Fern seed is supposed to make the gatherer walk invisible; but as the fern is said to bloom and seed only at twelve o'clock at Midsummer night, the seed can only be caught by using twelve pewter plates; the seed will then pass through eleven of the plates and rest on the twelfth.
There was formerly a "holy thorn" at Redmarley Farm, Acton Beauchamp, but it was cut down a few years ago because of the number of persons who went to see it. It is stated that the person who cut it down broke his leg and his arm soon afterwards, and the premises were burnt down. A similar thorn may be seen (as Mr. Lees informs us) in the hedge of a garden at Cherry Green, Alfrick.
A superstition exists in some parts of the county that if pieces of the alder tree are carried in the waistcoat pocket they will be a safeguard against rheumatism. In Wyre Forest, near Bewdley, is a botanical curiosity, namely, the celebrated old Pyrus domestica, said to be the only tree of the kind growing wild in England. It is of the same kind as the "Rowan," or mountain ash, which was and even now is vulgarly worn as a remedy against witchcraft. It is most thought of by the common people, and there are various traditions concerning it. The name given to the tree is "the witty pear-tree"—the mountain ash being also called "the whitty tree," and the leaves of this tree are very similar. One of our Naturalist Field Clubs visited it in August, 1853: vegetation was then entirely confined to its top boughs, which however still held a few pears on them. Some hermit, or reputed "wise man," probably planted this tree, and derived part of his subsistence by distributing its leaves and fruit, as a protection against witchcraft.
In April, 1856, a poor woman, residing in a village about three miles from Pershore, acting upon the advice of her neighbours, brought her child, who was suffering from whooping cough, to that town, for the purpose of finding out a married couple answering to the names of Joseph and Mary, and soliciting their interference on behalf of her afflicted child, as she had been informed that if two married persons having those names could but be induced to lay their hands on her child's head, the whooping cough would be immediately cured. After scouring the town for a considerable time in search of "Joseph and his fair lady," they were at length discovered in the persons of a respectable tradesman and his wife residing in Bridge Street, to whom the poor silly woman made known her foolish request, which at first excited a smile from the good woman of the house, but was quickly followed, not by "the laying on of hands," but by good advice, such as mothers only know how to give in these matters. The poor mother then thankfully departed a wiser woman.
In the rural districts great faith is put in rings made of the shillings and sixpences given at the sacrament, and many clergymen have told me of repeated applications having been made to them for sacrament shillings, for the purpose of keeping away the evil spirit, or as a remedy for fits. Mr. Watson, in his History of Hartlebury, says that he believes nearly every person in that district who was subject to fits wore such a ring. And there is another parish in the county where I am told even Protestant poor go to the Romanist priest to have the relics of saints applied for the cure of diseases.
The Worcester papers in the year 1845 recorded that a person from this city, being on a visit to a friend about four miles distant, had occasion to go into the cottage of a poor woman, who had a child afflicted with the whooping-cough. In reply to inquiries as to her treatment of the child, the mother pointed to its neck, on which was a string fastened, having nine knots tied in it. The poor woman stated that it was the stay-lace of the child's godmother, which, if applied exactly in that manner round about the neck, would be sure to charm away the most troublesome cough!
An infallible recipe for the cure of ague is said to be the following: Go to a grafter of trees, and tell him your complaint. You must not give him any money, or there will be no cure. You go home, and in your absence the grafter cuts the first branch of a maiden ash, and the cure takes place instantly on cutting the branch from the tree.
A Worcestershire woman was asked the other day why she did not attend church on the three Sundays on which her banns of marriage were proclaimed? She replied that she should never dream of doing so unlucky a thing; and on being questioned as to the kind of ill-luck that would have been expected to have followed up her attendance at church, she said that all the offspring of such a marriage would be born deaf and dumb, and that she knew a young woman who would persist in going to church to hear her banns "asked out," and whose six children were in consequence all deaf and dumb!
At a certain country church in Worcestershire, on a Sunday early in 1856, there were three christenings, two boys and a girl. The parents of one boy were in a very respectable class of life; the parents of the two other children were in humble circumstances. The parties at the font had been duly placed by the officiating clergyman, and as it happened, the girl and sponsors were placed last in order. When the first child—who was the boy of the poor parents—was about to be baptized, the woman who carried the little girl elbowed her way up to the clergyman, in order that the child she carried might be the first to be baptized. To do this she had (very contrary to the usual custom of the poor, who, in essential points, are generally as refined as their superiors) to rudely push past "her betters"—i. e. the sponsors of the second boy. As she did so she said to one of the sponsors—by way of apology—"It's a girl; so it must be christened first;" and christened first it was. But the peculiar manner in which this was brought about showed that the woman was influenced by some curious feeling; and on the next day, an opportunity was taken to discover her motive. This was her explanation: "You see, sir, the parson bain't a married man, and consequentially is disfamiliar with children, or he'd a never put the little girl to be christen'd after the boys. And though it sadly flustered me, sir, to put myself afore my betters in the way which I was fosed to do; yet, sir, it was a doing of a kindness to them two little boys, in me a setting of my girl afore 'em." "Why?" "Well, sir! I har astonished as you don't know. Why, sir, if them little boys had been christened afore the little girl, they'd have had her soft chin, and she'd have had their hairy beards—the poor little innocent! But thank goodness! I've kep her from that misfortin!" And the woman really believed that she had done so; and the generality of her neighbours shared her belief. Let this be a warning to clergymen, more especially to bachelors, who would stand well in the opinions of their poorer parishioners!