loved the quietude of our streams, of the eagle which carried off the lambs undisturbed by sound of the keeper's gun. Sometimes he was disturbed in his thefts by the flight of a good strong English arrow, which came from a st.u.r.dy English bow drawn by a good strong English arm. The English archers were famous everywhere, and many a battle has been won by their valour and their skill. A law was pa.s.sed in the reign of Edward IV. that every Englishman should have a bow of his own height, and that b.u.t.ts for the practice of archery should be set up in every village; and every man was obliged to shoot up and down on every feast-day, or be fined one halfpenny. Consequently, in some villages we find a field called "The b.u.t.ts," where this old practice took place.[11]

Many villages are a.s.sociated with the lives of distinguished men--authors, soldiers, and statesmen. Perhaps your village may have bred other poets besides "the mute inglorious Milton" of Gray's _Elegy_. Not far from where I am writing was Pope's early home, the village of Binfield, which he calls--

"My paternal home, A little house, with trees arow, And, like its master, very low."

On the other side lies the village of Three Mile Cross, where Miss Mitford lived and wrote "Our Village"; and Arborfield, called in her book Arborleigh, about which she tells some pleasant stories, is the adjoining parish. Sometimes, as I ride down a gra.s.sy lane, a favourite haunt of the distinguished auth.o.r.ess, I seem to see her seated on a fallen tree weaving her pretty romances, while her favourite dog, which she often describes, plays and barks around her. A few miles in another direction lies Eversley, the loved abode of Charles Kingsley, about whom many stories linger in the countryside. To visit the uncomfortable brick-paved study where he wrote, the garden where he used to pace and think out his great thoughts, is delightfully refres.h.i.+ng and invigorating to a jaded writer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD COTTAGES]

These are only instances of places which have become interesting on account of the famous men who once lived in them; and England has many heroes of the sword and pen whose lives each Englishman should study; and when you visit their dwelling-places you will recall their achievements, and perhaps endeavour to imitate their examples. Here is an instance of how little the villagers know of the distinguished men who once lived amongst them. The great Duke of Wellington did not live a very long time ago, and yet some friends of mine who were staying at Strathfieldsaye, near the Iron Duke's house, and made inquiries amongst the villagers about their recollections of the hero of Waterloo, could obtain no information. At last one venerable rustic vouchsafed the extraordinary intelligence, "I believe as 'ow 'e were very good at war"! What a thing it is to be famous!

Much more remains to be said upon the various subjects which this history of our village suggests. But the day is closing, and our walk through its sequestered lanes and our thoughts about the various scenes which yonder venerable oaks have witnessed, must cease. But enough has been said to show what a wealth of interest lies beneath the calm exterior of ordinary village life. An American truly observes that everything in the rural life of England is a.s.sociated with ideas of order, of quiet, sober, well-established principles, of h.o.a.ry usage, and reverent custom--the growth of ages of regular and peaceful existence. The impression which the appearance of an English village left on his mind is beautifully described in the following pa.s.sage:--

"The old church of remote architecture with its low, ma.s.sive portal, its gothic tower, its windows rich with tracery and painted gla.s.s, its scrupulous preservation, its stately monuments of warriors and worthies of olden times, ancestors of the present lords of the soil; its tombstones, recording successive generations of st.u.r.dy yeomanry, whose progeny still plough the same fields, and kneel at the same altar; the parsonage, a quaint, irregular pile, partly antiquated, but repaired and altered in the tastes of various eyes and occupants; the stile and footpath leading from the churchyard, across pleasant fields, and along shady hedgerows, according to an immemorial right-of-way; the neighbouring village, with its venerable cottages, its public green sheltered by trees, under which the forefathers of the present race have sported; the antique family mansion, standing apart in some little rural domain, but looking down with a protecting air on the surrounding scene. All these common features of English landscape evince a calm and settled security, and hereditary transmission of homebred virtues and local attachments, that speak deeply and touchingly for the moral character of the nation."

One of the most distressing features of modern village life is the continual decrease of its population. All our young men flock to the towns, attracted by the greater excitement which town life offers, as compared with the more homely pleasures of the country. The rural exodus is an alarming and very real danger to the welfare of social England. Agricultural machinery has greatly diminished the number of labourers required on a farm. Agricultural depression and the decreased value of land have caused many old country families to close their old manor-houses, as they cannot afford to live on their estates.

Let us hope that those whose happy lot it is to live in the quiet hamlets of our native land, afar from the noise and din of busy towns, will learn to love more deeply their village homes, and interest themselves in their surroundings. To those who read the history of their native place, each house and field, each stone and tree, will tell its story, and recount the wonders it has witnessed. And as the stories of wars and fights, of superst.i.tion and of crime, fall on our ears, we shall be thankful that our lot is cast in more peaceful days, when no persecutions, religious or political, disturb the tranquillity of our village life. And when we read of the piety and simplicity of our forefathers, their veneration of their church, their love of home, their innocent joys and social customs, we should strive to imitate their virtues which have materially helped to make England a great and powerful nation. It is hoped that these chapters upon the old life of our country, and the manners and customs of our forefathers, may induce many of my readers to read and study history more deeply, may serve to create an interest in the relics that remain to us of the past, and to preserve the fleeting traditions that Time doth consecrate.

[11] In many cases the name "b.u.t.ts" refers to the fact of the land, under the common-field system, _ab.u.t.ting_ on meadows or roads, _e.g._ "b.u.t.t-close," in the parish of St. Mary Bourne.

APPENDIX

BOOKS AND DOc.u.mENTS RELATING TO PAROCHIAL HISTORY

To anyone who sets himself the task of writing a history of his village, the following notes may be useful. With regard to the etymology of the name, concerning which absurd errors are made in most guide books and old county histories, it would be well to consult Canon Taylor's _Words and Places_, being careful to study the earliest form of the word in _Domesday_ and old doc.u.ments. Bede's _History_, the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicles_, and other old English chronicles, published by Bohn, may contain some allusions to the parish and neighbourhood, and also Kemble's _Saxons in England_. The _Domesday Book_ is, of course, a mine of wealth. The Public Record Office contains many doc.u.ments which will be of great service--the _Testa de Neville_ (Edward II.), _Marshall Rolls, Nonarum Inquisitiones, Pipe Rolls, Patent Rolls, Close Rolls, Hundred Rolls, Inquisitiones post-mortem_, and the _Feet of Fines_. The _Manor Court Rolls_, if they still exist, in the custody of the lord of the manor, should also be consulted. The journals of local antiquarian societies and county histories will of course be examined. The history of the families connected with the parish must be traced. The British Museum and the College of Arms contain fine collections of _Heralds'

Visitations_, and Burke's _Landed Gentry_ and Dugdale's _Baronage_ are the chief sources of information. Old _wills_ will yield much information, many of which are in course of publication by the Index Society, and county archaeolgical journals; and Somerset House and many diocesan registries contain the original doc.u.ments. The Historical Ma.n.u.scripts Commission has published many volumes of borough records which are of great service, and the lives of any great men connected with the parish may be studied in the _Dictionary of National Biography_. As we have already pointed out, the parish chest contains valuable sources of information upon the history of the village, and its contents should be carefully examined.

The registers of the diocese contain many doc.u.ments relating to the ecclesiastical history of the parish, and from them we can obtain a list of the rectors or vicars. If the church was connected with any monastery, Dugdale's _Monasticon_ will furnish some information. The Public Record Office contains the doc.u.ments _Taxatio Ecclesiastica P.

Nicholai IV._ and _Valor Ecclesiasticus_, which give an account of the value of the first-fruits and tenths, and also some volumes on the sale of chantries, and the inventories of church goods. The name of the saint to whom the church is dedicated must not always be accepted, in spite of years of usage, and should be confirmed by reference to some early will of a chief person of the village buried in the church, which usually gives the name of the patron saint. The story of the church writ in stone should be traced by the various styles of architecture, with the help of Rickman's _Gothic Architecture_ or Parker's _Glossary of Gothic Architecture_. If there has ever been a monastery in the parish, Dugdale's _Monasticon_ should be consulted; and if there are any remains of a castle, Clark's _Mediaeval Military Architecture in England_ will be useful. Prehistoric remains, such as barrows, earthworks, pit dwellings, and caves should be described; also any Roman roads and villas; the flora and fauna of the neighbourhood, geology, folklore, and dialect.

The following books are recommended:--

Evans' _Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain_.

Evans' _ Ancient Bronze Implements_.

Boyd Dawkins' _Cave Hunting_.

Boyd Dawkins' _Early Man in Britain_.

Greenwell's _British Barrows_.

Fergusson's _Rude Stone Monuments_.

c.o.x's _How to Write the History of a Parish_.

Wright's _Essays on Archaeological Subjects_.

Parker's _Mediaeval Domestic Architecture_.

Sims' _Manual for the Topographer and Genealogist_.

Burn's _History of Parish Registers_.

Seebohm's _English Village Community_.

Toulmin Smith's _English Gilds_.

Haine's _Manual of Monumental Bra.s.ses_.

Bloxam's _Principles of Gothic Architecture_.

Tanner's _Not.i.tia Monastica_.

Cutts' _Middle Ages_.

Lee's _Glossary of Liturgical and Ecclesiastical Terms_.