"To work as though one was working for need-fire," is a common proverb in the North, and refers to the practice of producing fire by the friction of two pieces of wood. This was done when the murrain prevailed among cattle, and the diseased animals were made to pass through the smoke raised by this holy fire. This was considered a certain cure. When cattle have foul in the feet, the turf on which the beast treads with the affected foot is taken up and hung in the open air. As it crumbles away, so will the diseased foot recover.
And the water in which Irish and other stones have been steeped has been used in the Bishopric as a cure for disease for cattle.
If you seize the opportunities, which are many, you may have what you please by wishing for it. But the condition is in every case the same: the nature of the wish must be kept secret. You may journey to Jarrow, and sitting in Bede’s chair, make your wish; or, nearer at hand, there is a stone seat at Finchale Priory credited with the same power. If you see a horseshoe or a nail, pick it up, throw it over your left shoulder and wish; and wish also if you see a piebald horse, but you must manage to do so before you see its tail.
You may wish, too, when you first hear the cuckoo, and when you see the new moon.
Much reverence has in all ages been paid to wells. The Worm Well at Lambton was once in high repute as a wishing-well, and a crooked pin (the usual tribute of the "wishers") may be sometimes still discovered sparkling among the clear gravel of the bottom of the basin.
As late as 1740 children troubled with any infirmity were brought to the Venerable Bede’s Well, at Monkton, near Jarrow. A crooked pin was put in, and the well laved dry between each dipping.
Pins may sometimes be seen in Lady Byron’s Well at Seaham. There was a custom (which cannot now be practised, as the monument is railed in) of walking nine times round Neville’s Cross. "Then if you stoop down, and lay your head to the turf, you’ll hear the noise of the battle and the clash of the armour."
The weather-wise will tell you that if the leaves remain long upon the trees in autumn it is going to be a hard winter, and will bid you notice how the wind blows on New Year’s Eve:
"If on New Year’s Eve the night wind blow south,
It betokeneth warmth and growth;
If west, much milk and fish in the sea;
If north, much cold and storms there will be;
If east, the trees will bear much fruit;
If north-east, flee it, man and brute."
Candlemas Day (February 2) should also be observed: