But Lancashire has hitherto been without adequate record, at least in a collected form, of its Folk-Lore. This has not been because of any lack of such lore. The North of England generally, and Lancashire in particular, is remarkably rich in this respect. Possessed and peopled in succession by the Celts of ancient Britain, by the Angles and other Teutonic peoples, by the Scandinavian races, and by Norman and other foreign settlers at early periods,—the result of the respective contributions of these various peoples is necessarily a large mass of traditionary lore. To bring this together and present it in a collected form is the object of this little volume. Its editors have been long engaged, apart,—distinctly, and independently of each other,—in collecting particulars of the superstitions in belief and practice, and of the peculiar customs and usages of the people of Lancashire. One of them, born in one of its rural districts, still rich in these respects, is thus enabled to remember and to preserve many of those customs and usages of his childhood and youth, now rapidly passing into decay, if not oblivion. The other, conversant from his earliest remembrances with the Folk-Lore of East Yorkshire, and with that of Lancashire for the last thirty-five years, is thus enabled to compare the customs and usages of both, and to recognise the same essential superstition under slightly different forms. Similarity of pursuit having led to personal communication, the Editors agreed to combine their respective collections; and hence the present volume. They do not pretend herein to have exhausted the whole range of Lancashire Folk-Lore; but simply to have seized on the more salient features of its superstitious side, and those of popular custom and usage. Part I. comprises notices of a great number of superstitious beliefs and practices. Part II. treats of various local customs and usages, at particular seasons of the year; during the great festivals of the church; those connected with birth and baptism; betrothal and wedding; dying, death-bed, and funeral customs; as well as manorial and feudal tenures, services, and usages.
Should the present volume find favour and acceptance, its Editors may venture hereafter to offer another, embracing the fertile and interesting subjects of popular pageants, maskings and mummings, rushbearings, wakes and fairs, out-door sports and games; punishments, legal and popular; legends and traditions; proverbs, popular sayings and similes; folk-rhymes, &c. &c.
September, 1866.
But for unavoidable delay, consequent on the preparation of a large-paper edition, this volume would have been published prior to "Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders," by Wm. Henderson. As that work has appeared, it may be as well to state that, notwithstanding similarity of subject, the two books do not clash. Mr. Henderson's work relates chiefly to the three north-eastern counties,—Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire,—with large notices not only of the Scottish borders, but of Scotland generally, and many details as to Devonshire folk-lore. Its notices of Cumberland and Westmorland are fewer than of the three counties first named; and Lancashire is only two or three times incidentally mentioned. The field of this county palatine is therefore left free for the present volume.
January, 1867.
CONTENTS.
| PART I. | |
| SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES. | |
| PAGE | |
| Introduction | [1] |
| Lancashire Alchemists | [23] |
| Lancashire Astrologers | [33] |
| Bells | [41] |
| Beal-tine or Beltane Fires; Relics of Baal Worship | [45] |
| Boggarts, Ghosts, and Haunted Places | [49] |
| Boggart Hole Clough | [50] |
| Boggarts or Ghosts in Old Halls | [51] |
| House Boggarts, or Labouring Goblins | [56] |
| Hornby Park Mistress and Margaret Brackin | [59] |
| Boggarts in the Nineteenth Century | [61] |
| CHARMS AND SPELLS. | |
| Charms and Spells against Evil Beings | [62] |
| A Charm, written in Cypher, against Witchcraft and Evil Spirits | [63] |
| The Crow Charm and the Lady-bird Charm | [70] |
| Pimpernel | [71] |
| The Mountain Ash, or Wicken or Wiggen Tree | [72] |
| Charms to Cure Sickness, Wounds, Cattle Distemper, etc. | [74] |
| Charms for the Toothache | [75] |
| Vervain, for Wounds, etc. | [76] |
| Charms to Stop Bleeding | [77] |
| Touching for the King's Evil | [77] |
| Cures for Warts | [78] |
| Cure for Hydrocephalus in Cattle | [79] |
| Cattle Disorders.—The Shrew Tree in Carnforth | [79] |
| Charms for Ague | [80] |
| Stinging of Nettles | [80] |
| Jaundice | [80] |
| To Procure Sleep by Changing the Direction of the Bed | [80] |
| THE DEVIL, DEMONS, &c. | |
| The Devil | [81] |
| Raising the Devil | [83] |
| The Devil and the Schoolmaster at Cockerham | [83] |
| Old Nick | [84] |
| Demonology | [86] |
| Demon and Goblin Superstitions | [88] |
| Dispossessing a Demoniac | [92] |
| Demoniacal Possession in 1594 | [92] |
| Demoniacal Possession in 1689 | [98] |
| DIVINATION. | |
| Divination | [102] |
| Divination at Marriages | [103] |
| Divination by Bible and Key | [103] |
| Another Lancashire form of Divination | [104] |
| Divination by the Dying | [104] |
| Second-sight | [105] |
| Spirits of the Dying and the Dead | [105] |
| Casting Lots, &c. | [106] |
| MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE. | |
| Druidical Rock Basins | [106] |
| Elves and Fairies | [110] |
| Folk-Lore of Eccles and the Neighbourhood | [113] |
| Tree Barnacles; or, Geese hatched from Sea-shells | [116] |
| Warts from Washing in Egg-water | [121] |
| Fortune-telling.—Wise Men and Cunning Women, &c. | [121] |
| Magic and Magicians | [126] |
| Edward Kelly, the Seer | [126] |
| Raising the Dead at Walton-le-Dale | [128] |
| An Earl of Derby charged with keeping a Conjuror | [129] |
| MIRACLES. | |
| Miracles, or Miraculous Stories | [131] |
| Miracles by a Dead Duke of Lancaster and King | [132] |
| A Miraculous Footprint in Brindle Church | [134] |
| The Footprint at Smithells of George Marsh, the Martyr | [135] |
| A Legend of Cartmel Church | [137] |
| The Prophet Elias, a Lancashire Fanatic | [138] |
| OMENS AND PREDICATIONS. | |
| Omens and Predications | [138] |
| Cats | [141] |
| Dogs | [142] |
| Lambs | [142] |
| Birds | [142] |
| Swallows | [143] |
| Magpies | [143] |
| Dreams | [145] |
| The Moon | [149] |
| Hæver or Hiver | [149] |
| Deasil or Widersinnis | [151] |
| Omens of Weather for New Year's-day | [151] |
| Death Tick or Death Watch | [152] |
| SUPERSTITIONS, GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS. | |
| Popular Superstitions | [153] |
| Bones of St. Lawrence, at Chorley | [157] |
| The Dead Man's Hand | [158] |
| Nineteenth Century Superstition | [164] |
| Pendle Forest Superstition | [164] |
| East Lancashire Superstition | [165] |
| Superstitious Fears and Cruelties | [167] |
| Superstitious Beliefs in Manchester in the Sixteenth Century | [168] |
| Wells and Springs | [169] |
| WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT. | |
| Witchcraft in the Fifteenth Century | [174] |
| The Famous History of the Lancashire Witches | [176] |
| Dr. Dee charged with Witchcraft | [178] |
| The Lancashire Witches | [179] |
| Superstitious Fear of Witchcraft | [182] |
| A Household Bewitched | [184] |
| The Lancashire Witches of 1612 | [185] |
| The Samlesbury Witches | [194] |
| Witchcraft at Middleton | [195] |
| Witchcraft in 1633-34 | [195] |
| The Lancashire Witches of 1633-4 | [200] |
| Lancashire Witch-finders | [200] |
| The Forest of Pendle—The Haunt of the Lancashire Witches | [202] |
| Pendle Hill and its Witches | [204] |
| Witchcraft about 1654 | [206] |
| A Liverpool Witch in 1667 | [206] |
| The Witch of Singleton | [207] |
| Witchcraft at Chowbent in the Eighteenth Century | [207] |
| Killing a Witch | [208] |
| A Recent Witch, near Burnley | [209] |
| "Lating" or "Leeting" Witches | [210] |
| PART II. | |
| LOCAL CUSTOMS AND USAGES AT VARIOUS SEASONS. | |
| Church and Season Festivals | [212] |
| New Year's-day | [214] |
| Fire on New Year's Eve | [214] |
| New Year's Luck | [214] |
| New Year's First Caller | [215] |
| New Year's-day and Old Christmas-day | [216] |
| Auld Wife Hakes | [216] |
| New Year's Gifts and Wishes | [216] |
| Shrovetide | [217] |
| Shrove-Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday | [218] |
| Cock-throwing and Cock-fighting | [218] |
| Cock-fighting about Blackburn | [220] |
| Cock-penny at Clitheroe | [220] |
| Cock-fighting at Burnley | [220] |
| Shrovetide Customs in the Fylde | [221] |
| Lent.—Ash-Wednesday | [221] |
| Mid-Lent Sunday, or "Mothering Sunday" | [222] |
| Simnel Cakes | [223] |
| To Dianeme | [223] |
| Bury | [224] |
| Bragot-Sunday | [225] |
| Fag-pie Sunday | [226] |
| Good Friday | [226] |
| Easter | [227] |
| Pasche, Pace, or Easter Eggs | [228] |
| Pace Egging in Blackburn | [228] |
| Pace or Peace Egging in East Lancashire | [231] |
| Easter Sports at the Manchester Free Grammar School | [231] |
| "Lifting," or "Heaving" at Easter | [233] |
| Easter Game of the Ring | [234] |
| Playing "Old Ball" | [234] |
| Acting with "Ball" | [235] |
| Easter Customs in the Fylde | [236] |
| May-day Customs | [238] |
| May Songs | [239] |
| May-day Eve | [239] |
| May-day Custom | [240] |
| Pendleton and Pendlebury May-pole and Games | [240] |
| May Custom in Spotland | [242] |
| May-day Customs in the Fylde | [242] |
| The May-pole of Lostock | [243] |
| Robin Hood and May-games at Burnley, in 1579 | [244] |
| May-day in Manchester | [245] |
| Queen of the May, &c. | [246] |
| Whitsuntide | [246] |
| Whit-Tuesday.—King and Queen at Downham | [248] |
| Rogations or Gang Days | [248] |
| Oatmeal Charity at Ince | [249] |
| Names for Moons in Autumn | [250] |
| "Goose-Intentos" | [250] |
| All Souls'-day | [251] |
| Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes | [251] |
| Christmas | [252] |
| Creatures Worshipping on Christmas Eve | [253] |
| Christmas Mumming | [253] |
| The Hobby Horse, or Old Ball | [254] |
| Christmas Customs in the Fylde | [254] |
| Celebration of Christmas at Wycoller Hall | [256] |
| Carols, &c. | [257] |
| EATING AND DRINKING CUSTOMS. | |
| Various | [258] |
| The Havercake Lads | [258] |
| Wooden Shoes and Oaten Bread or Jannocks | [259] |
| Pork Pasties | [260] |
| BIRTH AND BAPTISMAL CUSTOMS. | |
| Presents to Women in Childbed | [260] |
| Tea-drinking after Childbirth | [261] |
| Turning the Bed after Childbirth | [261] |
| An Unbaptized Child cannot die | [262] |
| Gifts to Infants | [262] |
| BETROTHING AND BRIDAL OR WEDDING CUSTOMS. | |
| Betrothing Customs | [263] |
| Curious Wedding Custom | [263] |
| Courting and Wedding Customs in the Fylde | [264] |
| Ancient Bridal Custom.—The Bride's Chair and the Fairy Hole | [265] |
| Burnley | [265] |
| Marriages at Manchester Parish Church | [265] |
| DYING, DEATH-BED, AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS. | |
| Dying Hardly | [268] |
| Burying in Woollen | [269] |
| Funeral Dole and Arval Cake | [270] |
| Dalton-in-Furness | [271] |
| Old Funeral Customs at Warton | [271] |
| Funeral Customs in the Fylde | [272] |
| Mode of Burial of a Widow who had taken Religious Vows | [273] |
| Funeral Customs in East Lancashire | [273] |
| Bidding to Funerals | [274] |
| Situation and Direction of Graves | [275] |
| CUSTOMS OF MANORS. | |
| The Honour of Knighthood | [277] |
| Maritagium | [278] |
| Peculiar Services and Tenures | [278] |
| Manor of Cockerham—Regulations for the Sale of Ale | [281] |
| Manorial Customs in Furness | [281] |
| The Lord's Yule Feast at Ashton | [286] |
| Riding the Black Lad at Ashton-under-Lyne | [289] |
| Boon Shearing | [292] |
| The Principal or Heriot | [293] |
| Denton Rent-boons | [294] |
| A Saxon Constablewick | [295] |
| Talliage or Tallage | [296] |
| Rochdale Tithe, Easter-dues, Mortuaries, etc. | [297] |
| Farm and Agricultural Celebrations in the Fylde | [298] |
| Dalton-in-Furness | [299] |
| Letting Sheep Farms in Bowland | [300] |
| Mediæval Latin Law Terms | [300] |
| Customs [Dues] at Warrington | [301] |