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FOLK LORE
ST. VALENTINE IN NORWICH—COOK-EELS, &c. &c
The day appropriated to St. Valentine is kept with some peculiarity in the city of Norwich. Although "Valentines," as generally understood, that is to say billets sent by means of the post, are as numerously employed here as in other places, yet the custom consists not in the transmission of a missive overflowing with hearts and darts, or poetical posies, but in something far more substantial, elegant and costly—to wit, a goodly present of value unrestricted in use or expense. Though this custom is openly adopted among relatives and others whose friendship is reciprocated, yet the secret mode of placing a friend in possession of an offering is followed largely,—and this it is curious to remark, not on the day of the saint, when it might be supposed that the appropriateness of the gift would be duly ratified, the virtue of the season being in full vigour, but on the eve of St. Valentine, when it is fair to presume his charms are not properly matured. The mode adopted among all classes is that of placing the presents on the door-sill of the house of the favoured person, and intimating what is done by a run-a-way knock or ring as the giver pleases.
So universal is this custom in this ancient city, that it may be stated with truth some thousands of pounds are annually expended in the purchase of Valentine presents. At the time of writing (February 2.) the shops almost generally exhibit displays of articles calculated for the approaching period, unexampled in brilliancy, taste and costliness, and including nearly every item suitable to the drawing room, the parlour, or the boudoir. The local papers contain numerous advertising announcements of "Valentines;" the walls are occupied with printed placards of a similar character, and the city crier, by means of a loud bell and an equally sonorous voice, proclaims the particular advantages in the Valentine department of rival emporiums. All these preparations increase as the avator of St. Valentine approaches. At length the saint and his eve arrives—passes—and the custom, apparently expanding with age, is placed in abeyance until the next year. I am inclined to believe that this mode of keeping St. Valentine is confined to this city and the county of Norfolk.
As regards priority of occurrence this year, I should have first mentioned, that on Shrove Tuesday a custom commences of eating a small bun called cocque'els—cook-eels—coquilles—(the name being spelt indifferently) which is continued through the season of Lent. Forby, in his Vocabulary of East Anglia, calls this production "a sort of cross bun," but no cross is placed upon it, though its composition is not dissimilar. My inquiries, and, I may add, my reading, have not led me to the origin of either of the customs now detailed (with the exception of a few unsatisfactory words given by Forby on cook-eels), and I should be glad to find these brief notices leading by your means to more extended information on both subjects, not only as regards this part of the country, but others also.
JOHN WODDERSPOON.
Norwich.
Old Charms.—I think that, if you are anxious to accumulate as much as you can of the Folk Lore of England, no set of men are more likely to help you than the clergy, particularly the younger part, viz., curates, to whom the stories they hear among their flock have the gloss of novelty. I send you a specimen of old charms, &c. that have come under my notice in the south-eastern counties.
No. 1. is a dialogue between the Parson and the old Dame:—
"P. Well, Dame Grey, I hear you have a charm to cure the toothache. Come, just let me hear it; I should be so much pleased to know it.
"Dame. Oh, your reverence, it's not worth telling."
(Here a long talk—Parson coaxing the Dame to tell him—old lady very shy, partly suspecting he is quizzing her, partly that no charms are proper things, partly willing to know what he thinks about it.) At last it ends by her saying—
"Well, your reverence, you have been very kind to me, and I'll tell you: it's just a verse from Scripture as I says over those as have the toothache:—
"'And Jesus said unto Peter, What aileth thee? and Peter answered, Lord, I have toothache. And the Lord healed him.'"
"P. Well, but Dame Grey, I think I know my Bible, and I don't find any such verse in it."
"Dame. Yes, your reverence, that is just the charm. It's in the Bible, but you can't find it!"
No. 2. To avert sickness from a family, hang up a sickle, or iron implement, at the bed head.
No. 3. Should a death happen in a house at night, and there be a hive or hives of bees in the garden, go out and wake them up at once, otherwise the whole hive or swarm will die.
I hope your Folk Lore is not confined to the fading memorials of a past age. The present superstitions are really much more interesting and valuable to be gathered together; and I am sure your pages would be very well employed in recording these for a future generation. I would suggest, in all humility, that it would be really useful, for the rulers of our Church and State, to know how far such a superstition as the following prevails among the peasantry:
That, if a dying person sees "glory," or a bright light, at or near the time of their dissolution, such a vision is a sure sign of their salvation, whatever may have been their former life, or their repentance.
D. Sholbus.
Superstitions in North of England.—I find some curious popular superstitions prevalent in the north of England some three centuries ago recorded in the Proceedings before the Special Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes appointed by Queen Elizabeth. Thus:
"Anthony Haggen presented for medicioning children with miniting a hammer as a smythe of kynde."
Again
"John Watson presented for burying a quick dogg and a quick cowe."
And
"Agnes, the wyf of John Wyse, als Winkam John Wyse, presented to be a medicioner for the waffc of an yll wynde, and for the fayryes."
Some of your readers may perhaps explain what these were. It is clear that they were superstitious practices of sufficient prevalence and influence on the popular mind to call for the interference of the queen's commissioners.
A.B.
Decking Churches with Yew on Easter Day.—In the village of Berkely near Frome, Somerset, and on the borders of Wiltshire, the church is decorated on Easter Sunday with yew, evidently as an emblem of the Resurrection. Flowers in churches on that day are common, but I believe the use of yew to be unusual.
W. Durrant Cooper.
Strewing Straw or Chaff.—The custom mentioned by your correspondent "B." (p. 245.) as prevailing in Gloucestershire, is not peculiar to that county. In Kent, it is commonly practised by the rustics. The publican, all the world over, decorates his sign-board with a foaming can and pipes, to proclaim the entertainment to be found within. On the same principle, these rustics hang up their sign-board,—as one of them, with whom I was once remonstrating, most graphically explained to me. When they knew of a house where the master deems a little wholesome discipline necessary to ensure the obedience of love, considering it a pity that the world should be ignorant of his manly virtues, they strew "well threshed" chaff or straw before his door, as an emblematical sign-board, to proclaim that the sweet fare and "good entertainment" of a "well threshed" article may be found within. The custom, at all events, has one good tendency, it shames the tyrant into restraint, when he knows that his cowardly practices are patent to the world.
Lambert B. Larking.
FOLK LORE OF WALES
No. 1. Cron Annwn.—When a storm sounds over the mountains, the Welsh peasant will tell you that his ear discerns the howl of the Cron Annwn mingling with that of the wind, yet as clearly distinct from it as is the atmosphere in a diving-bell from that of the surrounding waters. These dogs of Annwn, or "couriers of the air," are spirit hounds, who hunt the souls of the dead; or, as occasionally said, they foretell, by their expectant cries, the approaching death of some man of evil deeds. Few have ever pretended to see them; for few, we presume, would linger until they dawned on the sight; but they are described by Taliesin, and in the Mabinogion, as being of a clear shining white, with red ears; colouring which confirms the author of the Mythology of the Ancient Druids in the idea that these dogs were "a mystical transformation of the Druids with their white robes and red tiaras." Popular superstition, however, which must always attribute ugliness to an object of fear, deems that they are either jet black, with eyes and teeth of fire, or of a deep red, and dripping all over with gore. "The nearer," says the Rev. Edmund Jones, "they are to a man, the less their voice is, and the farther the louder, sometimes swelling like the voice of a great hound, or a blood-hound."
They are sometimes accompanied by a female fiend, called Malt y nos—Mathilda or Malen of the night, a somewhat ubiquitous character, with whom we meet under a complication of names and forms.
Jones of Brecon, who tells us that the cry of the Cron Annwn is as familiar to the inhabitants of Ystrad Fellte and Pont Neath-vaughan [in Glamorganshire] as the watchman's rattle in the purlieus of Covent Garden—for he lived in the days when watchmen and their rattles were yet among the things of this world—considers that to these dogs, and not to a Greek myth, may be referred the hounds, Fury, Silver, Tyrant, &c., with which Prospero hunts his enemies "soundly," in the Tempest. And they must recall to the minds of our readers the wisk, wisked, or Yesk hounds of Devon, which are described in the Athenæum for March 27. 1847, as well as the Maisne Hellequin of Normandy and Bretagne.
There has been much discussion respecting the signification of the word Annwn, which has been increased by the very frequent mistake of writing it Anwn, which means, unknown, strange, and is applied to the people who dwell in the antipodes of the speaker; while Annwn is an adaptation of annwfn, a bottomless or immeasurable pit, voidless space, and also Hell. Thus we find, that when Pwyl, or Reason, drives these dogs off their track, the owner comes up, and, reproving him, declares that he is a crowned king, lord of Annwn and Pendaran, i.e. chief of thunder. (See Myth. Ant. Druids, p. 418.)
This Prince of Darkness is supposed to be the spouse of Andraste, now corrupted into Andras, and equivalent with Malt y nos, the Diana or Hecate of the ancient Britons.
These dogs sometimes appear singly, on which occasions they sit by the side of a stream, howling in so unearthly a manner, that the hapless man who finds one in his path usually loses his senses. This seems to have a connection with the "Manthe Doog" of the Isle of Man; but the tradition is not, we suspect, genuine.
Seleucus.
No. 2. Cyoeraeth or Gwrach-y-rhybin.—Another instance of the grand, though gloomy superstitions of the Cymry, is that of the Cyoeraeth, or hag of the mist, an awful being who is supposed to reside in the mountain fog, through which her supernatural shriek is frequently heard. She is believed to be the very personification of ugliness, with torn and dishevelled hair, long black teeth, lank and withered arms and claws, and a most cadaverous appearance; to this some add, wings of a leathery and bat-like substance.
The name Cy-oer-aeth, the last two syllables of which signify cold-grief, is most descriptive of the sad wail which she utters, and which will, it is said, literally freeze the veins of those who hear it; she is rarely seen, but is heard at a cross-road, or beside a stream—in the latter case she splashes the water with her hands—uttering her lamentation, as if in allusion to the relatives of those about to die. Thus, if a man hears her cry fy nqwsaig, fy nqwsaig, &c., his wife will surely die, and he will be heard to mourn in the same strain ere long; and so on with other cases. The cadence of this cry can never be properly caught by any one who has not heard, if not a Cyoeraeth, at least a native of Wales, repeat the strain. When merely an inarticulate scream is heard, it is probable that the hearer himself is the one whose death is fore-mourned.
Sometimes she is supposed to come like the Irish banshee, in a dark mist, to the windows of those who have been long ill; when flapping her wings against the pane, she repeats their names with the same prolonged emphasis; and then it is thought that they must die.
It is this hag who forms the torrent beds which seam the mountain side; for she gathers great stones in her cloak to make her ballast, when she flies upon the storm; and when about to retire to her mountain cave, she lets them drop progressively as she moves onwards, when they fall with such an unearthly weight that they lay open the rocky sides of the mountain.
In some parts of South Wales this hag of the mists either loses her sway, or divides it with a more dignified personage, who, in the form of an old man, and under the name of Brenhin Llwyd, the grey king, sits ever silent in the mist.
Any one who has witnessed the gathering and downward rolling of a genuine mountain fog must fully appreciate the spirit in which men first peopled the cloud with such supernatural beings a those above described; or with those which dimly, yet constantly, pervade the much-admired Legend of Montrose.
Seleucus.
WILLIAM BASSE AND HIS POEMS
I regret that I am unable to offer any information in answer to "Mr. P. Collier's" inquiry (No. 13. p. 200.) respecting the existence of a perfect or imperfect copy of a poem by William Basse on the Death of Prince Henry, printed at Oxford by Joseph Barnes, 1613, and am only aware of such a poem from the slight mention of it by Sir Harris Nicolas in his beautiful edition of Walton's Complete Angler, p. 422. But as the possessor of the 4to. MS. volume of poems by Basse, called Polyhymnia, formerly belonging to Mr. Heber, I feel greatly interested in endeavouring to obtain some further biographical particulars of Basse,—of whom, although personally known to Isaac Walton, the author of one or two printed volumes of poems, and of the excellent old songs of "the Hunter in his Career" and "Tom of Bedlam," and worthy of having his verses on Shakspeare inserted among his collected poems, yet the notices we at present possess are exceedingly slight. We learn from Anth. Wood, in his Ath. Oxon., vol. iv. p. 222., that Basse was a native of Moreton, near Thame in Oxfordshire, and was for some time a retainer of Sir Richard Wenman, Knt., afterwards Viscount Wenman, in the peerage of Ireland. He seems also to have been attached to the noble family of Norreys of Ricot in Oxfordshire, which is not far from Thame; and addressed some verses to Francis Lord Norreys, Earl of Berkshire, from which I quote one or two stanzas, and in the last of which there is an allusion to the [plainness of the] author's personal appearance:
"O true nobilitie, and rightly grac'd
With all the jewels that on thee depend,
Where goodnesse doth with greatnesse live embrac'd,
And outward stiles, on inward worth attend.
Where ample lands, in ample hands are plac'd
And ancient deeds, with ancient coats descend:
Where noble bloud combin'd with noble spirit
Forefathers fames, doth with their formes inherit.
"Where ancestors examples are perus'd
Not in large tomes, or costly tombs alone,
But in their heires: and being dayly us'd
Are (like their robes) more honourable growne,
Where Loyalty with Piety is infus'd,
And publique rights are cherish'd w'th their owne;
Where worth still finds respect, good friend, good word,
Desart, reward. And such is Ricot's Lord.
"But what make I (vaine voyce) in midst of all
The Quires that have already sung the fame
Of this great House, and those that henceforth shall
(As that will last) for ever sing the same.
But, if on me, my garland instly fall,
I justly owe my musique to this name.
For he unlawfully usurps the Bayes
That has not sung in noble Norrey's prayse.
"In playne (my honour'd Lord) I was not borne,
Audacious vowes, or forraigne legs to use,
Nature denyed my outside to adorne,
And I, of art to learne outsides refuse.
Yet haveing of them both, enough to scorne
Silence, & vulgar prayse, this humble muse
And her meane favourite; at yo'r comand
Chose in this kinde, to kisse your noble hand."
His Polyhymnia is dedicated to the sister of this person, the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lindsey, and Baroness of Eresbie and of Ricot. Besides the "Anglers' Song" made at Walton's request, and the before-mentioned two songs, which are given at length in the Appendix to the Complete Angler, p. 420., Sir H. Nicolas's edit., besides these, and the verses "on William Shakespeare, who died in April, 1616," sometimes called "Basse his Elegie on Shakespeare," which appear in the edition of Shakespeare's Poems of 1640, 8vo., and are reprinted in Malone's edition of his Plays, vol. i. p. 470.: another poem by William Basse will be found in the collection entitled Annalia Dubrensia, upon the Yearely Celebration of Mr. Robert Dover's Olympick Games upon Cotswold Hills, 4to. 1636. This consists of ten stanzas, of eight lines each, "To the noble and fayre Assemblies, the harmonious concourse of Muses, and their Ioviall entertainer, my right generous Friend, Master Robert Dover, upon Cotswold." Basse was also, as Mr. Collier remarks, the author of a poem, which I have never seen, called Sword and Buckler, or Serving Man's Defence, in six-line stanzas, 4to. Lond., imprinted in 1602. A copy of this was sold in Steevens's sale, No. 767., and is now among "Malone's Collection of Early Poetry" in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. And, according to Ritson, he wrote another work, published in the same year, viz. Three Pastorall Elegies of Anander, Anytor and Muridella, entered to Joseph Barnes, 28 May, 1692, of which I am not aware that any copy is now in existence. These, with the addition of Great Brittaines Sunnes-set, bewailed with a Shower of Teares, at Oxford, printed by Joseph Barnes, 1613, the fragment of which is in the possession of Mr. Collier, appear, as far as I can yet ascertain, to be the only known publications of William Basse, with his name attached to them in full. Other works, however, have been attributed to him from the similarity of the initials,—but most of them probably without much foundation; viz. 1. Scacchia Ludus: Chesse-play: a poetical translation of Vida's poem at the end of Ludus Sacchiæ, Chesse-Play, by W.B. 4to. Lond. 1597; by Ritson. 2. A Helpe to Discourse; or a Miscelany of Merriment, by W.B. and E.P. 2nd edit. 8vo. Lond. 1620; by Mr. Malone. And 3. That which seemes Best is Worst, exprest in a Paraphrastical Transcript of Iuuenals tenth Satyre. Together with the Tragicall Narration of Virginius Death interserted, by W.B. small 8vo. Lond.; imprinted by Felix Kyngston, 1617, by Mr. Octavius Gilchrist, who however rather leans to the opinion of William Barkstead being the author, from the circumstance of his having, as early as 1607, paraphrased, much in a similar way, the interesting tale of Myrrha, the mother of Adonis, from the 10th Book of the Metamorphoses. (See Restitutu, vol. i. p. 41.)
Cole, in his MS. Collectanea for Athenæ Cantabrigiensis, says:
"Mr. Knight, jun. shewed me a MS. written by William Basse, and corrected by him, in 4to., called Polyhymnia.—Dedication. To the Right Noble and vertuous Lady, the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lindsey, and Baroness of Eresbie and Ricot, in verse, with Verses to the Right Hon. Francis Lord Norreys, Earl of Berkshire (in his days). To the Right Hon. the Lady Aungier (then wife of Sir Thos. Wenman) upon her coming out of Ireland and return thither. To the Right Hon. the lady Viscountess Falkland, upon her going into Ireland, two Sonnets. The Youth in the Boat. Acrostics of the truly noble, vertuous, and learned Lady, the Lady Agnes Wenman; of the Lady Penelope Dynham; of Mrs. Jane Wenman. Verses on the Chapel of Wadham College consecration, St. Peter's Day, 1613; on Caversham or Causham House; of Witham House, Oxfordshire, the house of a noble Knight, and favourer of my Muse; and Elegy on a Bullfinch, 1648; of the Four Mile Course of Bayaides Green, six times run over, by two famous Irish footmen, Patrick Dorning and William O'Farrell.—It contains about 40 leaves, much corrected, and at the end is 'L'Envoy':—
"'Go, sweet Polymnia, thanks for all your cost
And love to me; wherein no love is lost.
As you have taught me various verse to use,
I have to right you to be a Christian Muse.'"
I have been thus particular in transcribing this passage from Cole, because this copy, mentioned as being in the possession of Mr. Knight, jun. (quere, where is it now?), varies from mine, obtained from Mr. Heber's Collection, and was no doubt the one prepared and corrected for the press by Basse. The following poems, mentioned by Cole, are not in my copy:—
"To the Right Hon. the Lady Aungier (then wife of Sir Thos. Wenman) upon her coming out of Ireland, and return thither. Acrostics of the truly noble, vertuous, and learned Lady, the Lady Agnes Wenman; of the Lady Penelope Dynham; of Mrs. Jane Wenman. Verses on the Chapel of Wadham College consecration, St. Peter's Day, 1613; and on Caversham or Causham House."
My copy, however, contains the following poems, not mentioned in the other:—
"Of a Great Floud; of the Raine-bowe; of Pen and Pensill, upon a fayre and vertuous Ladye's Picture; and the Spirituall Race."
The MS. contains 52 leaves, beautifully written without any corrections, and is in the original binding. It was procured by Mr. Heber from Hanwell, the Bookseller in Oxford, who had probably purchased it on the taking down of Ricot, the old seat of the Norreys family, and the dispersion of its contents. It has the autograph of Francis Lord Norreys on the fly-leaf, and was no doubt a presentation copy to him from Basse. The poetry of this work does not rise above mediocrity, and is not equal in thought or vigour to the Epitaph on Shakspeare. The chief portion of the volume is occupied with the singular tale of "The Youth in the Boat," which is divided into two parts; the first, containing (with the introduction) 59 verses of four lines each, and the second 163, exclusive of the "Morall," which occupies 11 more.
We know that it was Basse's intention to have published these poems, from some lines addressed by Dr. Ralph Bathurst "To Mr. W. Basse upon the intended publication of his poems, January 13. 1651," which are given in Warton's Life and Literary Remains of Dean Bathurst, 8vo. 1761, p. 288. In these lines the Dean compares Basse, who was still living, "to an aged oak," and says:—
