FOLK LORE.
Power of Prophecy.—MR. AUG. GUEST (Vol. ii., p. 116.) will perhaps accept—as a small tribute to his interesting communication on the subject of that "power of prophecy" which I apprehend to be still believed by many to exist during certain lucid intervals before death—a reference to Sir Henry Halford's Essay on the [Greek: Kausos] of Aretæus. (See Sir H. Halford's Essays and Orations read and delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, Lond. 1831, pp. 93. et seq.)
J. Sansom.
Bay Leaves at Funerals.—In some parts of Wales it is customary for funerals to be preceded by a female carrying bays, the leaves of which she sprinkles at intervals in the road which the corpse will traverse.
Query, Is this custom practised elsewhere; and what is the meaning and origin of the use of the bay?
N.P.
Shoes (old) thrown for luck.—Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, observes, that it is accounted lucky by the vulgar to throw an old shoe after a person when they wish him to succeed in what he is going about. This custom is very prevalent in Norfolk whenever servants are going in search of new places; and especially when they are going to be married, a shoe is thrown after them as they proceed to church.
C.P.R.M.
Some years ago, when the vessels engaged in the Greenland whale-fishery left Whitby, in Yorkshire, I observed the wives and friends of the sailors to throw old shoes at the ships as they passed the pier-head. Query, What is the origin of this practice?
[Hebrew: T.A.]
Roasting Mice for Hooping-cough is also very common in Norfolk; but I am sorry to say that a more cruel superstitious practice is sometimes inflicted on the little animal; for it is not many years since I accidentally entered the kitchen in time to save a poor little mouse from being hung up by the tail and roasted alive, as the means of expelling the others of its race from the house. I trust that this barbarous practice will soon be forgotten.
R.G.P.M.
The Story of Mr. Fox.—Your correspondent F.L., who has related the story of Sir Richard, surnamed Bloody, Baker, is, doubtless, aware of a similar tale with which Mr. Blakeway furnished my late friend James Boswell, and which the latter observed "is perhaps one of the most happy illustrations of Shakspeare that has appeared."—(Malone's Shakspeare, vol. vii. pp. 20. 163.)
The two narratives of Bloody Baker and Mr. Fox are substantially the same. Variations will naturally creep in when a story is related by word of mouth; for instance, the admonition over the chamber in Mr. Fox's house—
"Be bold, be bold! but not too bold
Lest that your heart's blood should run cold."
is altogether of a more dignified character than the similar warning given by the parrot, at p. 68. Each of these worthies, Baker and Fox, is seen bringing into his house the corpse of a murdered lady, whose hand falls into the lap of the concealed visitor; but in Fox's story the ornament on the hand is a rich bracelet, in Baker's a ring. The assassins are, in both stories, invited to the visitor's house, and upon Fox summary justice is inflicted.
It may be asked, if Baker was burned, how came he to have a tomb with gloves, helmet, &c., suspended over it in Cranbrook Church? Such honour was not paid to a man of higher rank in Salisbury Cathedral, a murderer also, who was hung, viz., Lord Stourton. Dodsworth tells us that till about 1775, no chivalrous emblems were suspended over the latter, but only a twisted wire, with a noose, emblematic of the halter. Allow me to ask, What instances have we of tombs or gravestones, as memorials of individuals who have suffered at the stake, exclusive of those monuments which in after times may have been raised in honour of distinguished martyrs at the Reformation?
J.H.M.
Bath.
Baptismal Superstition.—In the north of England, when several children are brought to be baptized at the same time, great anxiety is shown by the people lest the girls should take the precedence of the boys; in which case it is believed the latter, when arrived at man's estate, would be beardless.
E.H.A.
Rushbearing (Vol. i., p 259.).—Wednesday, July 21, 1847, Grasmere Church was decorated with ribbons, which had some reference to the rushbearing which had taken place on the preceding Sunday.
It takes place at Ambleside one Sunday later.
Extract from Black's "Guide to the Lakes," p. 43.
"An interesting ceremony takes place at Ambleside once every year, which the stranger may think himself fortunate in seeing, not so much for the mere sight itself, though that is pretty enough, as for its being the vestige of a very ancient observance. The ceremony alluded to is called Rushbearing. On the eve of the last Sunday in July, the village girls walk in procession to the chapel bearing garlands of flowers (formerly rushes), which are there tastefully disposed. After service, the day following, these are removed, and it is usual that a sermon, in allusion to the event, be preached. This observance is probably as remote as the age of Gregory IV., who is known to have recommended to the early disseminators of Christianity in this country, that on the anniversary of the dedication of churches wrested from the Pagans, the converts should build themselves huts of the boughs of trees about their churches, and celebrate the solemnities with religious feasting. In former times, the rushes were spread upon the floor of the sacred edifice, and the garlands remained until withered. Possibly the practice of covering the floors of buildings with rushes by way of protection against the damp earth, may have had something to do with keeping the custom in existence, long after the origin of the institution had been forgotten. The ceremony of Rushbearing has now fallen into complete disuse, except in a few secluded hamlets in Westmoreland, and in one or two other places in the kingdom; nor can that disuse be much regretted, since what was founded as a religious act, every where degenerated into an occasion for unseemly revelry, in fact, into a sort of rustic saturnalia. And yet, when we look at this remain of the olden time, as observed at Ambleside, we are tempted to say with the poet,—
"'Many precious rites
And customs of our rural ancestry
Are gone or stealing from us: this, I hope
Will last for ever.'"