Goblin Tales of Lancashire

Goblin Tales of Lancashire
GOBLIN TALES OF LANCASHIRE
JAMES BOWKER, F.R.G.S.I.
AUTHOR OF 'PHŒBE CAREW, A NORTH COAST STORY,' 'NAT HOLT'S FORTUNE,' ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY THE LATE CHARLES GLIDDON.
'Of Faery-land yet if he more enquire, By certain signes here sett in sondrie place, He may itt fynd.'
Spenser
'La veuve du même Plogojovits déclara que son mari depuis sa mort lui était venu demander des souliers.' Calmet, Traité sur les Apparitions , 1751.
London W. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW
TO THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUIS OF HARTINGTON, P.C., D.C.L. THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MUCH KINDNESS.

FOR many of the superstitions which still cling to him the Lancashire man of the present day is indebted to his Celtic and Scandinavian ancestors. From them the Horse and Worm stories, and the Giant lore of the northern and southern mountains and fells, have come down, while the relationship of the 'Jinny Greenteeth,' the presiding nymph of the ponds and streams, with allusions to whom the Lancastrian mother strives to deter her little ones from venturing near the pits and brooks; to the water-spirits of the Gothic mythology, is too evident to admit of any doubt. The source of the 'Gabriel Ratchets,' the hell-hounds whose fear-inspiring yelps still are heard by the benighted peasant, who finds in the dread sound a warning of the approach of the angel of death; in the Norse Aasgaardsveia, the souls condemned to ride about the world until doomsday, and who gallop through the midnight storm with shrieks and cries which ring over the lonely moors; or in that other troop of souls of the brave ones who had died in battle, being led by the storm-god Woden to Walhalla, also is undeniable.