With the accession of King George the First in 1714 we commence a new section of the history of Pickering, a period notable in its latter years for the sweeping away to a very large extent of the superstitions and heathen practices which had survived until the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
The town had probably altered very little in its general appearance since the time of the Restoration. Most of the roofs were thatched; the castle was probably more dismantled within the outer walls, but the church of the Georgian period must have been almost identically the same as during the century that preceded it, and as it remained until the restoration in 1879.
At the top of the market-place stood the stocks at the side of the old stone-built shambles that disappeared in 1857, having for many generations formed a background to the groups of buyers and sellers in the steep and picturesque street. We can people the scene with the quaint costumes of the eighteenth century; knee-breeches and long waistcoats are to be seen in every direction, the three-cornered hat and the wig tied with a black ribbon are worn by the better classes. The wives and daughters of the squires and lesser gentry reflect in a modified form the fashions prevailing in London, and to be observed in actuality among the gay crowds that thronged the Spa at Scarborough, assuming and discarding the hooped-petticoat according to the mode of the moment. We can see the farmers of the Vale and those from the lonely dales discussing the news of the week and reading the scarce and expensive newspapers that found their way to Pickering. How much they understood of the reasons for the great European wars and alliances it is not easy to say, but when the reports came of victories to the British armies, assisted although they may have been by paid allies, the patriotic feelings of these Yorkshiremen did not fail to manifest themselves in a heavier consumption of beer than usual. We can hear the chink of glasses and the rattle of pewter tankards in the cosy parlours of the "White Swan," the "George," and the rest; we can hear as the years go by the loud cheers raised for Marlborough, for Wolfe, for Nelson, or for Wellington, while overhead the church bells are ringing loudly in the old grey tower. These were the days of the highwaymen, and even as late as 1830 a postman was robbed near the moorland village of Lockton, on his way to Whitby. The driver of the mailcart at that time used to carry a large brass-mounted cavalry pistol, which was handed to him when he had mounted his box by one of the two old ladies who acted as the post-mistresses of Pickering. It is not much more than ten years since the death of Francis Gibson, a butcher of East Ayton, who was over a hundred years old and remembered the capture of the last highwayman who was known to carry on the old-time profession in the neighbourhood. He was tracked to an inn at East Ayton where he was found sleeping. Soon afterwards he found himself on the road to York, where he was hanged.
The road across Seamer Moor between Ayton and Scarborough was considered sufficiently dangerous for those who travelled late to carry firearms. Thus we can see Mr Thomas Chandler of the Low Hall at West Ayton--a Justice of the Peace--having dined with some relations in Scarborough, returning at a late hour. The lights of his big swinging barouche drawn by a pair of fat chestnuts shine out on the white road; the country on either side is unenclosed, and masked men may appear out of the shadows at any moment. But if they are about they may have heard that Mr Chandler carries a loaded pistol ready for emergencies, for they always let him reach his house in safety.
To the simple peasants highwaymen were probably considered of small account in comparison to the apparitions that haunted many parts of the lonely country. Nearly every part of the moor had its own wraith or boggle, and the fear of these ghosts was so widespread that in many cases the clergy were induced to publicly lay them, after which were seen no more.
To record the advent of these strange beliefs is impossible, for who can tell how or when they originated? We can only describe them at the time of their destruction. Chaucer, writing in the fourteenth century, seemed to imagine that belief in elves and fairies had received its death-blow in his own time, for in "The Wife of Bath's Tale," he says--
"In tholdé dayés of the Kyng Arthour,
Of which that Britons speken greet honour,
All was this land fulfild of faīrye.
The elf queene with hir joly compaignye
Dauncéd ful ofte in many a greené mede.
This was the olde opinion as I rede,--
I speke of manye hundred yeres ago,--
But now kan no man se none elvés mo,
For now the greté charitee and prayeres
Of lymtours, and othere hooly freres,
That serchen every lond and every streem,
As thikke as motés in the sonné beem,--
Bléssynge hallés, chambres, kichenes, boures,
Citees, burghes, castels, hyé toures
Thrópés, bernés, shipnes, dayeryes,--
This maketh that ther been no faīryes."
Five hundred years, however, had to pass before the most implicit belief in hobs, wraiths, and boggles was to disappear, and even at the present day those who have intimate associations with the population of the North Yorkshire moors know that traces of the old superstitions still survive.
Several books have been written on the folklore of Yorkshire and from them it is possible to get a rough idea of the superstitions common to many parts of the county, but these do not particularly concern the district surrounding Pickering. We should probably have never heard of many curious facts specially belonging to this part of the county if a small manuscript book of closely written notes had not been discovered by Mr Richard Blakeborough of Stockton-on-Tees, who has kindly allowed me to quote from it. The stories were collected by one George Calvert, who writes in 1823, and frequently mentions that the customs he describes were rapidly dying out. Under the heading of "Witch Hags who have dwelt hereabouts" he writes--
"They be so great in number that mayhap it will shew the more wisdom, if mention be made only of those who in their day wrought some wondrous deed or whose word cast fear upon all."