Westcountry Folklore

Queen Boudica in Cornwall?

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:53:00 -0800

Boudica - as imagined in 1868 by Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810–96) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

"Boduc.—Your correspondent "P." (No. 12.p. 185.) seems to consider the "prevailing opinion," that Boduc or Boduoc on the British coin must be intended for our magnanimous Queen Boadicea, to be merely a " pleasing vision," over which he is " sorry to cast a cloud." Yet his own remark, that the name Budic (a mere difference in spelling) is often found among families of the Welsh in Brittany, and that the name was once common in England, serves only to confirm the common opinion that Boduoc on the coins was intended as the name of the British Queen.

Dio expressly writes her name in Greek Boudouica, which approaches nearly to Budic. In Cornwall we still find Budock, the name of a parish and of a saint. In Oxford there was a church formerly called from St. Budoc, long since destroyed. Leland mentions a Mr. Budok, and his manor place, and S. Budok Church. His opinion was, that " this Budocus was an Irisch man, and cam into Cornewalle, and ther dwellid." Whether there was a Regulus of Britain of this name, is not material. I am not prepared to cast a cloud over it, if it should be found. Our motto should be, " ex fumo dare lucem," &c. Antinephelegesita"

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 16. Feb. 16. 1850.]

Map - Budock Parish

A litterary Launceston Ghost Story

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:35:00 -0800

The ornate porch of Saint Mary Magdalene Church Launceston - image by Derek Harper [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Mrs. Bray, in her General Preface prefixed to the first volume of the reprint, in series, of her Novels and Romances, when giving an account of the circumstances on winch she founded her very graphic and interesting romance of Trelawny of Trelaume, says —

" In Gilbert's Hillary of Cornwall, I saw a brief but striking ace unit, written by a Doctor Ruddell, a clergyman of Launceston, respecting a ghost which (in the year 1665) be had seen and laid to rest, that in the first instance had haunted a poor lad, the son of a Mr. Bligh, in his way to school, in a place called the 'Higher Broom Field.' This grave relation showed, I thought, the credulity of the times in which the author of it lived; and so I determined to have doctor, boy, and ghost in my story. But whereas, in the worthy divine's account of the transaction, the ghost appears to come on earth for no purpose whatever (unless it be to frighten the poor boy), I resolved to give the spirit something to do in such post-mortem visitations, and that the object of them should be of import to the tale. Accordingly, I made boy, doctor, and the woman (who is said after her death to have appeared to the lad) into characters, invented a story for them, and gave them adventures."

Mrs. Bray adds —

" Soon after the publication of Trelawny, my much esteemed friend, the Rev. F. V. I\ Arundell *, informed me, that, whilst engaged in his antiquarian reseaiches in Cornwall, he found among some old and original papers the manuscript account, in Dr. Ruddell's own hand- writing, of his encounter with the ghost in question.

This he lent Gilbert, who inserted it in his History of Cornwall ; and there I first saw it, as stated above. A few months ago, I purchased some of the reprinted volumes ofthe Works of Daniel de Foe. Among these was the Life of Mr. Duncan Campbell, a fortuneteller.

To my great surprise, I found inserted in the Appendix (after verses to Mr. Duncan Campbell), without either name of the author, reference, or introduction, under the heading, ' A remarkable Passage of an Apparition, 1665,' no other than Dr. Ruddell's account of meeting the ghost which had haunted the boy, so much the same as that I had read in Gilbert, that it scarcely seemed to differ from it in a word. The name of Mr. Bligh, the father of the boy, was, however, omitted ; and Dr. Ruddell could only be known as the author of the account by the lad's father calling the narrator Mr. Ruddell, in their discourse about the youth. The account is so strangely inserted in the Appendix to the volume, without comment or reference, that, had I not previously known the circumstances above named by Mr. Arundell, I should have fancied it a fiction of De Foe himself, like the story of the ghost of Mrs. Veal, prefixed to Drelincourt on Death.

" Aware that Mr. Arundell had no idea that Ruddell's ghost story was to be found in any work previous to Gilbert's, I lost no time in communicating to that gentleman what I could not but deem a very curious discovery. He assured me there could be no mistake as to the genuineness of the ghost document he had found, as he had compared the manuscript with Ruddell's hand-writing in other papers, and saw it was one and the same. Soon after, Mr. Arundell favoured me with some further information on the subject, which I here give, as it adds still more to the interest of the story : — ' Looking into Gilbert's History of Cornwall, in the parish of South Petherwin, there is said to be in the old mansion of Botathan five portraits of the Bligh family ; one of them is the likeness of the boy, whose intimacy with the ghost of Dorothy Durant has been spoken of in his first volume, where she is erroneously called Dingley. If this be a fact, it is very interesting ; for it is strange that both Mr. Ruddell, the narrator (whose manuscript 1 lent to Gilbert), and De Foe, should have called her Dingley. I have no doubt it was a fictitious name, for I never heard of it in Launceston or the neighbourhood ; whereas Durant is the name of an ancient Cornish family : and I remember a tall, respectable man of that name in Launceston, who died at a very advanced age ; very probably a connexion of the Ghost Lady. He must have been born about 1730. Durant was probably too respectable a name to be published, and hence the fictitious one.' Mr. Arundell likewise says, ' In Launceston Church is a monument to Charles Bligh and Judith his wife, who died, one in 1716, and the other in 1717. He is said to have been sixty years old, and was probably the brother of Samuel, the hero of Dorothy Dingley. Sarah, the wife of the Rev. John Ruddell, has a monument also in Launceston Church. She died in 1667. Mr. Ruddell was Vicar of Aternon in 1684. He was the minister of Launceston in 1665, when he saw the ghost who haunted the boy.'"

Such is Mrs. Bray's account of these very curious circumstances. The ghost story inserted in Gilbert, as mentioned above, is altogether so much in the style of De Foe, that a doubt remains whether, after all, he may not have been the author of it. Can " D. S.," or any of your readers, throw further light on the subject ? D. S. Y."

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 16. Feb. 16. 1850.]

Map - Launceston

Druidic cure-all charms in Cornwall

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:14:00 -0800

Fir Clubmoss (Huperzia Selago) in the UK - perhaps of the same family or genus as what is being talked about here? - image by Dave Dunford [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Selago and Samolus. —The Selago (mentioned by "Pwcca," No. 10. p. 157.), in Welsh Gras Duw (Gratia Dei), was held by the Druids as a charm against all misfortunes; they called it Dawn y Dovydd, the gift of the Lord. They also ascribed great virtues to the Samolus, which was called Gwlydd, mild or tender. All that can be known respecting the Selago and Samolus, may be seen in Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall. GoMER."

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 15. Feb. 9. 1850.]

Busy as Batty

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:38:00 -0800

"In Devonshire they say as " Busy as Batty," but no one knows who "Batty" was."

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 29. May 18. 1850.]

Further mention of Totnes and Brutus

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:35:00 -0800

Totnes - the castle - By Troxx (Picture was taken by myself) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Etymology of Totnes.—Can any of your readers suggest a probable etymology for Totnes, the "prime town of Great Britain," as it is called by Westcote*, who supposes it to have been built by Brutus, 1108 years before the Christian aera. Mr. Polwhele, who supposed the numerous Hams in Devon to have owed their names to the worship of Jupiter Hammon, would, I imagine, have derived Totnes from the Egyptian god Thoth or Taut ; or, perhaps, directly from King Thothmes. Westcote observes that some would have the name from, —

"The French word tout-a-l'aise, which is in English, all at ease; as if Brutus at his arrival in such a pleasant soil should here assure himself and his fellow travellers of ease, rest, and content ; and the /, in this long time, is changed into n, and so from tout-d-hsse we now call it tont-a-nesse, and briefly Totnesse. This would I willingly applaud, could I think or believe that Brutus spake so good French, or that the French tongue was then spoken at all. Therefore, I shall with the more ease join in opinion with those who would have it named Dodonesse, which signifieth [in what language?] the rocky-town, or town on stones, which is also agreeable with the opinion of Leland."

Totnes is denominated Totenais and Totheneis in Domesday Book ; and in other old records variously spelt, Toteneis, Totteneys, Toteneys, Totton', Totteii, Totenesse, Tottenesse, Tottonnsse, Totonie, &c. Never, Donodesse. J. M. B. Totnes, April 23. 1850."

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 29. 18 may 1850]

Map - Totness

[I included this because of the complete surety given to the myth of Brutus, who was said to have founded Britain from Troy, having landed in Totnes]

A very rude comment from a young man from Bath and some racism.

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:08:00 -0800

[I have been in hospital again - and took to people watching again!

This post might really easily offend people, so please do not read if you are easily offended. Its not even really that folkloric.

I was chatting to an impatient young man from Bath waiting for a scan when an exceptionally large woman was wheeled passed in a chair. The young man was in pain and very bored but now he turned to me, his face momentarily lit up with laughter. The woman was barely around the corner when he remarked "Cor! You would have to plough deep to reach the wet on that one!". He then went on to further detailed descriptions of trying to have (and avoid) sex with the poor woman. I was rather intrigued by the agricultural nature of his first comment - he said he was from Bath and dressed like an inner-city boy - clean new white trainers, clipped and jelled hair, tattoed neck and the odd fighting scar, bit scrawny - much like some of my childhood friends from the more run down bits of Bristol. I wander how ploughing as a euphemism had reached this boys vocabulary? Its probably just my folklore intoxicated mind, but "ploughing deep to reach the wet" on a large woman was all a bit earth-mothery and pagan - even when it was clearly just (for him) amusing and distracting!

Not much else to report from hospital other than Devon old men are more likely to freely partake in racism than Bristol and Somerset ones, even when they are talking about the nationality of the nurses who are caring for them so unfailingly. In Bristol the only racism I heard was directed towards a cleaner in a black headscaff and clothes. The woman was described as "that". It was all the more shocking because the man didn't seem to have any problems with any other ethnicity or accent or religion. It is the first time I have seen the results of the Daily Fail etc's attempts to build Islamiphobia. In Devon all of the old men on my ward indulged in casual and not so casual racism towards foreigners both general and specific - pretty eye opening for someone in their 30's for whom this tripe was all left behind in the previous generation in the sub-cultures I grew up in.

One Devon nurse even forgot herself for a moment and came in with the dinners saying "Eeny Meeny Miney Mo, Catch a nigger by his toe..." She then caught herself, was greatly embarrassed and one of the old men said - "You cant say that any more!" To which she replied (trying to dig her way out of the hole) "Oh no, because its not alright to say 'whities' any more is it?" (she was white, with a strong accent, West country but not any Somerset or Devon one that I recognized) As soon as she had gone the retired old men returned to chatting about the Polish and how they only came here for the benefits and also took our jobs...]

By Hook or By Crook

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 05:41:00 -0800

Devon Hedge near Coffinswell - cant actually see the use of Crooks here - image by Derek Harper [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

""By Hook or by Crook"—I imagine that the expression "By hook or by crook" is in very general use throughout England. It was familiar to my ear forty years ago in Surrey, and within these four years its origin was (to my satisfaction at the moment) brought home to my comprehension in the north of Devon, where the tenant of a certain farm informed me that, by an old custom, he was entitled to take wood from some adjoining land "by hook and crook;" which, on inquiry, I understood to include, first, so much underwood as he could cut with the hook or bill, and, secondly, so much of the branches of trees as he could pull down with the aid of a crook.

Whether this crook originally meant the shepherd's crook (a very efficient instrument for the purpose), or simply such a crooh-ed stick as boys use for gathering hazel-nuts, is not very material. It seems highly probable that, in the vast forests which once overspread this country, the right of taking "Jire bote" by "hook or crook" was recognised; and we can hardly wish for a more apt illustration of the idea of gaining a desired object by the ordinary means—" a hook," if it lay close to our hand ; or, by a method requiring more effort, "a crook," if it were a little beyond our reach. J. A. S.

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 25. April 20. 1850.]

[We made use of Hooks (bill hooks) and Crooks hedge-laying on Dartmoor, but weirdly the crook was the piece of wood used to pin down the hedge - a sort of 7 shaped piece of wood hammered into the hedge (hedge here being the name for the bank, not the bits of tree on top.)]

As Morse Caught The Mare

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 05:24:00 -0800

A mare on Dartmoor - image by lostajy (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"As Morse caught the Mare. —I shall be glad to be informed the meaning of this expression — it is to be met with in the translation of Rabelais. There is also a song sung among the farmers of South Devon, of which the !ast line of each verse is " As Morse caught the Mare." 11. S. B."

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 20. Mar 16 1850]

Devon Weather Proverb - Friday weather

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 05:16:00 -0800

Devon Weather - If you wish to use my photo please attribute my blog

"Friday Weather.— The following meteorological proverb is frequently repeated in Devonshire, to denote the variability of the weather on Fridays: —

" Fridays in the week

Are never aleck."

"Aleck" for "alike," a common Devonianism. Tims Peter Pindar describes a turbulent crowd of people as being " Leek bullocks sting'd by apple-drones." Is this bit of weather-wisdom current in other parts of the kingdom ? I am induced to ask the question, because Chaucer seems to have embodied the proverb in some well-known lines, viz. : —

" Right as the Friday, sothly for to tell,

Now shineth it, and now it raineth fast,

Right so can gery Venus overcast

The hertes of hire folk, right as hire day

Is gerfull, right so changeth she aray.

Sddl is the Fiiday all the weke ylike."

The Kniglite's Tale, line 1533.

J. M. B. Totnes, Feb. 21. 1850.

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 19. Mar. 9. 1850.]

Wisk, Wisked or Yesk hounds

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Mon, 2 Jan 2012 05:09:00 -0800

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sidney Paget

[Writing on the Cron Annwn – Welsh hounds of the other world] "And they must recall to the minds of our readers the Wisk, Wisked, or Yesk hounds of Devon, which are described in the Atheneum for March 27. 1847, as well as the Maisue Hellequin of Normandy and Bretagne."

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 19. Mar. 9. 1850.]

Brutus stone in Totnes...

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:50:00 -0800

The Brutus Stone in Totnes today - image by myself (my photopgraph) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Apropos of landing-places, it may interest some of your readers to learn that the very stone upon which Brutus, the nephew of AEneas, landed at Totnes, still remains! It is inserted in the footway nearly opposite the Mayoralty-house in the Fore Street. "From Totnes, the neighbouring shore was heretofore called Totonesc : and the British History tells us, that Brutus, the founder of the British nation, arrived here; and Havillanus [John de Aloilla or Hauteville. according to Mr. Wright] as a poet, following the same authority, writes thus : —

" Inde dato cursu, Brutus comitatus Achate

Gallorum spoliis cumulatis navibus aequor

Exarat, ct superis auraque faventibus usus,

Littora felices intrat Totonesia portus."

" From hence griat Brute with his Achates steer'd.

Full fraught with Gallic spoils their ships appear'd;

The Winds and Gods were all at their command,

And happy Totnes shew'd them grateful land."

Gibson's Camden.

Totnes is made mention of in the Lais de Marie : —

" II tient sun chemin tut avant.

A la mer vient, si est passer,

En Toteneit est arriver."

Lai d'Eliduc.

J. MlLNER BARRT, M.D.

Totnes, Devon, Jan. 30. 1850."

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 15. Feb. 9. 1850.]

Map - Totnes

Some Exmoor dialect words that reveal folklore from 1746

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:59:00 -0800

Wassailing the apple tree in our garden on old Twelfth- night - if you wish to use this photo please attribute this blog.

"Axwaddle = A dealer in ashes, and, sometimes, one that rolls in them.

Baggaged or Bygaged = Mad, bewitch'd

Chaungeling = An ideot, one whom the fairies have chang'd

Dowl = The Devil

Gallibagger = a bug-bear [Not sure if this is the mythical sort or simply an anxiety or iritation. In Dorset and the Isle-of-White a Gallybagger is a scarecrow.]

Huckmuck = A little tiny fellow [Thick, stubbed]

Leech-way = Path on which the dead are carried to be buried

Pixy = A fairy

Wassail = A drinking song on twelth-day-eve, throwing toast to the apple-trees in order to have a fruitful year; which seems to be a relick of a heathen sacrifice to Pomona // // Wassail, or Was-Heil - to wish health, see Observat on Macbeth pg.41.

Whitwich = A pretend conjurer who discovers, and sells charms for witchcraft."

The Gentleman's Magazine 1746 Vol. 16 Aug Page 405

Blanford Forum - Bell ringing at Allhallows

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:34:00 -0800

It is stated in Kethe's Sermon preached at Blandford Forum in Dorsetshire, January 17th, 1570, p. 19, that "there was a custom, in the papal times, to ring hells at Allhallow-tide for all Christian souls."

Brand 1813

Map - Blandford Forum

Blanford Forum - Holy bonfires

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:24:00 -0800

Our midsummer fire last year - if you wish to use this photo please attribute this blog.

"It appears from the sermon preached at Blandford Forum, in Dorsetshire, January 17th, 1570, by William Kethe, that, in the papal times in this country, Fires were customary, not only on the Eves of St. John the Baptist at Midsummer, and of St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles, but also on that of St. Thomas a Becket, or, as he is there styled, "Thomas Becket the Traytor.""

Brand 1813

Map - Blandford Forum

Blanford Forum - Sunday Revels

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:32:00 -0800

Nelsons Ale House, Blandford Forum - image by Trish Steel [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"It appears from a Sermon made at Blanford Forum, in the Countie of Dorset, on Wensday the 17th of January 157O, by William Kethe, 8vo, that it was the custom at that time for the Church Ales to be kept upon the sabbath-day ; which holy day, says our author, "the multitude call their revelyng day, which day is spent in bulbeatings, bearebeatings, bowlings, dicyng, cardyng, daunsynges, drunkennes, and whoredome," " in so much, as men could not keepe their servauntes from, lyinge out of theyr owne houses the same sabbath-day at night.""

Brand 1813

Map - Blandford Forum

Wassail and the worshiping of Heil at Cerne, Dorset

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:08:00 -0800

Our Wassail and the wassailing bowl - please attribute this blog if you use this photo.

"The following is a note of the same learned writer [Reed, of Reed's Shakspeare] on the Polyolbion, song 9 : "I see," says he, "a custome in some parts among us : I mean the yearly Was-haile in the country on the vigil of the New Yeare, which I conjecture was a usuall ceremony among the Saxons before Hengist, as a note of health-wishing (and so perhaps you might make it Wish-heil), which was exprest among other nations in that form of drinking to the health of their mistresses and friends. " Bene vos, bene vos, bene te, bene me, bene nostram etiam Stephanium," in Plautus, and infinite other testimonies of that nature (in him, Martial, Ovid, Horace, and such more), agreeing nearly with the fashion now used : we calling it a health, as they did also in direct terms ; which, with an idol called Heil, antiently worshipped at Cerne in Dorsetshire, by the English Saxons, in name expresses both the ceremony of drinking and the New Yeare's acclamation, whereto in some parts of this kingdom is joyned also solemnity of drinking out of a cup, ritually composed, deckt, and filled with country liquor," &c.

In Herrick's Hesperides, p. 146, we read,

" Of Christmas sports, the Wassell Boule,
That tost up, after Fox-i'-th'-Hole ;
Of Blind-man-buffe, and of the care
That young men have to shooe the Mare:
Of Ash-heapes, in the which ye use
Husbands and wives by streakes to chuse:
Of crackling laurel, which fore-sounds
A plentious harvest to your grounds."

Brand 1813

Map - Cerne

Bandford Forum - A list of Christian Sacrafices - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:50:00 -0800

Bacon and Eggs - an offering to Christ? - Image from ChildofMidnight at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Common

[cont.] "...On Good Friday, they offered unto Christe Egges and Bacon to be in hys favour till Easter Day was past. The Sinnes committed betwene Easter and Whytsontyde they were fullye discharged by the pleasaunt Walkes and Processyons in the rogyng, I should say Rogation Weeke. What offences soever happened from that tyme to Midsomroer,. the fumes of the Fiers dedicated to John, Peter, and Thomas Becket the Traytor, consumed them. And as for all disorders from that tyme to the begynnyng of Christmasse agayne, they were in this Countrey all roonge away, upon All Halloun Day and All Soule's Day at night last past."

He adds, at p. 20,

"So sayth God to the brybyng Papistes, who requireth these thynges at your handes whiche I never commaundcd, as your Candles at Candlemasse, your Popish Penaunce on Ash Wensday, your Egges and Bacon on Good Friday, your Gospelles at superstitious Crosses, decked lyke Idols, your Fires at Midsommer, and your ringyng at Allhallountide for all Christen Soules ? I require, sayth God, a sorrowfull and repentaunt hart, to be mercyfull to the poore, &c.""...

..." It is stated in a curious Sermon preached at Blanford Forum, in Dorsetshire, January 17th, 1570, by William Kethe, minister, and dedicated to Ambrose Earl of Warwick, Svo. Lond. p. 18. that on Good Friday the Roman Catholics " offered unto Christe Egges and Bacon to be in hys favour till Easter Day was past ;" from which we may at least gather with certainty that Eggs and Bacon composed a usual dish on that day."

Brand 1813

Map - Blandford Forum

[Jewish (and Catholic) people had a really horrible time in much of old intolerant England - including facing genocide and expulsion - please take this anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic sermon for its folkloric value only.]

Bandford Forum - A list of Christian Sacrafices - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:49:00 -0800

Bacon and Eggs - an offering to Christ? - Image from ChildofMidnight at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"In a most curious Sermon preached at Blandford Forum, Dorsetshire, Jan. 17, 1570, by William Kethe, Minister, and dedicated to Ambrose Earl of Warwick, 8vo. p. 18, speaking of the Jews, he says, "for the Synnes they daylie committed, they would be very busie in offryng Sacrifices and exercising themselves in Ceremonies;" adding, " a lyke kynde of policie was practised by the Papistes in the tyme of Poperie (in England) to bynde God to forgeve them theyr Sinnes. For whereas, in the tyme of Christmasse, the disorders were marvelous in those dayes, (and how it is now God seeth,) at Candlemasse, which some counte the ende of Christmasse, the Papistes would be even with God, by the tyme [they had offered hym a Bribe, and such a Bribe (beyng a Candle or Taper) as a very meane officer would take foule scorae of, though he could do a man but small pleasure in his sute. Shroft Tuesday was a day of great Glottonie, Surfeiting,and Dronkennes, but by Ashe Wensday at night, they thought God to be in their debt..." [cont.]

Brand 1813

Banning the Wakes in Exeter and Somersetshire

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:04:00 -0800

Exeter Morris Men dancing!

"When an order was made in 1627 and in 1631, at Exeter, and in Somersetshire, for the suppression of the Wakes [I think these where Wakes on the night before the parish church's saint day, associated with dancing, music and drink, and the feasting on the day itself], both the Ministers and the People desired their continuance, not only for preserving the memorial of the dedication of their several Churches, but for civilizing the parishioners, composing differences by the mediation and meeting of friends, increasing of love, and unity, by these feasts of charity, and for the relief and comfort of the poor."

Brand 1813

Map - Exeter

Revel of Mary Magdaline - Stocklinch

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:25:00 -0800

Stocklinch Village today - image by Nigel Mykura [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"In Collinson's History of Somersetshire, vol. i. Abdick and Bulston Hundred, p. 64, speaking of Stocklinch, St. Magdalen Parish, the author says : "A Revel is held here on St. Mary Magdalen's day.""

Brand 1813

Map - Stocklinch

[Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus, and a saint in the Catholic church. After the first half of the first millennium AD it was suggested by Pope Gregory that she was a prostitute, although the Vatican revised this in 1969 (Wikipedia!) - so for the period Brand and Collinson where talking about she would have been thought of as a 'repentant' prostitute - It makes me wander what nature her revel took... Saint Mary Magdalene's day was the 22nd of July]

Chew Valley Lake and the Tolling of the church bell

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:45:00 -0800

A part of Chew Valley Lake - by Stuart Buchan [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

[I have been listening to "Questions, Questions" on Radio 4 and in part of it they investigated whether church bells can ring under water (it turns out that they do, but that the sound is muted and has difficulty transferring back into the air - wish they had put a wooden boat in the water to act as a sounding board).

The reason they where doing this was to investigate the possible truth of the widespread myth about flooded (vanished) churches still tolling their bells. I had grown up hearing this in relation to Chew Valley Lake (a reservoir) where it is said a village was flooded during its construction. The website for the lake says there was 16 farms and 11 other houses that where flooded during its construction in 1955 - it does not mention a church or a village. Wikipedia however mentions the small village of Morton, though there is no mention of a church. I wander how in the 35ish short years between the construction and my standing on its edge as a child it had garnered this common myth? Who told me? I think it was either my dad or my friends dad - neither where from the area, but both had worked in the area planting trees.

Interestingly the nearby village of Chew Stoke was home to a well known family of bell and clock makers.

I even remember it being said that on drought years one could see the cockerel at the top of the spire poking out! The archaeologist part of me dismisses this as highly unlikely, even if there had been a church. If the dam builders had not knocked it down the water would have ruined it in a few years, if not months...

The radio program mentioned the town of Duwich, in Suffolk where it is also said you can hear the church bells ring. Alan Lee and Brian Froud mention in their Faeries book that the Welsh Gwragedd Annwn, beautiful lake dwelling faerie maidens, lived in Welsh mountain lakes, and legends tell that in one of these lakes tall towers can bee seen in the depths and peals of bells heard... It is obviously a persistent and widespread legend.]

Map - Chew Valley Lake

Exeter words...

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:26:00 -0800

I am sitting in a hospital bed with little to do besides people watch, especially before I paid an extortionate amount of money to use this Andrew Lansley henchmen installed partial internet portal....

So I have started to collect words~

My favourites are the words of endearment used by nurses to deal with patiants. The more decreped you look the more they use these terms...

"my lovely"
"my darlin'/darling"
"love"
"sweatheart"
"poppet"

I also heard two Devon nurses joking about the Bristolian "my lover"... "Sweatheart" went together with "love" and with "my darling".

Another bit of earwigging I did was of an ealderly Devon family (not saying exactly where) who came out with the following beautifuly poetic turns of phrase ~

"Every thin's chaingen', innette?" "Is et?" "Ooo, et es."

"We 'add a chreffec 'ail storm, and them cars was just crawlin' along..."

(Daughter reprimanding dad) "Here then, you got 'em, 'ant ee?"

"Dohn it mek the meat tender?" "Do et?" "Yeh" "Were d' ee gedd et?" "Down Tesco's."

"Tis' WILD out there." (about the weather).

One person (no Devon accent) complained that her daughter she had carefully named Macey was called at school "Maizey". Maizey is dialect for crazy...

Common Land of Congrebury, Puxton and Week Saint Lawrence - part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Thu, 8 Dec 2011 06:46:00 -0800

A common near Congresbury - not sue if it is the same - by FollowMeChaps [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Collinson, in his Somersetshire, vol. iii. p. 586, says : "In the parishes of Congresbury and Puxton, are two large pieces of common land, called East and West Dolemoors, (from the Saxon dal, which signifies a share or portion,) which are divided into single acres, each bearing a peculiar and different mark cut in the turf, such as a horn, four oxen and a mare, two oxen and a mare, a pole-axe, cross, dung-fork, oven, ...." [cont.]

Brand 1813

Common Land of Congrebury, Puxton and Week Saint Lawrence - part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Thu, 8 Dec 2011 06:28:00 -0800

A common near Congresbury - not sue if it is the same - by FollowMeChaps [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

[cont.] "...duck's-nest, hand-reel, and hare's-tail. On the Saturday before Old-Midsummer, several proprietors of estates in the parishes of Congresbury, Puxton, and Week St. Lawrence, or their tenants, assemble on the commons. A number of apples are previously prepared, marked in the same manner with the beforementioned acres, which are 'distributed by a young lad to each of the commoners from a bag or hat. At the close of the distribution each person repairs to his allotment, as his apple directs him, and takes possession for the ensuing year. An adjournment then takes place to the house of. the overseer of Dolemoors, (an officer annually elected from. the tenants,) where four acres, reserved for the purpose of paying expences, are let by inch of candle, and the remainder of the day is spent in that sociability and hearty mirth so congenial to the soul of a Somersetshire yeoman."

Brand 1813

Map - Congresbury
Map - Puxton
Map - Wick Saint Lawrence
Map - Dolemoor

Glastonbury Walnut Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Ent) — Thu, 8 Dec 2011 05:44:00 -0800

Saint Josephs Chapel, Glastonbury - By Francis Frith (Yale University Art Gallery [1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

"Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, vol. ii. p. 265, speaking of Glastonbury, tells us, that, "besides the holy Thorn, there grew' in the Abbey Church-yard, on the North side of St. Joseph's Chapel, a miraculous Walnut Tree, which never budded forth before the feast of St. Barnabas, viz. the eleventh of June, and on that very day shot forth leaves, and" flourished like its usual species. This tree is gone, and in the place there of stands a very fine Walnut-tree of the common sort. It is strange to say how much this tree was sought after by the credulous; and, though not an uncommon Walnut, Queen Anne, King James, and many of the nobility of the realm, even when the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large sums of money for small cuttings from the original.""

Brand 1813

Map - Glastonbury