Lancashire Folk-lore / Illustrative of the Superstitious Beliefs and Practices, Local Customs and Usages of the People of the County Palatine

by John Harland; Thomas Turner Wilkinson

WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT.

In the lore of these subjects no county in England is richer than Lancashire. The subject is a large one, and may even be said to include all the cases of demoniacal possession described in the earlier pages of this volume, since all these alleged possessions were the result of malice and (so-called) witchcraft. Indeed it is not easy to separate these two superstitious beliefs in their practical operation; witchcraft being the supposed cause, and demoniacal possession the imagined effect. The reader will find much, bearing on both branches of the subject, under both titles.

WITCHCRAFT IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

The first distinct charge of witchcraft in any way connected with this county, is that of the wife of the good Duke Humphrey, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, the associate of Roger Bolingbroke, the priest and necromancer, and Margery Jourdain, the witch of Eye. The Duke of Gloucester, uncle and protector to the king, having become obnoxious to the predominant party, they got up in 1441 a strange prosecution. The Duchess of Gloucester, Eleanor, the daughter of Lord Cobham, a lady of haughty carriage and ambitious mind, being attached to the prevailing superstitions of the day, was accused of the crime of witchcraft "for that she, by sorcery and enchantment, intended to destroy the king, to the intent to advance and promote her husband to the crown."[122] It was alleged against her and her associates, Sir Roger Bolingbroke, a priest, and chaplain to the Duke, (who was addicted to astrology,) and Margery Jourdain, the witch of Eye, that they had in their possession a wax figure of the king, which they melted by a magical device before a slow fire, with the intention of wasting away his force and vigour by insensible degrees. The imbecile mind of Henry was sensibly affected by this wicked invention; and the Duchess of Gloucester, on being brought to trial (in St. Stephen's Chapel, before the Archbishop of Canterbury) and found guilty of the design to destroy the king and his ministers by the agency of witchcraft, was sentenced to do public penance in three places within the city of London, and to suffer perpetual imprisonment. Her confederates were condemned to death and executed, Margery Jourdain being burnt to death in Smithfield. The duchess, after enduring the ignominy of her public penance, rendered peculiarly severe by the exalted state from which she had fallen, was banished to the Isle of Man, where she was placed under the ward of Sir Thomas Stanley. On the way to her place of exile, she was confined for some time, first in Leeds Castle, and afterwards in the Castle of Liverpool;[123] the earliest and the noblest witch on record within the county of Lancaster. Another account states that amongst those arrested as accomplices of the duchess were a priest and canon of St. Stephen's, Westminster, named Southwell, and another priest named John Hum or Hume. Roger Bolingbroke, the learned astronomer and astrologer (who died protesting his ignorance of all evil intentions), was drawn and quartered at Tyburn; Southwell died in prison before the time of execution; and John Hum received the royal pardon. The worst thing proved against the duchess was that she had sought for love-philters to secure the constancy of her husband.[124] Shakspere, in the Second Part of King Henry VI., Act 1, Scene 4, represents the duchess, Margery Jourdain, Hume, Southwell, and Bolingbroke, as engaged in raising an evil spirit in the Duke of Gloucester's garden, when they are surprised and seized by the Dukes of York and Buckingham and their guards. The duchess, after remaining in the Isle of Man some years, was transferred to Calais, under the ward of Sir John Steward, knight, and there died.

THE FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES:

Containing the manner of their becoming such; their enchantments, spells, revels, merry pranks, raising of storms and tempests, riding on winds, &c. The entertainments and frolics which have happened among them. With the loves and humours of Roger and Dorothy. Also, a Treatise of Witches in general, conducive to mirth and recreation. The like never before published.[125]

Chapter I.—The Lancashire Witch's Tentation, and of the Devil's appearing to her in sundry shapes, and giving her money.

Lancashire is a famous and noted place, abounding with rivers, hills, woods, pastures, and pleasant towns, many of which are of great antiquity. It has also been famous for witches, and the strange pranks they played. Therefore, since the name of Lancashire Witches has been so frequent in the mouths of old and young, and many imperfect stories have been rumoured abroad, it would doubtless tend to the satisfaction of the reader, to give some account of them in their merry sports and pastimes.

Some time since lived one Mother Cuthbert, in a little hovel at the bottom of a hill, called Wood-and-Mountain Hill, in Lancashire. This woman had two lusty daughters, who both carded and spun for their living, yet was very poor; which made them often repine at and lament their want. One day, as Mother Cuthbert was sauntering about the hill-side, picking the wool off the bushes, out started a thing like a rabbit, which ran about two or three times, and then changed into a hound, and afterwards into a man, which made the old beldame to tremble, yet she had no power to run away. So, putting a purse of money in her hand, and charging her to be there the next day, he immediately vanished away, and old Mother Cuthbert returned home, being somewhat disturbed between jealousy and fear.

Such is the first chapter of this marvellous story, which, it is clear, is a fiction based upon real narratives. It relates the witcheries of Mother Cuthbert and her two daughters, Margery and Cicely, under the auspices of an arch-witch, "Mother Grady, the Witch of Penmure [Penmaen-mawr] a great mountain of Wales." Here is "The Description of a Spell.—A spell is a piece of paper written with magical characters, fixed in a critical season of the moon, and conjunction of the planets; or sometimes by repeating mystical words. Of these there are many sorts." As showing what was the popular notion as to witches, take the following:—"About this time great search was made after witches and many were apprehended, but most of them gave the hangman and the gaoler the slip; though some hold that when a witch is taken she hath no power to avoid justice. It happened, as some of them were going in a cart to be tried, a coach passed by, in which appeared a person like a judge, who, calling to one, bid her be of good comfort, for neither she nor any of her companions should be harmed. In that night all the prison locks flew open, and they made their escape; and many, when they had been cast into the water for a trial, have swam like a cork. One of them boasted she could go over the sea in an egg-shell. It is held on all hands they adore the devil, and become his bond-slaves, to have for a term of years their pleasure and revenge. And indeed many of them are more mischievous than others in laming and destroying cattle, and in drowning ships at sea, by raising storms. But the Lancashire witches, we see, chiefly divert themselves in merriment, and are therefore found to be more sociable than the rest." The closing chapter in this chap-book, contains "A short description of the famous Lapland Witches."

DR. DEE CHARGED WITH WITCHCRAFT.

On the usual proclamation of a general pardon, on the accession of James I., the crime of witchcraft was specially excepted from the general amnesty; and the credulous King's belief in this superstition encouraged witch-finders and numerous accusations in all parts of the country. Amongst others, it was remembered that Dr. Dee, then warden of the Collegiate Church of Manchester, had in the preceding reign predicted a fortunate day for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, and had also undertaken to render innocuous the waxen effigy of that Queen, found in Lincoln's Inn-fields. He was also known to have made various predictions, to be the possessor of a magic crystal or stone,[126] and to have held a close intimacy with Edward Kelly, alias Talbot, a noted seer, conjuror and necromancer of the time. Accordingly Dr. Dee was formally accused of practising witchcraft, and a petition from him, dated 5th January, 1604, (preserved in the Lansdowne MSS., Cod. 161,) praying to be freed from this revolting imputation, even at the risk of a trial for his life, sufficiently indicates the horror excited by the charge. The doctor's petition sets forth that "It has been affirmed that your Majesty's supplicant was the conjuror belonging to the most honourable privy council of your Majesty's predecessor of famous memory, Queen Elizabeth, and that he is, or hath been, a caller or invocator of devils or damned spirits. These slanders, which have tended to his utter undoing, can no longer be endured; and if, on trial, he is found guilty of the offence imputed to him, he offers himself willingly to the punishment of death, yea, either to be stoned to death, or to be buried quick, or to be burned unmercifully." He seems to have escaped scatheless, save in reputation; and in 1594, when applied to for the purpose of exorcising seven demons who held possession of five females and two of the children of Mr. Nicholas Starkie, of Leigh, he refused to interfere; advising they should call in some godly preachers, with whom he would, if they thought proper, consult concerning a public or private fast. He also sharply reproved Hartlay, a conjuror, for his practices in this case.

THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.

Come, gallant sisters, come along,
Let's meet the devil ten thousand strong;
Upon the whales' and dolphins' backs,
Let's try to choak the sea with wracks,
Spring leaks, and sink them down to rights.
[Line wanting.]
And then we'll scud away to shour,
And try what tricks we can play more.

Blow houses down, ye jolly dames,
Or burn them up in fiery flames;
Let's rowse up mortals from their sleep,
And send them packing to the deep,
Let's strike them dead with thunder-stones,
With lightning search [? scorch] to skin and bones;
For winds and storms, by sea and land,
You may dispose, you may command.

Sometimes in dismal caves we lie,
Or in the air aloft we flie;
Sometimes we caper o'er the main,
Thunders and lightnings we disdain;
Sometimes we tumble churches down,
And level castles with the ground;
We fire whole cities, and destroy
Whole armies, if they us annoy.

We strangle infants in the womb,
And raise the dead out of their tomb;
We haunt the palaces of kings,
And play such pranks and pretty things
And this is all our chief delight,
To do all mischief in despight;
And when we've done, to shift away,
Untoucht, unseen, by night or day.

When imps do * * *
We make them act unlucky feats;
In puppets' wax, sharp needles' points
We stick, to torture limbs and joints.
With frogs' and toads' most poys'nous gore
Our grizly limbs we 'noint all o'er,
And straight away, away we go,
Sparing no mortal, friend or foe.

We'll sell you winds, and ev'ry charm
Or venomous drug that may do harm;
For beasts or fowls we have our spells
Laid up in store in our dark cells;
For there the devils used to meet,
And dance with horns and cloven feet;
And when we've done, we frisk about,
And through the world play revel-rout.

We ride on cows' and horses' backs,
O'er lakes and rivers play nice knacks;
We grasp the moon and scale the sun,
And stop the planets as they run.
We kindle comets' whizzing flames,
And whistle for the winds by names;
And for our pastimes and mad freaks,
'Mongst stars we play at barley-breaks.[127]

We are ambassadors of state,
And know the mysteries of fate;
In Pluto's bosom there we ly,
To learn each mortal's destiny.
As oracles their fortunes show,
If they be born to wealth or wo,
The spinning Sisters' hands we guide,
And in all this we take a pride.

To Lapland, Finland, we do skice,
Sliding on seas and rocks of ice,
T' old beldames there, our sisters kind,
We do impart our hellish mind;
We take their seals and hands in blood
For ever to renounce all good.
And then, as they in dens do lurk,
We set the ugly jades a-work.

We know the treasures and the stores
Lock'd up in caves with brazen doors;
Gold and silver, sparkling stones,
We pile on heaps, like dead men's bones.
There the devils brood and hover,
Keep guards, that none should them discover;
Put upon all the coasts of hell,
'Tis we, 'tis we, stand sentinel.

SUPERSTITIOUS FEAR OF WITCHCRAFT.

During the sixteenth century whole districts in some parts of Lancashire seemed contaminated with the presence of witches; men and beasts were supposed to languish under their charm, and the delusion which preyed alike on the learned and the vulgar did not allow any family to suppose that they were beyond the reach of the witch's power. Was the family visited by sickness? It was believed to be the work of an invisible agency, which in secret wasted the image made in clay before the fire, or crumbled its various parts into dust. Did the cattle sicken and die? The witch and the wizard were the authors of the calamity. Did the yeast refuse to ferment, either in the bread or the beer? It was the consequence of a "bad wish." Did the butter refuse to come? The "familiar" was in the churn. Did the ship founder at sea? The gale or hurricane was blown by the lungless hag who had scarcely sufficient breath to cool her own pottage. Did the Ribble overflow its banks? The floods descended from the congregated sisterhood at Malkin tower. The blight of the season, which consigned the crops of the farmer to destruction, was the saliva of the enchantress, or distillations from the blear-eyed dame who flew by night over the field on mischief bent. To refuse an alms to a haggard mendicant, was to incur maledictions soon manifest in afflictions of body, mind, and estate, in loss of cattle and other property, of health, and sometimes even of life itself. To escape from evils like these no sacrifice was thought too great. Superstitions begat cruelty and injustice; the poor and the rich were equally interested in obtaining a deliverance; and the magistrate in his mansion, no less than the peasant in his cot, was deeply interested in abating the universal affliction. The Lancashire witches were principally fortune-tellers and conjurors. The alleged securities against witchcraft were numerous, the most popular being the horse-shoe; hence we see in Lancashire so many thresholds ornamented with this counter-charm. Under these circumstances the situation of the reputed witch was not more enviable than that of the individuals or families over whom she exerted her influence. Linked by a species of infernal compact to an imaginary imp, she was shunned as a common pest, or caressed only on the same principle which leads some Indian tribes to pay homage to the devil. The reputed witches themselves were frequently disowned by their families, feared and detested by their neighbours, and hunted by the dogs as pernicious monsters. When apprehended they were cast into ponds in the belief that witches swim; so that to sink or swim was almost equally perilous to them; they were punctured by bodkins to discover the witch imp or devil marks; they were subjected to hunger and kept in perpetual motion till confessions were obtained from a distracted mind. On their trials they were listened to with incredulity and horror, and consigned to the gallows with as little pity as the basest of malefactors. Their imaginary crimes created a thirst for their blood; and people of all stations, from the highest to the lowest, attended their trials at Lancaster with an intensity of interest that such mischievous persons, now divested of their sting, naturally excited. It has been said that witchcraft and kingcraft in England came in and went out with the Stuarts. This is not true. The doctrine of necromancy was in universal belief in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and there was not perhaps a man in Lancashire who doubted its existence. The belief in witchcraft and in demoniacal possession was confined to no particular sect or persuasion; the Roman Catholics, the members of the Church of England, the Presbyterians, Independents, and even the Methodists (though a sect of more recent standing) have all fallen into this delusion; and yet each denomination has upbraided the other with gross superstition, and not unfrequently with wilful fraud. It is due, however, to the ministers of the Established Church to say that they were among the first of our public writers to denounce the belief in witchcraft with all its attendant mischiefs; and the names of Dr. Harsnett, afterwards Archbishop of York, of Dr. John Webster (who detected Robinson, the Lancashire witch-hunter), of Zach. Taylor, one of the king's preachers for Lancashire, and of Dr. Hutchinson, the chaplain in ordinary to George I., are all entitled to the public gratitude for their efforts to explode these pernicious superstitions. For upwards of a century the sanguinary and superstitious laws of James I. disgraced the English statute-book; but in the ninth year of George II. (1735) a law was enacted repealing the statute of James I., and prohibiting any prosecution, suit, or proceeding against any person for witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration. In this way the doctrine of witchcraft, with all its attendant errors, was finally exploded, except among the most ignorant of the vulgar.[128]

A HOUSEHOLD BEWITCHED.

(From the Late Lancashire Witches, a comedy, by Thomas Heywood.)

My Uncle has of late become the sole
Discourse of all the country; for a man respected
As master of a govern'd family;
The house (as if the ridge were fix'd below,
And groundsills lifted up to make the roof),
All now's turn'd topsy turvy
In such a retrograde, preposterous way
As seldom hath been heard of, I think never.
The good man
In all obedience kneels unto his Son;
He, with an austere brow, commands his Father.
The Wife presumes not in the Daughter's sight
Without a prepared curtsey; the Girl, she
Expects it as a duty, chides her mother,
Who quakes and trembles at each word she speaks;
And what's as strange, the Maid, she domineers
O'er her young Mistress, who is awed by her.
The Son, to whom the Father creeps and bends,
Stands in as much fear of the groom, his Man!
All in such rare disorder, that in some
As it breeds pity, and in others wonder,
So in the most part laughter. It is thought
This comes by Witchcraft!

THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES OF 1612.

King James VI. of Scotland, in 1594 (nine years before he ascended the English throne as James I.), wrote and published his disgracefully credulous and cruel treatise, entitled "Dæmonologie," containing statements as to the making of witches, and their practice of witchcraft, which, if true, would only prove their revealer to be deep in the councils of Satan, and a regular member or attendant of assemblages of witches. The royal witch-hater held that, as witchcraft is an act of treason against the prince, the evidence of barnes [children] or wives [weak women], or ever so defamed persons [i.e., of character however infamous], may serve for sufficient witnesses against them; for [he asks], who but witches can be provers, and so witnesses of the doings of witches? Besides evidence, "there are two other good helps that may be used for their trial; the one is the finding of their mark, and then trying the insensibleness thereof; the other is floating on the water" [or drowning], &c. Having thus opened the door by admitting the loosest evidence and the most absurd tests for the most unjust convictions, the royal fanatic adds, that all witches [i.e., persons thus convicted] ought to be put to death, without distinction of age, sex, or rank. This "British Solomon" ascended the English throne in 1603, and, as might have been expected, witch-finders soon plied their infamous vocation with success. The wild and desolate parts of the parish of Whalley furnished a fitting scene for witch assemblies, and it was alleged that such meetings were held at Malkin Tower, in Pendle Forest, within that parish. At the assizes at Lancaster in the autumn of 1612, twenty persons, of whom sixteen were women of various ages, were committed for trial, and most of them tried for witchcraft. Their names were—1. Elizabeth Southerne, widow, alias "Old Demdike" (aged eighty or more); 2. Elizabeth Device [probably Davies], alias "Young Demdike," her daughter; 3. James Device, son of No. 2; 4. Alizon Device, daughter of No. 2; 5. Anne Whittle, widow, alias "Chattox," alias Chatterbox [more probably Chadwicks], the rival witch of "Old Demdike" (and, like her, eighty or more years of age); 6. Anne Redferne, daughter of No. 5; 7. Alice Nutter; 8. Katherine Hewytt, alias "Mould-heels;" 9. Jane Bulcock, of the Moss End; 10. John Bulcock, her son; 11. Isabel Robey; and 12. Margaret Pearson, of Padiham. No. 12 was tried first for murder by witchcraft; 2nd for bewitching a neighbour; 3rd for bewitching a horse; and, being acquitted of the two former charges, was sentenced for the last to stand upon the pillory in the markets of Clitheroe, Padiham, Colne, and Lancaster for four successive market days, with a printed paper upon her head, stating her offence. The twelve persons already named were styled "Witches of Pendle Forest." The following eight were called "Witches of Samlesbury:"—13. Jennet Bierley; 14. Ellen Bierley; 15. Jane Southworth; 16. John Ramsden; 17. Elizabeth Astley; 18. Alice Gray; 19. Isabel Sidegraves; and 20. Lawrence Haye. The last four were all discharged without trial. The sensation produced by these trials was immense, not only in this, but throughout neighbouring counties, and Thomas Potts, Esq., the clerk of the court, was directed by the judges of assize, Sir Edward Bromley, Knt., and Sir James Altham, Knt., to collect and publish the evidence and other documents connected with the trial, under the revision of the judges themselves; and Potts's "Discovery of Witches," originally published in 1613, has been reprinted by the Chetham Society (vol. vi.), under the editorship of its president, Mr. James Crossley, F.S.A. According to Potts, Old Mother Demdike, the principal actress in the tragedy, was a general agent for the devil in all these parts; no man escaping her or her furies that ever gave them occasion of offence, or denied them anything they stood in need of. The justices of the peace in this part of the country, Roger Nowell and Nicholas Bannister, having learned that Malkin Tower [Malkin is a north-country name for a hare], in the Forest of Pendle, the residence of Old Demdike and her daughter, was the resort of the witches, ventured to arrest their head and another of her followers, and to commit them to Lancaster Castle. Amongst the rest of the voluntary confessions made by the witches, that of Dame Demdike is preserved. She confessed that, about twenty years ago, as she was coming home from begging, she was met near Gould's Hey, in the forest of Pendle, by a spirit or devil in the shape of a boy, the one half of his coat black and the other brown, who told her to stop, and said that if she would give him her soul, she should have anything she wished for. She asked his name, and was told Tib. She consented, from the hope of gain, to give him her soul. For several years she had no occasion to make any application to her evil spirit; but one Sunday morning, having a little child upon her knee, and she being in a slumber, the spirit appeared to her in the likeness of a brown dog, and forced himself upon her knee, and begun to suck her blood under her left arm, on which she exclaimed, "Jesus! save me!" and the brown dog vanished, leaving her almost stark mad for eight weeks. On another occasion she was led, being blind, to the house of Richard Baldwyn, to obtain payment for the services her daughter had performed at his mill, when Baldwyn fell into a passion, and bid them to get off his ground, calling them w——s and witches, and saying he would burn the one and hang the other. On this, Tib appeared, and they concerted matters to revenge themselves on Baldwyn; how, is not stated. This poor mendicant pretender to the powers of witchcraft, in her examination stated that the surest way of taking a man's life by witchcraft is to make a picture of clay, like unto the shape of the person meant to be killed, and when they would have the object of their vengeance suffer in any particular part of his body, to take a thorn or pin and prick it into that part of the effigy; and when they would have any of the body to consume away, then to burn that part of the figure; and when they would have the whole body to consume, then to burn the clay image; by which means the afflicted will die. The substance of the examinations of the so-called witches and others, may be given as follows:—Old Demdike persuaded her daughter, Elizabeth Device, to sell herself to the devil, which she did, and in turn initiated her daughter, Alizon Device, in these infernal arts. When the old witch had been sent to Lancaster Castle, a grand convocation of seventeen witches and three wizards was held at Malkin Tower on Good Friday, at which it was determined to kill Mr. M'Covell, the governor of the castle, and to blow up the building, to enable the witches to make their escape. The other two objects of this convocation were to christen the familiar of Alizon Device, one of the witches in the castle, and also to bewitch and murder Mr. Lister, a gentleman of Westby-in-Craven, Yorkshire. The business being ended, the witches, in quitting the meeting, walked out of the barn, named Malkin Tower, in their proper shapes, but on reaching the door, each mounted his or her spirit, which was in the form of a young horse, and quickly vanished. Before the assizes, Old Demdike, worn out by age and trouble, died in prison. The others were brought to trial. The first person arraigned before Sir Edward Bromley, who presided in the criminal court, was Ann Whittle, alias "Chattox," who is described by Potts as a very old, withered, spent, and decrepit creature, eighty years of age, and nearly blind, a dangerous witch, of very long countenance, always opposed to Old Demdike, for whom the one favoured, the other hated deadly, and they accused each other in their examinations. This witch was more mischievous to men's goods than to themselves; her lips ever chattered as she walked (hence, probably, her name of Chattox or Chatterbox), but no one knew what she said. Her abode was in the Forest of Pendle, amongst the company of other witches, where the woollen trade was carried on, she having been in her younger days a wool-carder. She was indicted for having exercised various wicked and devilish arts called witchcrafts, enchantments, charms and sorceries, upon one Robert Nutter, of Greenhead, in the Forest of Pendle, and with having, by force thereof, feloniously killed him. To establish this charge her own examination was read, from which it appeared that fourteen or fifteen years ago, a thing like "a Christian man" had importuned her to sell her soul to the devil, and that she had done so, giving to her familiar the name of Fancy. On account of an insult offered to her daughter, Redfern, by Robert Nutter, they two conspired to place a bad wish upon Nutter, of which he died. It was further deposed against her that John Device had agreed to give Old Chattox a dole of meal yearly if she would not hurt him, and that when he ceased to make this annual tribute, he took to his bed and died. She was further charged with having bewitched the drink of John Moore, and also with having, without using the churn, produced a quantity of butter from a dish of skimmed milk! In the face of this evidence, and no longer anxious about her own life, she acknowledged her guilt, but humbly prayed the judges to be merciful to her daughter, Anne Redfern; but her prayer was in vain. Against Elizabeth Device, the testimony of her own daughter, a child nine years of age, was received; and the way in which her evidence was given, instead of filling the court with horror, seems to have excited their applause and admiration. Her familiar had the form of a dog and was called Bull, and by his agency she bewitched to death John and James Robinson and James Mitton; the first having called her a strumpet, and the last having refused to give Old Demdike a penny when she asked him for charity. To render her daughter proficient in the art, the prisoner taught her two prayers, by one of which she cured the bewitched, and by the other procured drink. The person of Elizabeth Device, as described by Potts, seems witch-like. "She was branded (says he) with a preposterous mark in nature; her left eye standing lower than her right; the one looking down and the other up at the same time." Her process of destruction was by modelling clay or marl figures, and wasting her victims away along with them. James Device was convicted principally on the evidence of his child-sister, of bewitching and killing Mrs. Ann Towneley, the wife of Mr. Henry Towneley, of the Carr, by means of a picture of clay; and both he and his sister were witnesses against their mother. This wizard (James Device), whose spirit was called Dandy, is described as a poor, decrepit boy, apparently of weak intellect, and so infirm, that it was found necessary to hold him up in court on his trial.

Upon evidence of this kind no fewer than ten of these unfortunate people were found guilty at Lancaster, and sentenced to suffer death. Eight others were acquitted; why, it is not easy to see, for the evidence appears to have been equally strong, or rather equally weak and absurd, against all. The ten persons sentenced were—Ann Whittle alias "Chattox," Elizabeth Device, James Device, Anne Redfern, Alice Nutter, Catherine Hewytt, John Bulcock, Jane Bulcock, Alizon Device, and Isabel Robey.

The judge, Sir Edward Bromley, in passing sentence on the convicted prisoners, said, "You, of all people, have the least cause of complaint; since on the trial for your lives there hath been much care and pains taken; and what persons of your nature and condition were ever arraigned and tried with so much solemnity? The court hath had great care to receive nothing in evidence against you but matter of fact(!)[129] As you stand simply (your offence and bloody practices not considered) your fate would rather move compassion than exasperate any man; for whom would not the ruin of so many poor creatures at one time touch, as in appearance simple, and of little understanding? But the blood of these innocent children, and others his Majesty's subjects whom cruelly and barbarously you have murdered and cut off, cries unto the Lord for vengeance. It is impossible that you, who are stained with so much innocent blood, should either prosper or continue in this world, or receive reward in the next." Having thus shut the door of hope, both as to this life and the future, the judge proceeded to urge the wretched victims of superstition to repentance! and concluded by sentencing them all to be hanged. They were executed at Lancaster on the 20th of August, 1612, for having bewitched to death "by devilish practices and hellish means" no fewer than sixteen inhabitants of the Forest of Pendle. These were, 1. Robert Nutter, of Greenhead. 2. Richard Assheton, son of Richard Assheton, Esq., of Downham. 3. A child of Richard Baldwin, of Westhead, in the Forest of Pendle. 4. John Device, or Davies, of Pendle. 5. Ann Nutter, daughter of Anthony Nutter, of Pendle. 6. A child of John Moor, of Higham. 7. Hugh Moor, of Pendle. 8. John Robinson, alias Swyer. 9. James Robinson. 10. Henry Mytton, of Rough Lee. 11. Ann Towneley, wife of Henry Towneley, of Carr Hall, gentleman. 12. John Duckworth. 13. John Hargreaves, of Goldshaw Booth. 14. Blaize Hargreaves, of Higham. 15. Christopher Nutter. 16. Ann Folds, near Colne. John Law, a pedlar, was also bewitched, so as to lose the use of his limbs, by Alizon Device, because he refused to give her some pins without money, when requested to do so by her on his way from Colne. Alizon Device herself was a beggar by profession, and the evidence sufficiently proved that Law's affliction was nothing more than what would now be termed paralysis of the lower extremities.

In his Introduction to Potts's Discovery of Witches, Mr. Crossley observes that "the main interest in reviewing this miserable band of victims will be felt to centre in Alice Nutter. Wealthy, well conducted, well connected, and placed probably on an equality with most of the neighbouring families, and the magistrate before whom she was brought and by whom she was committed, she deserves to be distinguished from the companions with whom she suffered, and to attract an attention which has never yet been directed to her. That James Device, on whose evidence she was convicted, was instructed to accuse her by her own nearest relatives, and that the magistrate, Roger Nowell, entered actively as a confederate into the conspiracy, from a grudge entertained against her on account of a long-disputed boundary, are allegations which tradition has preserved, but the truth or falsehood of which, at this distance of time, it is scarcely possible satisfactorily to examine. Her mansion, Rough Lee, is still standing, a very substantial and rather fine specimen of the houses of the inferior gentry, temp. James I., but now divided into cottages."

THE SAMLESBURY WITCHES.

The trials of these persons took place at the same assizes, and before the same judge. Against Jane and Ellen Bierley and Jane Southworth, all of Samlesbury, charged with having bewitched Grace Sowerbutts there, the only material evidence was that of Grace Sowerbutts herself, a girl of licentious and vagrant habits, who swore that these women (one of them being her grandmother), did draw her by the hair of the head and lay her upon the top of a hay-mow, and did take her senses and memory from her; that they appeared to her sometimes in their own likeness, and sometimes like a black dog. She declared that they by their arts had induced her to join their sisterhood; and that they were met from time to time by "four black things going upright and yet not like men in the face," who conveyed them across the Ribble, where they danced with them, &c. The prisoners were also charged with bewitching and slaying a child of Thomas Walshman's, by placing a nail in its navel; and after its burial, they took up the corpse, when they ate part of the flesh, and made an "unxious ointment" by boiling the bones. This was more than even the capacious credulity of the judge and jury could digest. The Samlesbury witches were, therefore, acquitted, and a seminary priest named Thompson alias Southworth, was suspected by two of the county magistrates [the Rev. William Leigh and Edward Chisnall, Esq.,] to whom the affair was afterwards referred, of having instigated Sowerbutts to make the charge; but this imputation was not supported by any satisfactory evidence.

WITCHCRAFT AT MIDDLETON.

About 1630, a man named Utley, a reputed wizard, was tried, found guilty, and hanged, at Lancaster, for having bewitched to death, Richard, the son of Ralph Assheton, Esq., of Downham, and Lord of Middleton.[130]

WITCHCRAFT IN 1633-34.

In 1633, a number of poor and ignorant people, inhabitants of Pendle Forest, or the neighbourhood, were apprehended, upon the information of a boy named Edmund Robinson, and charged with witchcraft. The following is a copy of Robinson's deposition:—

"The examination of Edmund Robinson, son of Edmund Robinson, of Pendle Forest, mason, taken at Padiham, before Richard Shuttleworth [of Gawthorpe, Esq., then forty-seven or forty-eight] and John Starkie, Esq. [one of the seven demoniacs of Cleworth, in 1595] two of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace, within the county of Lancaster, 10th of February, A.D. 1633 [1634]. Who informeth upon oath (being examined concerning the great outrages of the witches), and saith, that upon All Saints' Day last past [Nov. 1, 1633], he, this informer, being with one Henry Parker, a next door neighbour to him, in Wheatley-lane, desired the said Parker to give him leave to get some bulloes [? bullace], which he did. In which time of getting bulloes, he saw two greyhounds, viz., a black and a brown one, come running over the next field towards him; he verily thinking the one of them to be Mr. Nutter's, and the other to be Mr. Robinson's, the said Mr. Nutter and Mr. Robinson having then such like. And the said greyhounds came to him and fawned on him, they having about their necks either of them a collar, and to either of which collars was tied a string, which collars, as this informant affirmeth, did shine like gold; and he thinking that some either of Mr. Nutter's or Mr. Robinson's family should have followed them, but seeing nobody to follow them, he took the said greyhounds, thinking to hunt with them, and presently a hare rise [rose] very near before him, at the sight of which he cried 'Loo! loo!' but the dogs would not run. Whereupon being very angry he took them, and with the strings that were at their collars, tied either of them to a little bush on the next hedge, and with a rod that he had in his hand he beat them. And instead of the black greyhound, one Dickonson wife stood up (a neighbour), whom this informer knoweth; and instead of the brown greyhound a little boy, whom this informer knoweth not. At which sight this informer being afraid, endeavoured to run away, but being stayed by the woman, viz., by Dickonson's wife, she put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a piece of silver much like to a fair shilling, and offered to give him to hold his tongue, and not to tell, which he refused, saying, 'Nay, thou art a witch.' Whereupon she put her hand into her pocket again, and pulled out a string like unto a bridle, that jingled, which she put upon the little boy's head that stood up in the brown greyhound's stead; whereupon the said boy stood up a white horse. Then immediately the said Dickonson's wife took this informer before her upon the said horse and carried him to a new house called Hoare-stones, being about a quarter of a mile off; whither when they were come there were divers persons about the door, and he saw divers others come riding upon horses of several colours towards the said house, which tied their horses to a hedge near to the said house, and which persons went into the said house, to the number of three score or thereabouts, as this informer thinketh, where they had a fire and meat roasting, and some other meat stirring in the house, whereof a young woman, whom he, this informer, knoweth not, gave him flesh and bread upon a trencher, and drink in a glass, which, after the first taste, he refused, and would have no more, and said it was nought. And presently after, seeing divers of the company going to a barn adjoining, he followed after, and there he saw six of them kneeling, and pulling at six several ropes, which were fastened or tied to the top of the house, at or with which pulling came then in this informer's sight flesh smoking, butter in lumps, and milk as it were syling [skimming or straining] from the said ropes, all which fell into basins which were placed under the said ropes. And after that these six had done, there came other six, which did likewise; and during all the time of their so pulling, they made such foul faces that feared this informer, so as he was glad to steal out and run home; whom, when they wanted, some of their company came running after him, near to a place in a highway called Boggard-hole, where this informer met two horsemen, at the sight whereof the said persons left following him; and the foremost of which persons that followed him, he knoweth to be one Loynd wife, which said wife, together with one Dickonson wife, and one Janet Davies, he hath seen at several times in a croft or close adjoining to his father's house, which put him in a great fear. And further this informer saith, upon Thursday after New Year's Day last past, he saw the said Loynd wife sitting upon a cross piece of wood being near the chimney of his father's dwelling-house: and he, calling to her, said, 'Come down, thou Loynd wife,' and immediately the said Loynd wife went up out of his sight. And further, this informer saith, that after he was come from the company aforesaid to his father's house, being towards evening, his father bade him go fetch home two kine to seal [cows to yoke], and in the way, in a field called the Ollers [i.e., Alders,] he chanced to hap upon a boy who began to quarrel with him, and they fought so together till this informer had his ears made very bloody by fighting; and looking down, he saw the boy had a cloven foot, at which sight he was afraid, and ran away from him to seek the kine. And in the way he saw a light like a lantern, towards which he made haste, supposing it to be carried by some of Mr. Robinson's people; but when he came to the place he only found a woman standing on a bridge, whom, when he saw her, he knew to be Loynd wife, and knowing her he turned back again, and immediately he met with the aforesaid boy, from whom he offered to run; which boy gave him a blow on the back, which caused him to cry. And he further saith, that when he was in the barn, he saw three women take three pictures from off the beam, in the which pictures many thorns, or such like things, sticked; and that Loynd wife took one of the said pictures down; but the other two women that took the other two pictures down he knoweth not. And being further asked what persons were at the meeting aforesaid, he nominated these persons hereafter mentioned; viz., Dickonson wife, Henry Priestly wife and her son, Alice Hargreaves, widow, Jennet Davies, William Davies, the wife of Henry Jacks and her son John, James Hargreaves of Marsden, Miles wife of Dicks, James wife, Saunders as he believes, Lawrence wife of Saunders, Loynd wife, Boys wife of Barrowford, one Holgate and his wife as he believes, Little Robin wife of Leonards of the West Close.

"Edmund Robinson of Pendle, father of the said Edmund Robinson, the aforesaid informer, upon oath saith, that upon All Saints' Day he sent his son, the aforesaid informer, to fetch home two kine to seal, and saith that he thought his son stayed longer than he should have done, and went to seek him; and in seeking him heard him cry very pitifully, and found him so afraid and distracted, that he neither knew his father, nor did know where he was, and so continued very near a quarter of an hour before he came to himself; and he told this informer his father all the particular passages that are before declared in the said Edmund Robinson his son's information."

Upon such evidence as the above, these poor creatures, chiefly women and children, were committed by the two magistrates named, to Lancaster Castle, for trial. On their trials at the assizes, a jury, doubtless full of prejudice and superstitious fear, found seventeen of them guilty. The judge respited the convicts and reported the case to the king in council. They were next remitted to the Bishop of Chester (Dr. Bridgeman), who certified his opinion of the case, which, however, does not appear. Subsequently, four of these poor women, Margaret Johnson, Frances Dickonson, Mary Spencer, and the wife of one of the Hargreaveses, were sent for to London, and examined, first by the king's physicians and surgeons, and afterwards by Charles I. in person. The strangest part of this sad story of superstition is that one of the four, who underwent examination before the magistrates, trial before "my lords the king's justices," a sifting question by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Chester, aided, probably, by his chancellor, archdeacons, chaplains, proctors, &c., next before the lords of his majesty's privy council, and lastly, before his sacred majesty the king himself, whose very touch would remove the king's evil,—one of these four women, doubtless after much badgering, bullying, and artful questioning, actually made a confession of her guilt as a witch. When this was made it does not appear; but here is the confession as preserved in Dodsworth's Collection of MSS., vol. lxi. p. 47:—

"The Confession of Margaret Johnson.—That betwixt seven and eight years since, she being in her own house in Marsden in a great passion of anger and discontent, and withal pressed with some want, there appeared unto her a spirit or devil in the proportion or similitude of a man, apparelled in a suit of black, tied about with silk points; who offered that if she would give him her soul he would supply all her wants, and bring to her whatsoever she did need; and at her appointment would in revenge either kill or hurt whom or what she desired, were it man or beast. And saith, that after a solicitation or two, she contracted and covenanted with the said devil for her soul. And that the said devil or spirit bade her call him by the name of Mamilian; and when she would have him do anything for her, call in 'Mamilian,' and he would be ready to do her will. And saith, that in all her talk and confidence she calleth her said devil, 'Mamil, my God.' She further saith that the said Mamilian, her devil (by her consent) did abuse and defile * * * And saith that she was not at the great meeting at Hoare-stones, at the Forest of Pendle, upon All Saints' Day, where * * * But saith she was at a second meeting the Sunday next after All Saints' Day, at the place aforesaid, where there was at the time between thirty and forty witches, who did all ride to the said meeting, and the end of the meeting was to consult for the killing and hurting of men and beasts. And that besides their private familiars or spirits, there was one great or grand devil or spirit, more eminent than the rest. And if any desire to have a great and more wonderful devil, whereby they may have more power to hurt, they may have one such. And saith that such witches as have sharp bones given them by the devil to prick them, have no paps or dugs whereon the devil may suck; but the devil receiveth blood from the place pricked with the bone; and they are more grand witches than any that have marks. She also saith, that if a witch had but one mark, she hath but one spirit; if two, then two spirits; if three, yet but two spirits. And saith that their spirits usually have keeping of their bodies. And being desired to name such as she knew to be witches, she named, &c. And if they would torment a man, they bid their spirit go and torment him in any particular place. And that Good Friday is one constant day for a yearly general meeting of witches, and that on Good Friday last they had a meeting near Pendle water-side. She also saith that men witches usually have women spirits, and women witches men spirits. And their devil or spirit gives them notice of their meeting, and tells them the place where it must be. And saith, if they desire to be in any place upon a sudden their devil or spirit will, upon a rod, dog, or anything else, presently convey them thither; yea, into any room of a man's house. But she saith, it is not the substance of their bodies, but their spirit [that] assumeth such form and shape as go into such rooms. She also saith that the devil (after he begins to suck) will make a pap or dug in a short time, and the matter which he sucks is blood. And saith that their devils can cause foul weather and storms, and so did at their meetings. She also saith that when her devil did come to suck her pap, he usually came to her in the likeness of a cat, sometimes of one colour and sometimes of another. And that since this trouble befel her, her spirit hath left her, and she never saw him since."

One cannot read this farrago of revolting absurdities without instinctively feeling that no uneducated woman could have dictated it; that it must have been prepared and dressed up for her to attach her mark, and that all she did was to make the cross to it, in fear, peradventure, of impending tortures. It is at least satisfactory to know that all these examinations of the poor women by legal, ecclesiastic, and regal authorities had a beneficial result. Strong presumption was afforded that the chief witness, the boy Robinson, had been suborned to accuse the prisoners falsely; and they were accordingly discharged. The boy afterwards confessed that he was suborned. The story excited, at the time, so much interest in the public, that in the following year, 1634, was acted and published a play entitled "The Witches of Lancashire," which Steevens cites in illustration of Shakspeare's witches. Dr. Whitaker's Whalley. [Reference is probably made here to Heywood and Broome's play of "The late Lancashire Witches" (London, 1634, quarto). There was a much later play entitled "The Lancashire Witches," by Shadwell (London, 1682)].

THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES OF 1633-4.

Sir Wm. Pelham writes, May 16, 1634, to Lord Conway:—"The greatest news from the country is of a huge pack of witches, which are lately discovered in Lancashire, whereof, 'tis said, 19 are condemned, and that there are at least 60 already discovered, and yet daily there are more revealed: there are divers of them of good ability, and they have done much harm. I hear it is suspected that they had a hand in raising the great storm, wherein his Majesty [Charles I.] was in so great danger at sea in Scotland." The original is in the State Paper Office.[131]

LANCASHIRE WITCH-FINDERS.

Dr. Webster, in his "Display of Witchcraft," depicts the consternation and alarm amongst the old and decrepit, from the machinations of the witch-finders. Of the boy Robinson, who was a witness on several trials of witches, he says—"This said boy was brought into the church at Kildwick [in Yorkshire, on the confines of Lancashire], a large parish church, where I, being then curate there, was preaching in the afternoon, and was set upon a stool to look about him, which moved some little disturbance in the congregation for a while. After prayers, I enquired what the matter was: the people told me that it was the boy that discovered witches; upon which I went to the house where he was to stay all night, and here I found him and two very unlikely persons, that did conduct him and manage the business. I desired to have some discourse with the boy in private, but that they utterly refused. Then, in the presence of a great many people, I took the boy near me and said: 'Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest, didst thou see and hear such strange things at the meeting of witches as is reported by many thou didst relate?' But the two men, not giving the boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and said he had been examined by two able justices of the peace, and they did never ask him such a question. To whom I replied, the persons accused had therefore the more wrong." Dr. Webster subsequently adds, that "The boy Robinson, in more mature years, acknowledged that he had been instructed and suborned to make these accusations against the accused persons, by his father and others, and that, of course, the whole was a fraud. By such wicked means and unchristian practices, divers innocent persons lost their lives; and these wicked rogues wanted not greater persons (even of the ministry too) that did authorise and encourage them in their diabolical courses; and the like in my time happened here in Lancashire, where divers, both men and women, were accused of supposed witchcraft, and were so unchristianly and inhumanly handled, as to be stript stark naked, and laid upon tables and beds to be searched for their supposed witch-marks; so barbarous and cruel acts doth diabolical instigation, working upon ignorance and superstition, produce."

THE FOREST OF PENDLE—THE HAUNT OF THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.

The Forest of Pendle is a portion of the greater one of "Blackburnshire," and is so called from the celebrated mountain of that name, over the declivity of which it extends, and stretches in a long but interrupted descent of five miles to the Water of Pendle, a barren and dreary tract. Dr. Whitaker observes of this and the neighbouring forests, and the remark even yet holds good, "that they still bear the marks of original barrenness and recent cultivation; that they are still distinguished from the ancient freehold tracts around them, by want of old houses, old woods, high fences (for these were forbidden by the forest laws); by peculiarities of dialect and manners in their inhabitants; and lastly, by a general air of poverty which all the opulence of manufactures cannot remove." He considers that "at an uncertain period during the occupancy of the Lacies, the first principle of population (in these forests) commenced;" it was found that these wilds, bleak and barren as they were, might be occupied to some advantage in breeding young and depasturing lean "cattle, which were afterwards fattened in the lower domain. Vaccaries, or great upland pastures, were laid out for this purpose; booths or mansions erected upon them for the residence of herdsmen; and at the same time that herds of deer were permitted to range at large as heretofore, lawnds, by which are meant parks within a forest, were enclosed, in order to chase them with greater facility, or by confinement to produce fatter venison. Of these lawnds Pendle had New and Old Lawnd, with the contiguous Park of Ightenhill." In the early part of the 17th century the inhabitants of this district must have been, with few exceptions, a wretchedly poor and uncultivated race, having little communication with the occupants of the more fertile regions around them, and in whose minds superstition, even yet unextinguished, must have had absolute and uncontrollable domination. Under the disenchanting influence of steam, still much of the old character of its population remains. The "parting genius" of superstition still clings to the hoary hill tops and rugged slopes and mossy water sides, along which the old forest stretched its length, and the voices of ancestral tradition are still heard to speak from the depth of its quiet hollows, and along the course of its gurgling streams. He who visits Pendle will find that charms are yet generally resorted to amongst the lower classes; that there are hares which, in their persuasion, never can be caught, and which survive only to baffle and confound the huntsman; that each small hamlet has its peculiar and gifted personage, whom it is dangerous to offend; that the wise man and woman (the white witches of our ancestors) still continue their investigations of truth, undisturbed by the rural police or the progress of the schoolmaster; that each locality has its haunted house; that apparitions still walk their ghostly rounds,—and little would his reputation for piety avail that clergyman in the eyes of his parishioners, who should refuse to lay those "extravagant and erring spirits," when requested, by those liturgic ceremonies which the orthodoxy of tradition requires. In the early part of the reign of James I., and at the period when his execrable statute against witchcraft might have been sharpening its appetite by a temporary fast for the full meal of blood by which it was eventually glutted—for as yet it could count no recorded victims—two wretched old women with their families resided in the Forest of Pendle. Their names were Elizabeth Southernes and Ann Whittle, better known, perhaps, in the chronicles of witchcraft by the appellations of Old Demdike and Old Chattox [perhaps, Chadwick]. Both had attained, or reached the verge of the advanced age of eighty, and were evidently in a state of extreme poverty, subsisting with their families by occasional employment, by mendicancy, but principally, perhaps, by the assumption of that unlawful power which commerce with spirits of evil was supposed to procure, and of which their sex, life, appearance, and peculiarities might seem to the prejudiced neighbourhood in the Forest to render them not unsuitable depositaries.[132]

[For the details of the witchcraft alleged to be practised by these old crones and their families, with their trials and fate, see an article (page [185] suprâ) in the present volume, entitled "The Lancashire Witches of 1612.">[

PENDLE HILL AND ITS WITCHES.

(From Rev. Richard James's Iter Lancastrense.)

"Penigent, Pendle Hill, and Ingleborough,
Three such hills be not in all England thorough."[133]

I long to climb up Pendle[134]: Pendle stands
Round cop, surveying all the wild moor lands,
And Malkin's Tower,[135] a little cottage, where
Report makes caitiff witches meet, to swear
Their homage to the devil, and contrive
The deaths of men and beasts. Let who will dive
Into this baneful search, I wonder much
If judges' sentence with belief on such
Doth pass: then sure, they would not for lewd gain
Bad clients favour, or put good to pain
Of long pursuit; for terror of the fiend
Or love of God, they would give causes end
With equal justice. Yet I do confess
Needs must strange fancies poor old wives possess,
Who in those desert, misty moors do live,
Hungry and cold, and scarce see priest to give
Them ghostly counsel. Churches far do stand
In laymen's hands, and chapels have no land
To cherish learned curates,[136] though Sir John
Do preach for four pounds unto Haslingden.
Such yearly rent, with right of begging corn,
Makes John a sharer in my Lady's horn:
He drinks and prays, and forty years this life
Leading at home, keeps children and a wife.[137]
These are the wonders of our careless days:
Small store serves him who for the people prays.

WITCHCRAFT ABOUT 1654.

Dr. Webster, in his Display of Witchcraft, dated February 23, 1673, mentions two cases somewhat vaguely, in the following terms:—"I myself have known two supposed witches to be put to death at Lancaster, within these eighteen years [i.e., between 1654 and 1673] that did utterly deny any league or covenant with the devil, or even to have seen any visible devil at all; and may not the confessions of those (who both died penitent) be as well credited as the confessions of those that were brought to such confessions by force, fraud, or cunning persuasion and allurement?"

A LIVERPOOL WITCH IN 1667.

In the MS. Rental of Sir Edward More (p. 62), dated in the year 1667, it is gravely recorded that one of his tenants residing in Castle-street, Liverpool, was a witch, descended from a witch, and inheriting the faculty of witchcraft in common with her maiden sister:—"Widow Bridge, a poor old woman, her own sister Margaret Ley, being arraigned for a witch, confessed she was one, and when she was asked how long she had so been, replied, since the death of her mother, who died thirty years agone, and at her decease she had nothing to leave her and this widow Bridge, that were sisters, but her two spirits, and named then the elder spirit to this widow, and the other spirit to her, the said Margaret Ley. God bless me and all mine from such legacies. Amen."[138]

THE WITCH OF SINGLETON.

The village of Singleton [in the Fylde] is remarkable only for having been the residence of "Mag Shelton," a famous witch in her day. Her food, we are told, was haggis (at that time commonly used in the district) made of boiled groats, mixed with thyme or parsley. Many are the wild tales related of her dealings in the black art. The cows of her neighbours were constantly milked by her; the pitcher in which she conveyed the stolen milk away, walking before her in the shape of a goose. Under this disguise her depredations were carried on till a neighbour, suspecting the trick, struck the seeming goose, and lo! immediately it was changed into a broken pitcher, and the vaccine liquor flowed. Once only was this witch foiled by a powerful spell, the contrivance of a maiden, who, having seated her in a chair, before a large fire, and stuck a bodkin, crossed with two weaver's healds, about her person, thus fixed her irremovably to her seat.[139]

WITCHCRAFT AT CHOWBENT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

In the beginning of this [the eighteenth] century, one Katherine Walkden, an old woman of the township of Atherton, Chowbent, was committed to Lancaster as a witch. She was examined at Hulton Hall, where the magistrate then resided, by a jury of matrons, by whom a private teat was discovered, and upon this and other evidence (I suppose of equal importance) her mittimus was made out, but she died in gaol before the ensuing assizes.[140]

KILLING A WITCH.

Some years ago I formed the acquaintance of an elderly gentleman who had retired from business, after amassing an ample fortune by the manufacture of cotton. He was possessed of a considerable amount of general information—had studied the world by which he was surrounded—and was a leading member of the Wesleyan connexion. The faith element, however, predominated amongst his religious principles, and hence both he and his family were firm believers in witchcraft. On one occasion, according to my informant, both he and the neighbouring farmers suffered much from loss of cattle, and from the unproductiveness of their sheep. The cream was bynged [soured] in the churn, and would bring forth no butter. Their cows died mad in the shippons, and no farrier could be found who was able to fix upon the diseases which afflicted them. Horses were bewitched out of their stables through the loopholes, after the doors had been safely locked, and were frequently found strayed to a considerable distance when they ought to have been safe in their stalls. Lucky-stones had lost their virtues; horse-shoes nailed behind the doors were of little use; and sickles hung across the beams had no effect in averting the malevolence of the evil-doer. At length suspicion rested upon an old man, a noted astrologer and fortune-teller, who resided near New Church, in Rossendale, and it was determined to put an end both to their ill-fortune and his career, by performing the requisite ceremonials for "killing a witch." It was a cold November evening when the process commenced. A thick fog covered the valleys, and the wild winds whistled across the dreary moors. The farmers, however, were not deterred. They met at the house of one of their number, whose cattle were then supposed to be under the influence of the wizard; and having procured a live cock-chicken, they stuck him full of pins and burnt him alive, whilst repeating some magical incantation. A cake was also made of oatmeal, mixed with the urine of those bewitched, and, after having been marked with the name of the person suspected, was then burnt in a similar manner.... The wind suddenly rose to a tempest and threatened the destruction of the house. Dreadful moanings as of some one in intense agony, were heard without, whilst a sense of horror seized upon all within. At the moment when the storm was at the wildest, the wizard knocked at the door, and in piteous tones desired admittance. They had previously been warned by the "wise man" whom they had consulted, that such would be the case, and had been charged not to yield to their feelings of humanity by allowing him to enter. Had they done so, he would have regained all his influence, for the virtue of the spell would have been dissolved. Again and again did he implore them to open the door, and pleaded the bitterness of the wintry blast, but no one answered from within. They were deaf to all his entreaties, and at last the wizard wended his way across the moors as best he could. The spell, therefore, was enabled to have its full effect, and within a week the Rossendale wizard was locked in the cold embrace of death.[141]

A RECENT WITCH, NEAR BURNLEY.

Not many years ago there resided in the neighbourhood of Burnley an old woman, whose malevolent practices were supposed to render themselves manifest by the injuries she inflicted on her neighbours' cattle; and many a lucky-stone, many a stout horse-shoe and rusty sickle may now be found behind the doors or hung from the beams in the cow-houses and stables belonging to the farmers in that locality, which date their suspension from the time when this "witch" in reputation held the country-side in awe. Not one of her neighbours ever dared to offend her openly; and if she at any time preferred a request, it was granted at all hazards, regardless of inconvenience and expense. If, in some thoughtless moment, any one spoke slightingly, either of her or her powers, a corresponding penalty was threatened as soon as it reached her ears, and the loss of cattle, personal health, or a general "run of bad luck" soon led the offending party to think seriously of making peace with his powerful tormentor. As time wore on, she herself sickened and died; but before she could "shuffle off this mortal coil" she must needs transfer her familiar spirit to some trusty successor. An intimate acquaintance from a neighbouring township was consequently sent for in all haste, and on her arrival was immediately closeted with her dying friend. What passed between them has never fully transpired, but it is confidently affirmed that at the close of the interview this associate received the witch's last breath into her mouth, and with it the familiar spirit. The dreaded woman thus ceased to exist, but her powers for good or evil were transferred to her companion; and on passing along the road from Burnley to Blackburn, we can point out a farm-house at no great distance, with whose thrifty matron no one will yet dare to quarrel.

"LATING" OR "LEETING" WITCHES.

All-Hallows' Eve, Hallowe'en, &c. (from the old English halwen, saints), denote the vigil and day of All Saints, October 31 and November 1, a season abounding in superstitious observances. It was firmly believed in Lancashire that the witches assembled on this night at their general rendezvous in the Forest of Pendle,—a ruined and desolate farm-house, called the Malkin Tower (Malkin being the name of a familiar demon in Middleton's old play of The Witch; derived from maca, an equal, a companion). This superstition led to another, that of lighting, lating, or leeting the witches (from leoht, A.-S. light). It was believed that if a lighted candle were carried about the fells or hills from eleven to twelve o'clock at night, and burned all that time steadily, it had so far triumphed over the evil power of the witches, who, as they passed to the Malkin Tower, would employ their utmost efforts to extinguish the light, and the person whom it represented might safely defy their malice during the season; but if, by any accident the candle went out, it was an omen of evil to the luckless wight for whom the experiment was made. It was also deemed inauspicious to cross the threshold of that person until after the return from leeting, and not then unless the candle had preserved its light. Mr. Milner describes this ceremony as having been recently performed.[142]

FOOTNOTES:

[122] Hall's Chronicle.

[123] William of Worcester's Annales Rerum Anglicarum, pp. 460-61.

[124] Pictorial History of England, vol. ii. p. 81; also Hall's Chronicle.

[125] This is the title-page of an old 12mo chap-book, the date of publication of which is not shown.

[126] This was sold by auction only a few years ago.

[127] For Sir Philip Sidney's poetical description of this old game, see his Arcadia, or Brand's Popular Antiquities (Ed. 1841, vol. ii. p. 236).

[128] Baines's History of Lancashire.

[129] To prove the guilt of one of the prisoners, evidence was received that it was the opinion of a man not in court, that she had turned his beer sour. To prove the charge of murder, it was thought sufficient to attest that the sick person had declared his belief that he owed his approaching death to the maledictions of the prisoner. The bleeding of the corpse on the touch of Jennet Preston, was received as an incontrovertible evidence of guilt. It would be nearer the truth to say that nothing but fiction was received in evidence.

[130] Dr. Whitaker's Whalley, p. 528.

[131] W. N. S., in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vol. iv. p. 365.

[132] Mr. James Crossley's introduction to Potts's Discovery of Witches.

[133] This is an old local proverb, amongst the Yorkshire proverbs in Grose's Provincial Glossary. Ray gives it thus:—

"Ingleborough, Pendle, and Penigent,
Are the highest hills between Scotland and Trent."

[134] Pendle Hill, or Pen hull (i.e., the head hill) is situated on the borders of Lancashire, in the northern part of Whalley, and rises about 1800 feet above the level of the sea. The views from the summit are very extensive, including the Irish sea on one side, and York Minster (at a distance of nearly sixty miles) on the other. Notwithstanding the boast of the old proverb above, there are several hills round it of higher elevation.

[135] Malkin Tower, in the Forest of Pendle, and on the declivity of Pendle Hill, was the place where, according to vulgar belief, a sort of assembly or convention of reputed witches took place on Good Friday in 1612, which was attended by seventeen pretended witches and three wizards, who were afterwards brought to trial at Lancaster Assizes, and ten of these unfortunate creatures being found guilty, were executed.

[136] The laymen here referred to were not the patrons, but the persons officiating, who were called readers, and had no orders. Nearly every chapel in the parish of Whalley was destitute of land in 1636.

[137] The Sir John was probably John Butterworth, clerk, curate of Haslingden about this period. "Sir John" was a designation frequently applied to an illiterate priest. The old allowance to the priest in Haslingden, according to Bishop Gastrell, was 4l. Formerly parish clerks (and perhaps the priests of poor cures also) claimed once a year a bowl of corn from each parishioner of substance.

[138] The Moore Rental, p. 62.

[139] Rev. W. Thornber's History of Blackpool, p. 308.

[140] MS. Description of Atherton and Chowbent in 1787, by Dorning Rasbotham, Esq.

[141] See Transactions of Lancashire and Cheshire Historical Society.

[142] Year Book, part xiii. col. 1558.

---

PART II.

LOCAL CUSTOMS AND USAGES AT VARIOUS SEASONS.

Every greater or lesser festival of the church had its popular no less than its ecclesiastical observances. The three great events of human birth, marriage, and death, with their church rites of baptism, wedding, and burial, naturally draw towards them many customs and usages deemed fitting to such occasions. There are many customs in connexion with the free and the inferior tenants of manors, and their services to the manorial lord. Another class of customs will be found in observance in agricultural districts amongst the owners, occupiers, and labourers of farms and the peasantry generally. Lastly, as has been observed of the English generally, every great occasion, collective or individual, must have its festal celebration by eating and drinking in assembly. The viands and the beverages proper to particular occasions, therefore, constitute a not unimportant part of the local customs and usages of the people; and hence demand a place in a volume of Folk-Lore. To these subjects the present Part of this book is appropriated, and it is believed that they will be found not less strikingly illustrative of the manners and habits of the people of Lancashire, than the Superstitious Beliefs and Practices recorded in the first Part of this little work.

CHURCH AND SEASON FESTIVALS.

The feasts of dedication of parish churches to their particular tutelary saints, of course are much too numerous to be more than named in a work of this nature. The eve of such anniversary was the yearly wake [or watching] of the parishioners; and originally booths were erected in the churchyards, and feasting, dancing, and other revelry continued throughout the night. The parishioners attended divine service on the feast day, and the rest of that day was then devoted to popular festivities. So great grew the excesses committed during these prolonged orgies, that at length it became necessary to close the churches against the pageants and mummeries performed in them at these anniversaries, and the churchyards against the noisy, disorderly, and tumultuous merry-makings of the people. Thenceforth the great seat of the revels was transferred from the church and its graveyard, to the village green or the town market-place, or some space of open ground, large enough for popular assemblages to enjoy the favourite sports and pastimes of the period. Such were the general character and features of the wakes and feasts of country parishes, changing only with the name of the patron saint, the date of the celebration. But the great festivals of the church, celebrated alike in city and town, in village and hamlet, wherever a church "pointed its spire to heaven," were held with more general display, as uniting the ceremonials and rites of the church, with the popular festivities outside the sacred precincts. Of these great festivals the chief were New Year's Day, Twelfth Night (Jan. 5), Shrove or Pancake Tuesday, Ash-Wednesday or the first day of Lent, Mid-Lent or Mothering Sunday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Whitsuntide or Pentecost, May-Day, Midsummer Day (St. John's Eve and Day, June 23 and 24), Michaelmas Day (Sept. 29), and Christmas Day, with the Eve of the New Year. Of these we propose to notice various customs and practices as observed in Lancashire from the beginning to the close of the year.

NEW YEAR'S DAY.

In the church calendar this day is the festival of the Circumcision; in the Roman church it is the day of no fewer than seven saints. But it is much more honoured as a popular festival. Many families in Lancashire sit up on New Year's Eve till after twelve o'clock midnight, and then drink "a happy New Year" to each other over a cheerful glass. The church bells, too, in merry peals ring out the Old Year, and ring in the New. In the olden time the wassail-bowl, the spiced ale called "lamb's wool," and currant bread and cheese, were the viands and liquor in vogue on New Year's Eve and Day. A turkey is still a favourite dish at dinner on New Year's Day.

FIRE ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.

My maid, who comes from the neighbourhood of Pendle, informs me that an unlucky old woman in her native village, having allowed her fire to go out on New Year's Eve, had to wait till one o'clock on the following day before any neighbour would supply her with a light.[143]

NEW YEAR'S LUCK.

Should a female, or a light-haired male, be the first to enter a house on the morning of New Year's Day, it is supposed to bring bad luck for the whole of the year then commencing. Various precautions are taken to prevent this misfortune: hence many male persons with black or dark hair, are in the habit of going from house to house, on that day, "to take the New Year in;" for which they are treated with liquor, and presented with a small gratuity. So far is the apprehension carried, that some families will not open the door to any one until satisfied by the voice that he is likely to bring the house a year's good luck by entering it. Then, the most kindly and charitable woman in a neighbourhood will sternly refuse to give any one a light on the morning of New Year's Day, as most unlucky to the one who gives away light.

NEW YEAR'S FIRST CALLER.

For years past, an old lady, a friend of mine, has regularly reminded me to pay her an early visit on New Year's Day; in short, to be her first caller, and to "let the New Year in." I have done this for years, except on one occasion. When I, who am of fair complexion, have been her first visitor, she has enjoyed happy and prosperous years; but on the occasion I missed, some dark-complexioned, black-haired gentleman called;—sickness and trouble, and commercial disasters, were the result.[144] [This is at variance with the preceding paragraph as to the favourite colour of the hair, &c. Perhaps this differs in different localities; but of this at least we are assured, that any male, dark or fair, is regarded as a much more lucky "letter-in" of the New Year, than any girl or woman, be she blonde or brunette.]

In Lancashire, even in the larger towns, it is considered at this time of day particularly fortunate if "a black man" (meaning one of a dark complexion) be the first person that enters the house on New Year's Day.[145]

NEW YEAR'S DAY AND OLD CHRISTMAS DAY.

Some persons still keep Old Christmas Day. They always look for a change of weather on that day, and never on the 25th December. The common people have long begun their year with the 1st of January. The Act of 1752, so far as they were concerned, only caused the Civil and the Ecclesiastical Year to begin together. In Hopton's Year Book for A.D. 1612, he thus speaks of January 1st:—"January. New-yeares day in the morning being red, portends great tempest and warre."

AULD WIFE HAKES.

Christmas and New Year's tea parties and dances are called "Auld Wife Hakes" in the Furness district of Lancashire. The word hake is never used in the central part of the county.[146] Can this be from hacken (? from hacking, chopping small), a pudding made in the maw of a sheep or hog. It was formerly a standard dish at Christmas, and is mentioned by N. Fairfax, Bulk and Selvedge, 1674, p. 159.[147] [To hake, is to sneak, or loiter about.]

NEW YEAR'S GIFTS AND WISHES.

It was formerly a universal custom to make presents, especially from superiors to dependents, and vice versâ. Now the custom is chiefly confined to parents and elders giving to children or young persons. The practice of making presents on New Year's Day existed among the Romans, and also amongst the Saxons; from one or both of which peoples we have doubtless derived it. The salutation or greeting on New Year's Day is also of great antiquity. Pieces of Roman pottery have been found inscribed "A happy new year to you," and one inscriber wishes the like to himself and his son. In country districts, the homely phrase is: "A happy New Year t'ye, and monny on 'em." In more polished society, and in correspondence, "I wish you a happy New Year," or "The compliments of the season to you."

SHROVETIDE.

This name, given to the last few days before Lent, is from its being the custom for the people to go to the priest to be shriven, i.e., to make their confession, before entering on the great fast of Lent, which begins on Ash-Wednesday. Tide is the old Anglo-Saxon word for time, and it is still retained in Whitsuntide. After the people had made the confession required by the ancient discipline of the church, they were permitted to indulge in festive amusements, though restricted from partaking of any repasts beyond the usual substitutes for flesh: hence the Latin and continental name Carnaval,—literally "Carne, vale," "Flesh, farewell." In Lancashire and other Northern counties, three days in this week had their peculiar dishes, viz.: "Collop Monday," "Pancake Tuesday," and "Fritters Wednesday." Originally, collops were simply slices of bread, but these were long ago discarded for slices or rashers of bacon. Fritters were thick, soft cakes, made from flour batter, with or without sliced apples intermixed. Shrovetide was anciently a great time for cock-throwing and cock-fighting, and indeed of many other loose and cruel diversions, arising from the indulgences formerly granted by the church, to compensate for the long season of fasting and humiliation which commenced on Ash-Wednesday. As Selden observes—"What the church debars us on one day, she gives us leave to take on another; first we feast, and then we fast; there is a carnival, and then a Lent."

SHROVE-TUESDAY, OR PANCAKE TUESDAY.

The tossing of pancakes (and in some places fritters) on this day was a source of harmless mirth, and is still practised in the rural parts of Lancashire and Cheshire, with its ancient accompaniments:—

"It is the day whereon the rich and poor,
Are chiefly feasted on the self-same dish,
When every paunch till it can hold no more,
Is fritter-filled, as well as heart can wish;
And every man and maid do take their turn
And toss their pancakes up for fear they burn,
And all the kitchen doth with laughter sound,
To see the pancakes fall upon the ground."[148]

Another writer gives this injunction:—

"Maids, fritters and pancakes enow see ye make,
Let Slut have one pancake for company's sake."[149]

COCK-THROWING AND COCK-FIGHTING.

Cock-fighting was a barbarous pastime of high antiquity, being practised by the Greeks and Romans. In England it may be traced back to the twelfth century, when it appears to have been a childish or boyish sport. FitzStephen, in his description of London in the time of Henry II., says: "Every year, on the morning of Shrove-Tuesday, the schoolboys of the city of London, and of other cities and great towns, bring game cocks to their masters, and in the fore-part of the day, till dinner-time, are permitted to amuse themselves with seeing them fight." The school was the cock-pit, and the master the comptroller or director of the pastime. The victor, or hero of the school, who had won the greatest number of fights was carried about upon a pole by two of his companions. He held the cock in his hands, and was followed by other boys bearing flags, &c. Cock-throwing was a sport equally cruel; but only one cock was needed. The poor bird was tied to a peg or stake, by a string, sometimes long, sometimes short, and the boys from a certain distance, in turn, threw a stick at the cock. The victor in this case was he whose missile killed the poor bird. Amongst the recognised payments by the boys at the old Free Grammar Schools, was a penny yearly to the master for the privilege of cock-fighting or cock-throwing on Shrove-Tuesday. The statutes of the Manchester Free Grammar School, made about 1525, show a creditable desire to abolish these barbarous sports. One of these statutes, as to the fees of the master, provides that "he shall teach freely and indifferently [not carelessly, but impartially] every child and scholar coming to the same school, without any money or other reward taking there-for, as cock-penny, victor-penny," &c. Another is still more explicit:—"The scholars of the same school shall use no cock-fights, nor other unlawful games, and riding about for victors, &c., which be to the great let [hindrance] of virtue, and to charge and cost of the scholars, and of their friends." At a much later period, however, the scholars seem to have been allowed, on Easter Monday, to have archery practice at a target, one of the prizes being a dunghill-cock; but this was abolished by the late Dr. Smith, when high master.

COCK-FIGHTING ABOUT BLACKBURN.

About thirty years ago cock-fighting formed a common pastime about Mellor and Blackburn. A blacksmith, named Miller, used to keep a large number of cocks for fighting purposes. He was said to have "sold himself to the devil" in order to have money enough for betting; and it was remarked that he rarely won! If the practice is still followed, it is done in secret; but the number of game-cocks one sees kept by "sporting characters" can scarcely admit of any other inference.

COCK-PENNY AT CLITHEROE.

In the Clitheroe Grammar School an annual present at Shrovetide is expected from the scholars, varying in amount according to the circumstances of the parents. With the exception of this cock-penny, the school is free. The origin of this custom it is now difficult to trace. Shrove-Tuesday, indeed, was a sad day for cocks. Cock-fighting and throwing at cocks were among its barbarous sports. Schoolboys used to bring game-cocks to the master, and delight themselves in cock-fighting all the forenoon. In Scotland, the masters presided at the fight, and claimed the runaway cocks called "forgers" [? 'fugees] as their perquisites. The "cock-penny" may have been the substitute devised by a less cruel age for the ordinary gratuity.[150]

COCK-FIGHTING AT BURNLEY.

The head master of Burnley Grammar School used to derive a portion of his income from "cock-pence" paid to him by his pupils at Shrovetide. This has been disused for half a century. Latterly it degenerated into a "clubbing together" of pence by the pupils for the purpose of providing themselves with materials for a carouse. This was, therefore, at last prohibited.

SHROVETIDE CUSTOMS IN THE FYLDE.

Shrove-Tuesday was also called "Pancake Day," pancakes being the principal delicacy of the day. At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the "pancake bell" rang at Poulton church, and operations were immediately commenced. Great was the fun in "tossing" or turning the pancake by a sudden jerk of the pan; while the appetites of the urchins never flagged. Amongst the sports on Shrove-Tuesday, was pre-eminently cock-fighting; though bull and bear baiting were also among the rude and savage pastimes of the season.[151] In Poulton, on Shrove Tuesday, the pancake bell still warns the apprentice to quit his work, not indeed to go to the confessional and be shriven, but to prepare for the feast of the day.[152]

LENT.—ASH-WEDNESDAY.

The forty days' fast at the beginning of spring, in commemoration of the temptation and fast of our Saviour in the wilderness, was called Lent, from the Saxon name for Spring, lengten-tide. The fast, as prescribed by the church, consisted in abstaining from flesh, eggs, preparations of milk, and wine, and in making only one meal, and that in the evening. Fish was not forbidden, though many restricted themselves to pulse and fruit. Ash-Wednesday, the first day in Lent, was one of severe discipline in the Roman church; and to remind the faithful, at the beginning of the long penitential fast, that men are but "dust and ashes," the priest, with ashes of the wood of the palm-tree, marked the sign of the cross on the forehead of each confessing worshipper; whence the name. Since the Reformation the observance of Lent by fasting is not general in Lancashire.

MID-LENT SUNDAY, OR "MOTHERING SUNDAY."

The fourth or middle Sunday between Quadragesima (the first Sunday in Lent) and Easter Sunday. It was of old called Dominica Refectionis, or the Sunday of Refreshment, from the gospel of the day treating of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. It was originally called "Mothering Sunday," from the ancient usage of visiting the mother or cathedral churches of the dioceses, when Lent or Easter offerings were made. The public processions have been discontinued ever since the middle of the thirteenth century; but the name of Mothering Sunday is still retained, a custom having been substituted amongst the people of Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and other counties, of those who have left the paternal roof visiting their natural mother, and presenting to her small tokens of their filial affection, in money, trinkets, frumenty, or cakes. In some parts of Lancashire, the particular kind of cakes have long been fixed by old custom, being what are called "simnels," or, in the dialect of the district, "simlins;" and with these sweet-cakes, it was, and in places is still, the custom to drink warm, spiced ale, called "bragot." Another viand especially eaten on Mid-Lent Sunday was that of fig or fag-pies.

SIMNEL CAKES.

In days of yore, there was a little alleviation of the severities of Lent permitted to the faithful, in the shape of a cake called "Simnel." Two English towns claim the honour of its origin,—Shrewsbury and Devizes. The first makes its simnel in the form of a warden-pie, the crust being of saffron and very thick; the last has no crust, is star-shaped, and the saffron is mixed with a mass of currants, spice, and candied lemon. Bury, in Lancashire, is almost world-famous for its simnels and its bragot (or spiced sweet ale), on Mothering Sunday, or Mid-Lent. As to the name, Dr. Cowell, in his Law Directory or Interpreter (folio, 1727), derives simnell (Lat. siminellus), from the Latin simila, the finest part of the flour: "panis similageneus," simnel bread,—"still in use, especially in Lent." The English simnel was the purest white bread, as in the Book of Battle Abbey: "Panem regiæ mensæ apsum, qui simenel vulgo vocatur." (Bread fit for the royal table, which is commonly called simenel.) Dr. Cowell adds that it was sometimes called simnellus, as in the "Annals of the Church of Winchester," under the year 1042, "conventus centum simnellos" (the convent 100 simnels). He also quotes the statute of 51 Henry III. (1266-7), which enacts that "bread made into a simnel should weigh two shillings less than wastel bread;" and also an old manuscript of the customs of the House of Farendon (where it is called "bread of symenel"), to the same effect. Wastel was the finest sort of bread. Herrick, who was born in 1591, and died in 1674 (?) has the following in his Hesperides:—

TO DIANEME.

A Ceremony in Gloucester.

I'll to thee a Simnell bring
'Gainst thou go'st a mothering;
So that when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou'lt give me.

Bailey, in his Dictionary (folio 1764), says simnel is probably derived from the Latin simila, fine flour, and means, "a sort of cake or bun, made of fine flour, spice, &c." It will thus appear that simnel cakes can boast a much higher antiquity than the reign of Henry VII. (Lambert Simnel probably taking his name from them, as a baker, and not giving his name to them), and that they were not originally confined to any particular time or place.[153]

In the Dictionarius of John de Garlande, compiled at Paris in the thirteenth century, the word simineus or simnels, is used as the equivalent to the Latin placentæ, which are described as cakes exposed in the windows of the hucksters, to sell to the scholars of the University and others.[154]

BURY.

There is an ancient celebration in Bury, on Mid-Lent Sunday, there called "Simblin Sunday," when large cakes called "simblins" (i.e., simnels), are sold generally in the town, and the shops are kept open the whole day, except during Divine Service, for the purpose of vending this mysterious aliment.[155] These cakes are a compound of currants, candied lemon, sugar, and spice, sandwich-wise, between crust of short or puff paste. They are in great request at the period, not only in Bury, but in Manchester and most of the surrounding towns. A still richer kind, approaching the bride-cake in character, are called "Almond Simnels."

BRAGOT-SUNDAY.

Formerly it was the practice in Leigh to use a beverage on Mid-Lent Sunday, called "bragot," consisting of a kind of spiced ale; and also for the boys to indulge themselves by persecuting the women on their way to church, by secretly hooking a piece of coloured cloth to their gowns. A similar custom prevails in Portugal, at Carnival time, when many persons that walk the streets on the three last days of the Intrudo, have a long paper train hooked to their dress behind, on which the populace set up the cry of "Raboleve," which is continued till the butt of the joke is divested of his "tail." As to "Bragot," or more properly "Braget" Sunday, it is a name given in Lancashire to the fourth Sunday in Lent, which is in other places called "Mothering Sunday." Both appellations arise out of the same custom. Voluntary oblations, called Quadragesimalia (from the Latin name of Lent, signifying forty days), were formerly paid by the inhabitants of a diocese to the Mother Cathedral Church, and at this time prevailed the custom of processions to the Cathedral on Mid-Lent Sunday. On the discontinuance of processions, the practice of "mothering," or visiting parents, began; and the spiced ale used on these occasions was called braget, from the British bragawd, the name of a kind of metheglin. Whitaker[156] observes that this description of liquor was called "Welsh ale" by the Saxons. Since his time, the liquor drunk on this day is principally mulled ale, of which there is a large consumption in Lancashire on Mid-Lent Sunday.[157]

FAG-PIE SUNDAY.

Fig-pies—(made of dry figs, sugar, treacle, spice, &c., and by some described as "luscious," by others as "of a sickly taste")—or, as they are locally termed, "fag-pies," are, or were at least till recently, eaten in Lancashire on a Sunday in Lent [? Mid-Lent Sunday], thence called "Fag-pie Sunday."[158]

In the neighbourhood of Burnley Fag-pie Sunday is the second Sunday before Easter, or that which comes between Mid-Lent and Palm Sunday. About Blackburn fig-pies are always prepared for Mid-Lent Sunday, and visits are usually made to friends' houses in order to partake of the luxury.

GOOD FRIDAY.

This name is believed to be an adoption of the old German Gute or Gottes Freytag, Good or God's Friday, so called on the same principle that Easter Day in England was at no very remote period called "God's Day." The length of the Church Services in ancient times, on this day, occasioned it to be called Long Friday. In most parts of Lancashire, buns with crosses stamped upon them, and hence called "cross buns," are eaten on this day at breakfast; and it is in many places believed that a cross bun, preserved from one Good Friday to another, will effectually prevent an attack of the whooping-cough. Some writers declare that our cross buns at Easter are only the cakes which our pagan Saxon forefathers ate in honour of their goddess Eostre, and from which the Christian clergy, who were unable to prevent people from eating them, sought to expel the paganism by marking them with the cross. On the Monday before Good Friday the youths about Poulton-le-Fylde and its neighbourhood congregate in strange dresses, and visit their friends' houses, playing antics, on which occasion they are styled "the Jolly Lads."[159] It is stated that in some places in Lancashire, Good Friday is termed "Cracklin' Friday," as on that day it is a custom for children to go with a small basket to different houses, to beg small wheaten cakes, which are something like the Jews' Passover bread; but made shorter or richer, by having butter or lard mixed with the flour. "Take with thee loaves and cracknels." (1 Kings xiv.)

EASTER.

This name is clearly traced to that of Eostre, a goddess to whom the Saxons and other Northern nations sacrificed in the month of April, in which our Easter usually falls. Easter Sunday is held as the day of our Lord's resurrection. Connected with this great festival of the Church are various local rites and customs, pageants and festivities; such as pace or Pasche [i.e., Easter] egging, lifting or heaving, Ball play, the game of the ring, guisings or disguisings, fancy cakes, "old hob," "old Ball," or hobby horse, &c.

Easter-Day is a moveable feast, appointed to be held on the first Sunday after the full moon immediately following the 21st of March; but if the moon happen to be at the full on a Sunday, then Easter is held on the following Sunday and not on the day of the full moon. Thus, Easter-Day cannot fall earlier than the 22nd of March, nor later than the 25th of April, in any year.

PASCHE, PACE, OR EASTER EGGS.

In Lancashire and Cheshire children go round the village and beg eggs for the Easter dinner, accompanying their solicitation by a short song, the burthen of which is addressed to the farmer's dame, asking for "an egg, bacon, cheese, or an apple, or any good thing that will make us merry;" and ending with

And I pray you, good dame, an Easter egg.

In the North of Lancashire, Cumberland, Westmorland, and other parts of the North of England, boys beg on Easter Eve eggs to play with, and beggars ask for them to eat. These eggs are hardened by boiling and tinged with the juice of herbs, broom-flowers, &c. The eggs being thus prepared, the boys go out and play with them in the fields, rolling them up and down like bowls, or throwing them up like balls into the air.[160]

PACE EGGING IN BLACKBURN.

The old custom of "pace egging" is still observed in Blackburn. It is an observance limited to the week before Easter-Day, and is said to be traceable up to the theology and philosophy of the Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks, and Romans; among all of whom an egg was an emblem of the universe, the production of the Supreme Divinity. The Christians adopted the egg as an emblem of the resurrection, since it contains the elements of a future life.

The immediate occasion of the observance may have been in the resumption on the part of our forefathers of eggs as a food at Easter on the termination of Lent; hence the origin of the term pace or pasque [rather from Pasche] that is, Easter egg. In a curious roll of the expenses of the household of Edward I., communicated to the Society of Antiquaries, is the following item in the accounts for Easter Sunday: "For four hundred and a half of eggs, eighteen pence." The following prayer, found in the ritual of Pope Paul V., composed for the use of England, Ireland, and Scotland, illustrates the meaning of the custom: "Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this Thy creation of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance to Thy faithful servants, eating it in thankfulness to Thee, on account of the resurrection of our Lord." In Blackburn at the present day, pace egging commences on the Monday and finishes on the Thursday before the Easter-week. Young men in groups varying in number from three to twenty, dressed in various fantastic garbs, and wearing masks—some of the groups accompanied by a player or two on the violin—go from house to house singing, dancing, and capering. At most places they are liberally treated with wine, punch, or ale, dealt out to them by the host or hostess. The young men strive to disguise their walk and voice; and the persons whom they visit use their efforts on the other hand to discover who they are; in which mutual endeavour many and ludicrous mistakes are made. Here you will see Macbeth and a fox-hunter arm in arm; Richard the Third and a black footman in familiar converse; a quack doctor and a bishop smoking their pipes and quaffing their "half and half;" a gentleman and an oyster-seller; an admiral and an Irish umbrella-mender; in short, every variety of character, some exceedingly well-dressed, and the characters well sustained. A few years ago parties of this description were much subject to annoyance from a gang of fellows styled the "Carr-laners," (so-called, because living in Carr-lane, Blackburn,) armed with bludgeons, who endeavoured to despoil the pace-eggers. Numerous fights, with the usual concomitants of broken eggs and various contusions, were amongst the results. This lawless gang of ruffians is now broken up, and the serious affrays between different gangs of pace-eggers have become of comparatively rare occurrence. An accident, however, which ended fatally, occurred last year [? 1842]. Two parties had come into collision, and during the affray one of the young men had his skull fractured, and death ensued. Besides parties of the sort we have attempted to describe, children, both male and female, with little baskets in their hands, dressed in all the tinsel-coloured paper, ribbons, and "doll rags" which they can command, go up and down from house to house; at some receiving pence, at others eggs, at others gingerbread, some of which is called hot gingerbread, having in it a mixture of ginger and Cayenne, causing the most ridiculous contortions of feature in the unfortunate being who partakes of it. Houses are literally besieged by these juvenile troops from morning till night. "God's sake! a pace-egg," is the continual cry. There is no particular tune, but various versions of pace-egging and other songs are sung. The eggs obtained by the juveniles are very frequently boiled and dyed in logwood and other dyes, on the Easter Sunday, and rolled in the fields one egg at another till broken. Great quantities of mulled ale are drunk in this district on Easter Sunday. The actors do not take the eggs with them; they are given at the places where they call. The actors are mostly males; but in the course of one's peregrinations on one of these evenings it is not unusual to discover one or two of the fair sex in male habiliments, and supporting the character admirably. This old custom of pace-egging was again observed this year [? 1843] notwithstanding the fatal accidents we have mentioned, without any molestation from the authorities, and without any accident occurring.[161]

PACE OR PEACE EGGING IN EAST LANCASHIRE.

The week before Easter is a busy one for the boys and girls in East Lancashire. They generally deck themselves up in ribbons and fantastic dresses, and go about the country begging for money or eggs. Occasionally they go out singly, and then are very careful to provide themselves with a neat little basket, lined with moss. Halfpence or eggs, or even small cakes of gingerbread, are alike thankfully received. Sometimes the grown young men are very elaborately dressed in ribbons, and ornamented with watches and other jewellery. They then go out in groups of five or six, and are attended by a "fool" or "tosspot," with his face blackened. Some of them play on musical instruments while the rest dance. Occasionally young women join in the sport, and then the men are dressed in women's clothing, and the women in men's.

EASTER SPORTS AT THE MANCHESTER FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

A gentleman, using the initials G. H. F., some years ago communicated to a local paper the following facts relative to the sports of the scholars at Easter in the early part of the nineteenth century:—"On Easter Monday the senior scholars had a treat and various festivities. On the morning of that day, masters and scholars assembled in the school-room, with a band of music, banners, &c. One essential thing was a target, in a square frame, to which were suspended one or more pairs of silver buckles, constituting the chief archery prize, the second being a good dunghill-cock. These were the only prizes, and they were duly contended for by the scholars, the whole being probably devised in the old times, with a view to keep the youth of Manchester in the practice of the old English archery, which on the invention of gunpowder and fire-arms fell rapidly into desuetude. The gay procession thus provided, the scholars, bearing their bows and arrows, set out from the Grammar School, headed by some reverend gentleman of the Collegiate church, by the masters of the school, the churchwardens, &c.—the band playing some popular airs of the day—and took its route by Long Millgate, to Hunt's Bank, and along the Walkers' [i.e., fullers'] Croft, to some gardens, where it was then the custom for artizans on Sunday mornings to buy 'a penny posy.' Here the targets were set up, and the 'artillery practice,' as it was the fashion to call archery, commenced. At its close the prizes were awarded, and the procession returned in the same order, along Hunt's Bank, the Apple Market, Fennel Street, Hanging Ditch, and Old Millgate, to the Bull's Head, in the Market Place,—in those days a very celebrated house, where the junior boys were treated with frumenty—wheat stewed, and then boiled in milk with raisins, currants, and spices, till it forms a thick, porridge-like mess, exceedingly palatable to young folk. The masters and assistants, and the senior scholars, partook of roast beef, plum pudding, &c. The abolition of this Easter Monday custom, said to have been by Dr. Smith, was by no means relished by the Grammar School boys."

"LIFTING" OR "HEAVING" AT EASTER.

This singular custom formerly prevailed in Manchester, and it is now common in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, in the parish of Whalley, at Warrington, Bolton, and in some other parts of Lancashire, especially in rural districts, though it is by no means general, and in some places is quite unknown. A Manchester man, in 1784, thus describes it:—"Lifting was originally designed to represent our Saviour's resurrection. The men lift the women on Easter Monday, and the women the men on Tuesday. One or more take hold of each leg, and one or more of each arm, near the body, and lift the person up, in a horizontal position, three times. It is a rude, indecent, and dangerous diversion, practised chiefly by the lower class of people. Our magistrates constantly prohibit it by the bellman, but it subsists at the end of the town; and the women have of late years converted it into a money job. I believe it is chiefly confined to these northern counties."

The following [translated] extract from a document entitled Liber Contrarotulatoris Hospicii, 13 Edward I. [1225], shows the antiquity of the custom:—"To the Ladies of the Queen's Chamber, 15th of May; seven ladies and damsels of the queen, because they took [or lifted] the king in his bed, on the morrow of Easter, and made him pay fine for the peace of the king, which he made of his gift by the hand of Hugh de Cerr [or Kerr], Esq., to the lady of Weston, £14."[162]

On Easter Monday, between Radcliffe and Bolton, we saw a number of females surround a male, whom they mastered, and fairly lifted aloft in the air. It was a merry scene. What humour in the faces of these Lancashire witches! What a hearty laugh! What gratification in their eyes! The next day would bring reprisals: the girls would then be the party to be subjected to this rude treatment.[163]

EASTER GAME OF THE RING.

In his History of Lancashire, Mr. Baines states that the Easter Game of the Ring, little known in other parts of Lancashire, prevails at Padiham, in the parish of Whalley, on the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in Easter week; when young people, having formed themselves into a ring, tap each other repeatedly with a stick, after the manner of the holiday folks at Greenwich. The stick may be a slight difference; but the game of Easter ring, with taps of the hand, or the dropping of a handkerchief at the foot, the writer has seen played at Easter and at Whitsuntide in many villages and hamlets round Manchester.

PLAYING "OLD BALL."

This is an Easter custom. A huge and rude representation of a horse's head is made; the eyes are formed of the bottoms of old broken wine or other "black bottles"; the lower and upper jaws have large nails put in them to serve as teeth; the lower jaw is made to move by a contrivance fixed at its back end, to be operated on by the man who plays "Old Ball." There is a stick, on which the head rests, which is handled and used by the operator, to move "Old Ball" about, and as a rest. Fixed to the whole is a sheet of rough sacking-cloth, under which the operator puts himself, and at the end of which is a tail. The operator then gets into his position, so as to make the whole as like a horse as possible. He opens the mouth by means of the contrivance before spoken of. Through the opening he can see the crowd, and he runs first at one and then another, neighing like a horse, kicking, rising on his hind legs, performing all descriptions of gambols, and running after the crowd; the consequence is, the women scream, the children are frightened, and all is one scene of the most ridiculous and boisterous mirth. This was played by sundry "Old Balls" some five years ago, at the pace-egging time, at Blackburn; but it has gradually fallen into disuse. This year [? 1843] our informant has not heard it even mentioned. [It is still continued in various parts of Lancashire, amongst others at Swinton, Worsley, &c.] The idea of this rude game may have been taken from the hobby-horse in the ancient Christmas mummings.—Pictorial History of Lancashire. [From the editor of the above work calling this "playing the old ball," and never marking the word ball by a capital B, he seems to have supposed it meant a spherical ball; whereas "Old Ball" throughout Lancashire is a favourite name for a cart-horse,—See a further notice of "Old Ball" under Christmas.—Eds.]

ACTING WITH "BALL."

This is a curious practice, and is often substituted for "pace-egging." The bones of a horse's head are fixed in their natural position by means of wires. The bottoms of glass bottles do duty for eyes; and the head is covered with the skin of a calf. A handle is then fixed in the upper portion of the head, and the whole skull is supported on a stout pole shod with an iron hoop. A sack is then made to fit the skull neatly, and to hang low enough down so as to hide the person who plays "Ball." The sack, or cover, is also provided with a tail so as to look as nearly like a horse's tail as possible. Some five or six then take "Ball" about the country and play him where they can obtain leave. Sometimes a doggrel song is sung, while "Ball" prances about and snaps at the company. As soon as the song is finished, "Ball" plays his most boisterous pranks, and frequently hurts some of the company by snapping their fingers between his teeth when they are defending themselves from his attacks. The writer has seen ladies so alarmed as to faint and go into hysterics:—on this account "Ball" is now nearly extinct in the neighbourhoods of Blackburn, Burnley, &c.

EASTER CUSTOMS IN THE FYLDE.

Children and young people as Easter approached, claimed their "pace-eggs" [from Pasche, the old term for Easter] as a privileged "dow" [dole]. On the afternoon of Easter Sunday the young of both sexes amused themselves in the meadows with these eggs, which they had dyed by the yellow blossoms of the "whin," or of other colours by dyeing materials. Others performed a kind of Morris or Moorish dance or play, called "Ignagning," which some have supposed to be in honour of St. Ignatius; but more probably its derivation is from "ignis Agnæ," a virgin and martyr who suffered at the stake about this time of the year. "Ignagning," says the Rev. William Thornber,[164] "has almost fallen into disuse, and a band of boys, termed 'Jolly Lads,' has succeeded, who, instead of reciting the combat of the Turk and St. George, the champion of England, the death of the former, and his restoration to life by the far-travelled doctor, now sing of the noble deeds of Nelson and Collingwood; retaining, however, the freaks and jokes of 'Old Toss-pot,' the fool of the party, who still jingles the small bells hung about his dress." Easter Monday was a great day for the young people of the neighbourhood going to the yearly fair at Poulton. Happy was the maiden who could outvie her youthful acquaintance in exhibiting a greater number of "white cakes," the gifts of admiring youths; thereby proving beyond dispute the superior effects of her charms. Then the excitement and exertion of the dance! At that time dancing consisted in the feet beating time to a fiddle, playing a jig in double quick time; one damsel succeeding another, and striving to outdo her companions in her power of continuing this violent exercise, for much honour was attached to success in this respect, the bystanders meanwhile encouraging their favourites, as sportsmen do their dogs, with voice and clapping of hands. Such was—

"The dancing pair that simply sought renown,
By holding out, to tire each other down."

On Good Friday a jorum of browis and roasted wheat or frumenty was the treat for dinner; white jannocks, introduced by the Flemish refugees, and throdkins[165] were also then eaten with great zest by the hungry labourer.[166]

MAY-DAY CUSTOMS.

The Romans commenced the festival of Flora on the 28th April, and continued it through several days in May, with various ceremonies and rejoicings, and offerings of spring flowers and the branches of trees in bloom, which, through the accommodation of the Romish church to the pagan usages, remain to us as May-day celebrations to the present time. It was formerly a custom in Cheshire [and Lancashire] for young men to place birchen boughs on May-day over the doors of their mistresses, and mark the residence of a scold by an alder bough. There is an old rhyme which mentions peculiar boughs for various tempers, as an owler (alder) for a scolder, a nut for a slut, &c. Ormerod thinks the practice is disused; but he mentions that in the main street of Weverham are two May-poles, which are decorated on May-day with all due attention to the ancient solemnity; the sides are hung with garlands, and the top terminated by a birch, or other tall slender tree with its leaves on; the bark being peeled off and the stem spliced to the pole, so as to give the appearance of one tree from the summit.[167] The principal characteristics of May-day celebrations and festivities are of rejoicing that the reign of winter is at an end, and that of early summer with its floral beauties, has come. The hawthorn furnishes its white blossoms in profusion; and the tall May-poles, gaily decorated with garlands of leaves and flowers, and festoons of ribbons of the brightest colours, are centres of attraction on the village green, for the youth of both sexes to dance the May-pole dance, hand-in-hand, in a ring.

MAY SONGS.

Amongst the old customs of rural Lancashire and Cheshire is that of a small party of minstrels or carollers going round from house to house during the last few evenings of April, and singing a number of verses, expressive of rejoicing that "cold winter is driven away," and that the season is "drawing near to the merry month of May." The singers are generally accompanied by one or two musical instruments, a violin and clarionet for instance, and the tunes are very quaint and peculiar. Of course for their good wishes for the master of the house, with his "chain of gold," for the mistress, with "gold along her breast," and the children "in rich attire," a trifling gift in money is made.[168]

MAY-DAY EVE.

The evening before May-day is termed "Mischief Night" by the young people of Burnley and the surrounding district. All kinds of mischief are then perpetrated. Formerly shopkeepers' sign-boards were exchanged; "John Smith, grocer," finding his name and vocation changed, by the sign over his door, to "Thomas Jones, tailor," and vice versâ; but the police have put an end to these practical jokes. Young men and women, however, still continue to play each other tricks, by placing branches of trees, shrubs, or flowers under each others' windows, or before their doors. All these have a symbolical meaning, as significant, if not always as complimentary, as "the Language of Flowers." Thus, "a thorn" implies "scorn;" "wicken" (the mountain ash) "my dear chicken;" a "bramble," for one who likes to "ramble," &c. Much ill-feeling is at times engendered by this custom.

MAY-DAY CUSTOM.

On the 1st of May the following custom is observed in some parts of Lancashire, though now very nearly obsolete. Late on the preceding night, or early on that morning, small branches of trees are placed at the doors of houses in which reside any marriageable girls. They are emblematical of the character of the maidens, and have a well-understood language of their own, which is rhythmical. Some speak flatteringly; others quite the reverse; the latter being used when the character of the person for whom it is intended is not quite "above suspicion." A malicious rustic wag may sometimes put a branch of the latter description where it is not deserved; but I believe this is an exception. I only remember a few of the various trees which are laid under contribution for this purpose. Wicken is the local name for mountain ash.

Wicken, sweet chicken.

Oak, for a joke.

Gorse, in bloom, rhymes with "at noon" (I omit the epithet given here to an unchaste woman) and used for a notorious delinquent.[169]

PENDLETON AND PENDLEBURY MAY-POLE AND GAMES.

The people of these townships for centuries celebrated May-day (a relic of the ancient heathen festival of the goddess Flora) by the May-pole, to which the watchful care of Charles I. and his royal progenitor extended, when they printed in their proclamation and "Book of Sports," that after the end of divine service on Sundays, their "good people be not disturbed, letted, nor discharged from the having of May-games, and the setting up of the May-poles," &c. The ancient practice was to erect the pole on May-day, and to surround it with a number of verdant boughs, brought from "Blakeley Forest," which were decked usually with garlands and flowers, and around which the people assembled to dance and celebrate their May-games. "Pendleton Pole" is of much higher antiquity than the Reformation; for in the will of Thomas del Bothe, who died 47 Edw. III. (1373) the sum of 30s. is bequeathed towards making the causeway at Pendleton near "le Poll." In the time of the Commonwealth the Pendleton Pole was taken down, in virtue of an ordinance of Parliament against May-poles, and such other "heathenish vanities;" but it was re-erected at the Restoration, and still presents its lofty head, surmounted by a Royal Crown; though much of the spacious field of the ancient May-games is now occupied by buildings [in 1780 the township was little more than a fold of cottages, with its May-pole and green], and much of the spirit of the rural sports of our ancestors has subsided. In Pasquil's "Palinodia," (published in 1654) the decay of May-games two centuries ago, is recorded and lamented:—

"Happy the age, and harmless were the days
(For then true love and amity was found);
When every village did a May-pole raise,
And Whitsun ales and May-games did abound,
And all the lusty younkers in a rout,
With merry lasses, danced the rod about;
Then friendship to their banquets bid the guests,
And poor men fared the better for their feasts.

The lords of castles, manors, towns, and towers,
Rejoiced when they beheld the farmers flourish,
And would come down unto the summer bowers,
To see the country gallants dance the Morice.

···

MAY CUSTOM IN SPOTLAND.

A custom of high antiquity and of primitive simplicity prevails in the district of Spotland, in the parish of Rochdale. On the first Sunday in May the young people of the surrounding country assemble at Knott Hill yearly, for the purpose of presenting to each other their mutual greetings and congratulations on the arrival of this cheering season, and of pledging each other in the pure beverage which flows from the mountain springs.[170]

MAY-DAY CUSTOMS IN THE FYLDE.

On the morning of the first day of May, many a May-bough[171] ornamented the villages and towns of the Fylde, inserted by some mischievous youngsters, at the risk of life or limb, in the chimney-tops of their neighbours' houses. Then came a most imposing piece of pageantry, that of "bringing-in May;" when a king and queen, with their royal attendants and rustic band of music, mummers, &c., attracted the attention and admiration of the country side. May-day with its pageants, sports, games, dances, garlands, and May-poles, was peculiarly a season of hilarity, merry-making, and good humour. The pageant of "bringing-in May," was a favourite pastime at Poulton about fifty years ago [i.e., about 1787]; the causeways were strewed with flowers, and at the door of the house of each respectable inhabitant, sweetmeats, ale, and even wine, were handed about as a treat and refreshment to the young, who were thus affording them amusement. By degrees the pageant ceased; a vigorous attempt, however, was made to revive it in 1818, with all its honours; but the age-worn custom proved to be utterly incapable of resuscitation. Another writer,[172] however, states that at Poulton-le-Fylde and in its neighbourhood, some of the customs of the olden time are still observed. Very recently May-day was ushered in with a dance round the May-pole, and the lavish exhibition of garlands and merriment.

THE MAY-POLE OF LOSTOCK.

The May-pole of Lostock, a village near Bolton, is probably the most ancient upon record. It is mentioned in a charter by which the town of Westhalchton [? Westhaughton] was granted to the Abbey of Cockersand, about the reign of King John. The pole, it appears, had superseded a cross, and formed one of the landmarks which defined the boundaries, and it must therefore have been a permanent and not an annual erection. The words of the charter are:—"De Lostock meypull, ubi crux situ fuit, recta linea in austro, usque ad crucem super le Tunge."[173] (From Lostock May-pole, where the cross was formerly, in a straight line to the south, as far as to the cross upon the Tunge.)

ROBIN HOOD AND MAY-GAMES AT BURNLEY, IN 1579.

In a letter from Edmond Assheton, Esq., then a magistrate of Lancashire, and aged 75, to William Farington, Esq. (who was also in the commission of the peace), dated Manchester, May 12, 1580, the writer thus complains of "lewd sports" and sabbath-breaking:—"I am sure, Right Worshipful, you have not forgotten the last year stirs at Burnley about Robin Hood and the May-games. Now, considering that it is a cause that bringeth no good effect, being contrary to the best, therefore a number of the justices of the peace herein in Salford Hundred have consulted with the [Ecclesiastical] Commission [of Queen Elizabeth] to suppress those lewd sports, tending to no other end but to stir up our frail natures to wantonness; and mean not to allow neither old custom. Then their excuse in coming to the church in time of divine service, for every man may well know with what minds, after their embracings, kissings, and unchaste beholding of each other, they can come presently prepared to prayer. A fit assembly to confer of worse causes, over and besides their marching and walking together in the night time. But chiefly because it is a profanation of the Sabbath-day, and done in some places in contempt of the gospel and the religion established, I pray God it be not so at Burnley. It is called in the Scriptures the Lord's Day, and was not lawful under the old law to carry a pitcher of water on the Sabbath, or to gather sticks, but it was death. Such regard was had in the time of the law to keeping holy the Sabbath. And do not we withdraw even the practice and use of good and godly works upon the same day? Then in reason the other should cease. Tell me, I pray you, if you can find in the presence of the foresaid lewd pastimes, good example or profit to the commonwealth, the defence of the realm, honour to the prince, or to the glory of God? Then, let them continue; otherwise, in my opinion, they are to be withdrawn. For to that end I address these contents unto you, because we would not deal for any reformation within the limits of your walk; and for the better credit of the consent of the Commissioners, you may peruse how they mean to proceed against them of Burnley who have revived their former follies, if you redress not the same.... Your assured always to use, Edmond Assheton. It will not be long afore [there] will be order taken for this dancing, either by the Privy Council or by the Bishops by their commandment. My meaning is, I would have you to do it yourself, which will with one word be brought to pass.... If you would set your hand to this precept with us, I think it would end these disorders within prescribed."[174]

MAY-DAY IN MANCHESTER.

In the now olden days of coaching, this was a great day in Manchester. The great coaching establishments, those of the royal mails, north, south, east, and west, and all the highflyers, &c., turned out all their spare vehicles and horses for a grand procession through the principal streets of the town. Many of the mail and other coaches were newly painted for the occasion; all the teams were provided with new harness and gearing; the coachmen and guards had new uniforms; Jehu wore a great cockade of ribbons, and a huge bouquet of flowers, and he handled the new ribbons with a dignity and grace peculiar to this almost defunct race. The guard, in bright scarlet uniform, blew on his Kent bugle some popular tune of the time; and the horses wore cockades and nosegays about their heads and ears; almost every coach on this occasion was drawn by four horses, their coats shining with an extra polish for May-day; and the cavalcade was really a pretty sight on a bright May-day morning. Second only to it in decorative splendour, and in horseflesh, was the display of lorries, wagons, drays, and carts, with their fine draught-horses. Then came the milk-carts, with their drivers in dresses covered with ribbons. These equine and asinine glories have passed away, extinguished by the rail.

QUEEN OF THE MAY, &c.

The custom of choosing a May King and Queen is now disused. May-games, and the May-pole, were kept up at the quiet little village of Downham when all other places in the neighbourhood had ceased to celebrate May-day. Nothing is now made of May-day, if we except the custom of carters dressing their horses' heads and tails with ribbons on that day.

WHITSUNTIDE.

The Feast of Pentecost, or Whitsuntide, was formerly kept as a high church festival, and by the people was celebrated by out-door sports and festivities, and especially by the drinking assemblies called "Whitsun-Ales." One writer (inquiring whether the custom of "lifting at Easter" is a memorial of Christ being raised up from the grave) observes that, "there seems to be a trace of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the heads of the Apostles, in what passes at Whitsuntide Fair, in some parts of Lancashire; where one person holds a stick over the head of another, whilst a third, unperceived, strikes the stick, and thus gives a smart blow to the first. But this probably is only local."[175] "Whit-week," as it is generally called, has gradually grown to be the great yearly holiday of the hundred of Salford, and the manufacturing district of which Manchester is the centre. This seems to have arisen from the yearly races at Manchester being held from the Wednesday to the Saturday inclusive, in that week. After the rise of Sunday-schools, their conductors, desiring to keep youth of both sexes from the demoralizing recreations of the racecourse, took them to fields in the neighbourhood and held anniversary celebrations, tea-parties, &c., in the schools. The extension of the railway system has led to "cheap trips" and "school excursion trains" during Whitsuntide; which are occasionally taken to Wales, the Lakes, and other great distances. Canal boats take large numbers of Sunday scholars to Dunham Park, Worsley, &c. Short excursions are made in carts, temporarily fitted with seats. It is customary for the cotton-mills, &c., to close for Whitsuntide week to give the hands a holiday; the men going to the races, &c., and the women visiting Manchester on Whit-Saturday, thronging the markets, the Royal Exchange, the Infirmary Esplanade, and other public places; and gazing in at the "shop windows," whence this day is usually called "Gaping Saturday." The collieries, too, are generally closed in Whit-week; and in some the underground horses are brought to the surface to have a week's daylight, the only time they enjoy it during the year. The mills, coalpits, &c., generally have the requisite repairs of machinery, &c., made during this yearly holiday—those at least which would necessitate the stoppage of the work at another time.

WHIT-TUESDAY.—KING AND QUEEN AT DOWNHAM.

The last rural queen chosen at Downham is still living in Burnley. The lot always fell to the prettiest girl in the village, and certainly it must be admitted that in this instance they exercised good judgment. A committee of young men made the selection; then an iron crown was procured and dressed with flowers. The king and queen were ornamented with flowers, a procession was then formed, headed by a fiddler. This proceeded from the Inn to the front of "Squire Assheton's," Downham Hall, and was composed of javelin men, and all the attendants of royalty. Chairs were brought out of the Hall for the king and queen, ale was handed round, and then a dance was performed on the lawn, the king and queen leading off. The procession next passed along through the village to the green, where seats were provided for a considerable company. Here again the dancing began, the king and queen dancing the first set. The afternoon was spent in the usual games, dances, &c. On the next night all the young persons met at the inn, on invitation from the king and queen—each paid a shilling towards the "Queen's Posset." A large posset was then made and handed round to the company. After this the evening was spent in dancing and merry-making.

ROGATIONS OR GANG DAYS.

These days are so named from the Litanies or Processions of the Church, before Holy Thursday or Ascension Day. It was a general custom in country parishes to "gang" or go round the boundaries and limits of the parish, on one of the three days before Holy Thursday, or the Feast of our Lord's Ascension; when the minister, accompanied by his churchwardens and parishioners, was wont to deprecate the vengeance of God, beg a blessing on the fruits of the earth, and preserve the rights and properties of the parish. In some parishes this perambulation took place on Ascension Day itself. In a parochial account-book, entitled "A Record of the Acts and Doings of the thirty men of the parish of Kirkham," Lancashire, is the following entry under the year 1665: "Spent on going perambulations on Ascension Day, 1s. 6d."

OATMEAL CHARITY AT INCE.

Under the name of Richardson's Charity, a distribution takes place annually on the Feast of the Ascension or Holy Thursday (ten days before Whit-Sunday) of five loads of oatmeal, each load weighing 240 lb. Three loads are given to the poor of the township of Ince, one to the poor of Abram, and the other to the poor of Hindley; adjacent townships, all in the parish of Wigan. The Charity Commissioners, in their twenty-first report, state that the meal is provided by Mr. Cowley, of Widnes, the owner of an estate in Ince, formerly the property of Edward Richardson, who, as the commissioners were informed, directed by his will that this distribution should be made for fifty years from the time of his death. The year 1784 was given as the date of this benefaction, in the Returns made to Parliament in 1786. Mr. Cowley has himself had the disposal of this charity. The charity would, according to this statement, legally cease in 1836.

NAMES FOR MOONS IN AUTUMN.

In Lancashire, as well as in the South of Scotland and the South of Ireland, the moon of September is commonly called "the harvest moon," that of October "the huntsman's moon."[176]

"GOOSE-INTENTOS."

In "An Universal Etymological English Dictionary," by N. Bailey, London, 1745, I read:—"Goose-intentos, a goose claimed by custom by the husbandmen in Lancashire, upon the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, when the old Church prayers ended thus: 'ac bonis operis jugiter præstat esse intentos.'" These words occur in the old Sarum books, in the Collect for the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost; in the present Liturgy, in that for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity.[177]

Blount, in his Glossographia, says that "in Lancashire the husbandmen claim it as a due to have a goose-intentos on the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost: which custom takes its origin from the last word of the old Church prayer of that day:—'Tua nos Domine, quæ sumus, gratia semper et præveniat et sequatur; ac bonis operibus jugiter præstet esse intentos.' The vulgar people called it 'a goose with ten toes.'" Beckwith, in his new edition of Blount's Fragmenta Antiquitatis (London, 4to, 1815, p. 413), after quoting this passage, remarks:—"But besides that the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, or after Trinity rather, being movable, and seldom falling upon Michaelmas Day, which is an immovable feast, the service for that day could very rarely be used at Michaelmas, there does not appear to be the most distant allusion to a goose in the words of that prayer. Probably no other reason can be given for this custom, but that Michaelmas Day was a great festival, and geese at that time most plentiful. In Denmark, where the harvest is later, every family has a roasted goose for supper on St. Martin's Eve [Nov. 10]." It must be borne in mind that the term husbandman was formerly applied to persons of a somewhat higher position in life than an agricultural labourer, as for instance to the occupier and holder of the land. In ancient grants from landlords of manors to their free tenants, among other reserved rents, boons, and services, the landlord frequently laid claim to a good stubble goose at Michaelmas. After all, the connexion between the goose and the collect is not apparent.[178]

ALL SOULS' DAY.—NOV. 2.

So named, because in the Church of Rome prayers are offered on this day for "all the faithful deceased."

There is a singular custom still kept up at Great Marton, in the Fylde district, on this day. In some places it is called "soul-caking," but there it is named "psalm-caking,"—from their reciting psalms for which they receive cakes. The custom is changing its character also—for in place of collecting cakes from house to house, as in the old time, they now beg for money. The term "psalm" is evidently a corruption of the old word "sal," for soul; the mass or requiem for the dead was called "Sal-mas," as late as the reign of Henry VI.

GUNPOWDER PLOT AND GUY FAWKES.

The anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605, is still more or less kept in many parts of Lancashire, in towns by the effigy of Guy Fawkes being paraded about the streets, and burnt at night with great rejoicing; and by the discharge of small cannon, guns, pistols, &c., and of fireworks. In the country the more common celebration is confined to huge bonfires, and the firing of pistols and fireworks. In some places, especially about Blackburn, Burnley, and that district, as well as in villages about Eccles, Worsley, &c., it is customary for boys for some days before the 5th of November, to go round to their friends and neighbours to beg for coals. They generally take their stand before the door, and either say or sing some doggerel, to the following effect:—

"Remember, remember,
The Fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot;
A stick and a stake,
For King George's sake,
We hope it will ne'er be forgot."

CHRISTMAS.

In the olden time, before the Reformation, Christmas was the highest festival of the Church. In some rural parts of Lancashire it is now but little regarded, and many of its customs are observed a week later,—on the eve and day of the New Year. But still there linger in many places some relics of the old observances and festivities, as the carols, the frumenty on Christmas Eve, the mummers, with "old Ball," or the hobby-horse, and the decoration of churches and dwellings with boughs of evergreen shrubs and plants; in the centre of which is still to be found, in many country halls and kitchens, and in some also in the towns, that mystic bough of the mistletoe, beneath whose white berries, it is the custom and licence of the season to steal a kiss from fair maidens, and even from matrons "forty, fat, and fair."

CREATURES WORSHIPPING ON CHRISTMAS EVE.

I have been told in Lancashire, that at midnight on Christmas Eve the cows fall on their knees, and the bees hum the Hundredth Psalm. I am unwilling to destroy the poetry of these old superstitions; but their origin can, I think, be accounted for. Cows, it is well known, on rising from the ground, get up on their knees first; and a person going into the shippon at midnight would, no doubt, disturb the occupants, and by the time he looked around, they would all be rising on their knees. The buzzing of the bees, too, might easily be formed into a tune, and, with the Hundredth Psalm running in the head of the listener, fancy would supply the rest.[179]

CHRISTMAS MUMMING.

Mr. J. O. Halliwell, in his Nursery Rhymes of England, relates the following as a Christmas custom in Lancashire:—The boys dress themselves up with ribands, and perform various pantomimes, after which one of them, who has a blackened face, a rough skin coat, and a broom in his hand, sings as follows:—

Here come I,
Little David Doubt;
If you don't give me money,
I'll sweep you all out.
Money I want,
Money I crave;
If you don't give me money,
I'll sweep you all to the grave.

THE HOBBY HORSE, OR OLD BALL.

In an old painted window at Betley, Staffordshire, exhibiting in twelve diamond-octagon panes, the mummers and morris-dancers of May-day, the centre pane below the May-pole represents the old hobby-horse, supposed to have once been the King of the May, though now a mere buffoon. The hobby (of this window) is a spirited horse of pasteboard, in which the master dances and displays tricks of legerdemain, &c. In the horse's mouth is stuck a ladle, ornamented with a ribbon; its use being to receive the spectators' pecuniary donations. In Lancashire the old custom seems to have so far changed, that it is the head of a dead horse that is carried about at Christmas, as described amongst the Easter customs. "Old Ball" bites everybody it can lay hold of, and holds its victims till they buy their release with a few pence.

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS IN THE FYLDE.

The Rev. W. Thornber[180] describes the Christmas gambols and customs in the Fylde nearly a century ago, as having been kept up with great spirit. The midnight carols of the church-singers[181]—the penny laid on the hob by the fireside, the prize of him who came first to the outer door, to "let Christmas in,"—the regular round of visits—the treat of mince pies[182]—in turn engrossed their attention. Each farm-house and hut possessed a pack of cards, which were obtained as an alms from the rich, if poverty forbade the purchase. Night after night of Christmas was consumed in poring over these dirty and obscured cards. Nor were the youngsters excluded from a share in the amusements of this festal season. Early, long before dawn, on Christmas morning, young voices echoed through streets and lanes, in the words of the old song—

Get up old wives,
And bake your pies,
'Tis Christmas-day in the morning;
The bells shall ring,
The birds shall sing,
Tis Christmas-day in the morning.

Many an evening was beguiled with snap-dragon, bobbing for apples, jack-stone, blind-man's buff, forfeits, hot cockles, hunting the slipper, hide lose my supper, London Bridge, turning the trencher, and other games now little played. Fortune-telling by cards, &c., must not be omitted. In the bright frost and moonshine, out-door sports were eagerly pursued, guns were in great request, to shoot the shore-birds, and many found pleasure in "watching the fleet;" others played at foot-ball in the lanes or streets; or engaged in the games of prison-bars, tee-touch-wood, thread-my-needle, horse-shoe, leap-frog, black-thorn, cad, bandy, honey-pot, hop-scotch, hammer and block, bang about and shedding copies. Cymbling for larks[183] was a very common pastime; now it is scarcely known by name, and few have retained any of the implements or instruments requisite to practise the art. Tradesmen presented their customers with the Yule-loaf,[184] or two mould candles for the church, or some other Christmas-box. The churches and house-windows were decked with evergreens; a superstition derived probably from the Druids, who decked their temples and houses with evergreens in December, that the Sylvan Spirits might avoid the chilly frosts and storms of winter, by settling in their branches. For some weeks before Christmas, a band of young men called "Mutes," roused at early morn the slumbering to their devotions, or to activity in their domestic duties. The beggar at the door, craving an awmas [? alms] or saumas [soul-mass] cake, reminded the inmates that charity should be a characteristic of the season. The Eve of Christmas Day was named "Flesh Day," from the country people flocking to Poulton to buy beef, &c., sufficient to supply the needs of the coming year. On the morning of Christmas Day the usual breakfast was of black puddings, with jannock, &c.

CELEBRATION OF CHRISTMAS AT WYCOLLER HALL.

At Wycoller Hall, the family usually kept open house the twelve days at Christmas. The entertainment was [in] a large hall of curious ashlar work, [on] a long table, plenty of frumenty, like new milk, in a morning, made of husked wheat boiled, roasted beef, with a fat goose and a pudding, with plenty of good beer for dinner. A round-about fire-place, surrounded with stone benches, where the young folks sat and cracked nuts, and diverted themselves; and in this manner the sons and daughters got matching, without going much from home.[185]

CAROLS, &c.

"Carol" is supposed to be derived from cantare to sing, and rola, an interjection of joy. Amongst our Christmas customs that of carol-singing prevails over a great part of Lancashire. It is the old custom of celebrating with song the birth of the Saviour, even as the angels are said to have sung "Glory to God in the highest," &c., at this great event. Almost every European nation has its carols. Our earliest Christian forefathers had theirs; one or two Anglo-Norman carols have been preserved, and some of every century from the thirteenth to the eighteenth. Numerous books containing carols have been printed (one by Wynkin de Worde), and it would occupy too much space to insert even the most popular of these carols here. A verse of one common to Lancashire and Yorkshire must suffice:—

God rest you all, merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay;
Remember Christ our Saviour
Was born on Christmas-day.

The town or the village waitts go about after midnight, waking many a sleeper with their homely music, which sounds all the sweeter for being heard in the stilly night. Various items of payment to the Manchester waitts occur in the Church Leet Books of that manor. A dance tune called "The Warrington Waitts" occurs in a printed Tune-Book of 1732. Hand-bell ringing, a favourite Lancashire diversion, is much practised about Christmas.

FOOTNOTES:

[143] Hermentrude, in Notes and Queries, 3rd ser., vol. ii. p. 484.

[144] Prestoniensis, in Notes and Queries, 2nd ser., vol. ii. p. 326.

[145] Hampson's Medii Ævi Kalendarium, vol. i. p. 98.

[146] Prestoniensis, in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 50.

[147] Halliwell's Archaic and Provincial Dictionary.

[148] Pasquil's Palinodia.

[149] Ploughman's Feasting Days, stanza 3.

[150] Pictorial History of Lancashire.

[151] See Rev. W. Thornber's History of Blackpool.

[152] See also, under [Bells], the Pancake Bell.

[153] Notes and Queries, 2nd ser., V.

[154] For the Simnel cakes of Shrewsbury, &c., see Book of Days, I. 336.

[155] Baines's History of Lancashire.

[156] History of Manchester, II. 265.

[157] Baines's History of Lancashire.

[158] H. T. Riley, in Notes and Queries, 2nd ser., ii. 320.

[159] Pictorial History of Lancashire.

[160] Hone's Every-Day Book, ii. 450; Brand's Popular Antiquities, &c.

[161] Pictorial History of Lancashire.

[162] Baines's History of Lancashire.

[163] Pictorial History of Lancashire.

[164] History of Blackpool, p. 92.

[165] Browis or brewis is broth or pottage; frumenty, is hulled wheat boiled in milk, and flavoured with cinnamon, sugar, allspice; and jannocks, oaten bread in large, coarse loaves; throdkins, a cake made of oatmeal and bacon.

[166] Rev. W. Thornber's History of Blackpool.

[167] Hone's Every-Day Book, ii. 597.

[168] For the words of these songs, see Harland's Ballads and Songs of Lancashire, p. 116; and for words and music, Chambers's Book of Days, i. 546.

[169] A. B., Liverpool, in Notes and Queries, v. 581.

[170] Baines's History of Lancashire.

[171] These boughs, says Mr. Thornber, in his History of Blackpool, were emblematical of the character of the maiden thus conspicuously distinguished; an elder-bough for a scold, one of ash for a swearer, &c.

[172] Pictorial History of Lancashire.

[173] Dugdale's Monast. Anglic., vol. vi. p. 906.

[174] Farington Papers, p. 128.

[175] Gent. Mag., vol. liii., for July, 1783, p. 578.

[176] M. F., in Notes and Queries, 3rd series, ii. 397.

[177] Aquinas, in Notes and Queries, 3rd series, v., April 2., 1864.

[178] Ed. Notes and Queries.

[179] Wellbank, in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, viii. 242.

[180] See History of Blackpool.

[181] Here is the specimen of one sung from house to house during Christmas:—

We're nather cum to yare hase to beg nor to borrow,
But we're cum to yare hase to drive away o sorrow;
A suop o' drink, as yau may think, for we're varra droy,
We'll tell yau what we're cum for—a piece o' Christmas poye.

[182] The mince-pie, made of a compound of Eastern productions, represented the offerings of the wise men who came from far to worship the Saviour, bringing spices. Its old English coffin-shape was in imitation of the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid.

[183] We have not been able to find any account of this mode of catching larks, at least, under the name here given.

[184] The baker formerly gave his customers a baby of paste; and in my own recollection a cake, decorated with the head of a lamb, named "the Ewe loaf," was the Christmas present of bakers at Poulton. On Christmas Eve the houses were illuminated with candles of an enormous size.—W. T.

[185] From a family MS. of the Cunliffes, quoted in Baines's Lancashire, iii. 244.

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