In many places in this county, when the master of a family dies, the old nurse goes to the hive of bees, knocks, and says:
"The master's dead, but don't you go;
Your mistress will be a good mistress to you."
A bit of black crape is then pinned to the hive. It is firmly believed that but for this precaution the bees would all desert the place. A correspondent at Pershore says: "While conversing with a farmer's wife in this neighbourhood, I was gravely informed that it was certainly the truth, unless the bees were 'told' when anybody died in the house, something would happen either to bees or honey before long. She considered it a great want of foresight not to go from the house in which the 'departed one' had breathed his or her last to the hive without delay, and 'tell the bees' what had happened." In some places the custom is to take the key of the front door to the hive and tap it gently, saying, "Bees, bees, your master (or mistress) is dead." The hives also are usually covered with crape. If a swarm of bees return to their old hive, it is believed that a death will happen in the family within the year. This superstition probably prevails nearly all over the kingdom, and is believed to be of great antiquity. In Oxfordshire, it is said that if a man and his wife quarrel, the bees will leave them. In Devonshire, the custom is (or was in the year 1790) to turn round the bee-hives that belonged to the deceased at the moment the corpse was being carried out of the house; and on one occasion, at the funeral of a rich old farmer at Collumpton, as a numerous procession was on the point of starting, a person called out, "Turn the bees;" upon which a servant, who had no knowledge of the custom, instead of turning the hives about, lifted them up, and then laid them down on their sides. The bees, thus invaded, quickly fastened on the attendants, and in a few moments the corpse was left quite alone, hats and wigs were lost in the confusion, and a long time elapsed before the sufferers returned to their duty.
CHARMS
are still believed in to a great extent among the poor. In the neighbourhood of Hartlebury they break the legs of a toad, sew it up in a bag alive, and tie it round the neck of the patient. There were lately some female charmers at Fladbury. The peasantry around Tenbury and Shrawley have also great faith in charms, and the toad remedy is applied at the former place, the life or death of the patient being supposed to be shadowed forth by the survival or death of the poor animal. At Mathon, old women are intrusted with the cure of burns by charming, which they do by repeating a certain number of times the old doggrel rhyme, beginning—
"There were two angels came from the north," &c.
In the neighbourhood of Stoke Prior a charm was some time ago used by a labouring man for the removal of the thrush (or "throcks" as it is locally termed) in children: he would put his finger into his mouth, and then into that of the child, rubbing the gums, while he mumbled out something terminating with "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," then put down the child without speaking another word, and leave the house without eating or drinking. Charming for the toothache is still customary at Cutnall Green. The charm is written on paper, and sealed up, which the afflicted person carries about with him, and it is believed to be a sure cure. A "poke" or wart on the eye is "charmed away" by rubbing it with a wedding ring. Drinking out of a sacramental cup is considered a cure for the hooping cough. A pillow, filled with hops and laid under the patient's bed, is an undoubted cure for rheumatism. This charm was prescribed to George III by a physician at Reading, recommended by Lord Sidmouth, and administered to the royal patient accordingly.
The following lines are very generally taught to children in the rural districts, to say at night with their prayers:
"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on;
There are four corners to my bed,
There are four angels round my head,
One to watch, and one to pray,
And two to carry my soul away."