THE HOUSE AT KIRBY MOORSIDE IN WHICH THE 2ND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM--THE FAVOURITE OF CHARLES II.--DIED. The window of the bedroom is shown in the illustration. It is on the first floor at the right hand side of the house.
The Duke lived to the age of sixty in spite of his life of unbridled vice, and it seems that a sudden illness seized him after a hard day's hunting, and he died at the house in Kirby Moorside where he was taken instead of to Helmsley. The house is still standing, and one may even see the room in which the reckless Duke expired. As may be seen from the illustration the house is a good one, and at that time must have been, with one exception, the best in the village. The lines by Pope descriptive of the favourite's death are, therefore, quite unwarranted:--
It never was an inn, and the Rev. R. V. Taylor1 has discovered that the house was in the occupation of one of his tenants. I have carefully examined the house without finding anything to suggest that such squalor could have ever existed there. The staircase is very picturesque, and one of the brass drop handles on the bedroom doors shows that the building was a good one. The bedroom in which the Duke died has the fireplace blocked up; there is a recessed window containing a seat, and the walls, where they are panelled, are of fir, although the larger beams throughout the house seem to be of oak.
1 "Yorkshire Notes and Queries," May 1904, p. 68.
The sudden demise of this famous man must have created a sensation in the village, and although the body was not buried at Kirby Moorside, the parish register of that time has this illiterate entry2--
"buried in the yeare of our Lord 1687
Marke Reame ..... Aprill ye 12
Gorges viluas Lord dooke of bookingam etc. 19"
2 The third volume of the registers at the top of page 4.
A letter from Lord Arran to the Duke's late chaplain, dated April 17th, 1687, says, "I have ordered the corpse to be embalmed and carried to Helmsley Castle and there to remain till my Lady Duchess her pleasure shall be known. There must be speedy care taken; for there is nothing here but confusion, not to be expressed. Though his stewards have received vast sums, there is not so much as one farthing, as they tell me, for defraying the least expense." From this it appears that he died on or before the 17th of April, and that after the embalming process had been performed the intestines were buried at Kirby Moorside on the 19th and not on the 17th, as stated by Gill in his "Vallis Eboracensis."
One of the tattered registers1 of Kirby Moorside also contains the following remarkable entry:--
"Dorythy Sowerbie of Bransdales (slayne with 6 bullett by theeves in the night) was buryed the 23th (sic) Day of May 1654." A few years before this in 1650 the burial is recorded of "a stranger that yt sold stockins."
1 Vol. ii. p. 2
On the first page of the register dated 1704, the vicar, "M. James Musgrave," gives a list of "things belonging to the churich--a surplus, a Hud, a challis, a patton, tow-flaggons [these are of pewter and are kept in the church], a putter Dubler, a Tabill clorth, on napkin. A dubler for christening."
During this period the Duchy records show that Pickering Forest was still being robbed of its oaks, some of them being used to repair the defences of Scarborough Castle during the Civil War.
Some of the other entries at the same time are given below.1
1 From a thin foolscap book containing, inter alia, the findings of the Juries of the Courts Leet, etc., in the possession of the Rev. Arthur Hill of Thornton-le-dale.
From the same book we discover that
This is of considerable interest in view of the fact that the Grayson family are still tenants of the Duchy.
Tenants are mentioned as holding property in "Smiddiehill" and "Hungate Greene," and the entry given below is interesting on account of the mention of the market cross that has completely disappeared.
Many of the small houses of Pickering must have been built at this time. One near the castle gateway has a stone in the gable end bearing the initials E.C.W., and the date 1646, another with a thatched roof on the south side of Eastgate, dated 1677, is now fast going to ruin. The roofs were no doubt at that time chiefly covered with thatch, and the whole town must have been extremely picturesque. The stocks, the shambles, and the market cross stood in the centre of the town, and there were none of the unpleasant features that modern ideas, unchecked by a sense of fitness and proportion, bring in their wake.
The castle, we have seen, was in a far more perfect state than at the present time, but the church must have appeared much as it does to-day. The circular wooden pulpit is Georgian, and thus the one that preceded it has disappeared. Two of the three bells that still hang in the tower bear the date 1638. The treble bell is inscribed "Praise the Lord," and sounds the note G sharp. The middle bell gives F sharp and the inscription is "Soli deo gloria." Hanging in the bellcote of the schools adjoining the church is the small bell dated 1632 that was removed from the Bruce Chapel in 1857 when the schools were built. Before that date children were taught in the Bruce Chapel.
In Archbishop Sharp's manuscripts (page 106) preserved at Bishopthorpe there is a detailed account of the parish of Pickering. It is dated 1706, and is given under the heading of "Dean of York's Peculiars." There are numerous abbreviations, but the meaning is plain in most instances.
The Maypole on Sinnington Green. The centre of many village festivities in the past centuries.
The country folk were in much the same state in regard to their morals and superstitions as in the Georgian Era described in the next chapter, but it is of great interest to know that efforts towards improvement were being made as early as the year 1708. The following account given by Calvert of an attempt to stop the May dance at Sinnington would show either that these picturesque amusements were not so harmless as they appear at this distance, or else that the "Broad Brims" were unduly severe on the innocent pleasures of the time. The account is taken by Calvert "from one Nares book."
An inverted stone coffin of much earlier date used as a seventeenth century gravestone at Wykeham Abbey.
"In the year 1708 there did come a great company of Broad Brims for to stop the May Dance about the pole at Sinnington, and others acting by concert did the like at Helmsley, Kirby Moorside and Slingsby, singing and praying they gat them round about the garland pole whilst yet the may Queen was not yet come but when those with flute and drum and dancers came near to crown the Queen the Broad Brims did pray and sing psalms and would not give way while at the finish up there was like for to be a sad end to the day but some of the Sinnington Bucks did join hands in a long chain and thus swept them clean from the pole. At Slingsby there was a great dordum of a fight, but for a great while the Broad Brims have set their faces against all manner of our enjoyment."
Fine examples of the carved oak cabinets, chests, and other pieces of furniture of this period still survive in some of the houses of Pickering. The cabinets generally bear the date and the initials of the maker, and the I.B. to be seen on some of the finest pieces from this district are the initials of John Boyes of Pickering, whose work belongs chiefly to the time of William and Mary.
The Forest and Vale in Georgian Times, 1714 to 1837
With the accession of King George the First in 1714 we commence a new section of the history of Pickering, a period notable in its latter years for the sweeping away to a very large extent of the superstitions and heathen practices which had survived until the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
The town had probably altered very little in its general appearance since the time of the Restoration. Most of the roofs were thatched; the castle was probably more dismantled within the outer walls, but the church of the Georgian period must have been almost identically the same as during the century that preceded it, and as it remained until the restoration in 1879.
At the top of the market-place stood the stocks at the side of the old stone-built shambles that disappeared in 1857, having for many generations formed a background to the groups of buyers and sellers in the steep and picturesque street. We can people the scene with the quaint costumes of the eighteenth century; knee-breeches and long waistcoats are to be seen in every direction, the three-cornered hat and the wig tied with a black ribbon are worn by the better classes. The wives and daughters of the squires and lesser gentry reflect in a modified form the fashions prevailing in London, and to be observed in actuality among the gay crowds that thronged the Spa at Scarborough, assuming and discarding the hooped-petticoat according to the mode of the moment. We can see the farmers of the Vale and those from the lonely dales discussing the news of the week and reading the scarce and expensive newspapers that found their way to Pickering. How much they understood of the reasons for the great European wars and alliances it is not easy to say, but when the reports came of victories to the British armies, assisted although they may have been by paid allies, the patriotic feelings of these Yorkshiremen did not fail to manifest themselves in a heavier consumption of beer than usual. We can hear the chink of glasses and the rattle of pewter tankards in the cosy parlours of the "White Swan," the "George," and the rest; we can hear as the years go by the loud cheers raised for Marlborough, for Wolfe, for Nelson, or for Wellington, while overhead the church bells are ringing loudly in the old grey tower. These were the days of the highwaymen, and even as late as 1830 a postman was robbed near the moorland village of Lockton, on his way to Whitby. The driver of the mailcart at that time used to carry a large brass-mounted cavalry pistol, which was handed to him when he had mounted his box by one of the two old ladies who acted as the post-mistresses of Pickering. It is not much more than ten years since the death of Francis Gibson, a butcher of East Ayton, who was over a hundred years old and remembered the capture of the last highwayman who was known to carry on the old-time profession in the neighbourhood. He was tracked to an inn at East Ayton where he was found sleeping. Soon afterwards he found himself on the road to York, where he was hanged.
The road across Seamer Moor between Ayton and Scarborough was considered sufficiently dangerous for those who travelled late to carry firearms. Thus we can see Mr Thomas Chandler of the Low Hall at West Ayton--a Justice of the Peace--having dined with some relations in Scarborough, returning at a late hour. The lights of his big swinging barouche drawn by a pair of fat chestnuts shine out on the white road; the country on either side is unenclosed, and masked men may appear out of the shadows at any moment. But if they are about they may have heard that Mr Chandler carries a loaded pistol ready for emergencies, for they always let him reach his house in safety.
To the simple peasants highwaymen were probably considered of small account in comparison to the apparitions that haunted many parts of the lonely country. Nearly every part of the moor had its own wraith or boggle, and the fear of these ghosts was so widespread that in many cases the clergy were induced to publicly lay them, after which were seen no more.
To record the advent of these strange beliefs is impossible, for who can tell how or when they originated? We can only describe them at the time of their destruction. Chaucer, writing in the fourteenth century, seemed to imagine that belief in elves and fairies had received its death-blow in his own time, for in "The Wife of Bath's Tale," he says--
Five hundred years, however, had to pass before the most implicit belief in hobs, wraiths, and boggles was to disappear, and even at the present day those who have intimate associations with the population of the North Yorkshire moors know that traces of the old superstitions still survive.
Several books have been written on the folklore of Yorkshire and from them it is possible to get a rough idea of the superstitions common to many parts of the county, but these do not particularly concern the district surrounding Pickering. We should probably have never heard of many curious facts specially belonging to this part of the county if a small manuscript book of closely written notes had not been discovered by Mr Richard Blakeborough of Stockton-on-Tees, who has kindly allowed me to quote from it. The stories were collected by one George Calvert, who writes in 1823, and frequently mentions that the customs he describes were rapidly dying out. Under the heading of "Witch Hags who have dwelt hereabouts" he writes--
"They be so great in number that mayhap it will shew the more wisdom, if mention be made only of those who in their day wrought some wondrous deed or whose word cast fear upon all."
From this list I have picked out those that belong to the neighbourhood of Pickering, and by the letters placed after each name one can discover in the key given below the special arts practised by each "hag."
"All these," says Calvert, "were at one time of great note and did in their day work great deed and cast many an evil spell and charm and were held in great fear by great many good and peaceful folk. It be not for me to here put an argument in the favour of what do now be doubted and scorned by some. I will but say that I have seen and know that which hath been wrought by these hags o' the broom and of their power which they held at their beck and wink the which is not to be set on one side at the flip and flout of our young masters and misses, fresh from some teaching drove into their brain pans by some idiotick and skeptick French teacher. I therefore say no more on this matter."
Nancy Skaife of Spaunton Moor had a wonderful receipt for making a magic cube, and as she was a famous witch of her time and was reputed to possess most remarkable powers of foretelling events to come, it will be interesting to learn the ingredients of her magic cubes.
Two ways of marking Magic Cubes. (_From Calvert's MS. Book of Folklore_.)
"Get you of the skull the bone part of a gibbetted man so much as one ounce which you will dry and grind to a powder until when searced it be as fine as wheatenmeal, this you will put away securely sealed in a glass vial for seven years. You will then about the coming of the end of that time (for your cube must be made on the eve of the day come seven years of his gibbetting) get you together these several matters, all well dried and powdered and finely searced so much as three barley corns weight of each
Bullock blood. Moudy [mole] blood. Great Flitter mouse blood. Wild Dove blood. Hag-worm head. Toade heart. Crab eyes. Graveyard moss and worms.
These being all gotten together on the eve of that day make a stiff dough of wheaten meal to the which you will add all the other powders working them to a stiff mass and into cubes of one inch square, to be pressed to a hollow, then they are to be set away to dry in a warm place for seven months to the day when with a sharp screever you shall deeply screeve the like of these upon each side, but be you mindful to screeve in the order as here ordered always turning the cube over and towards the left hand, the fifth side by turning the cube towards you, the sixth from you and thus you make your magic cube."
"The proper way to draw the virtue from and read a forecast with such cubes," says Calvert, "as yet I know not, but I learn that one Jane Craggs, a mantu maker of Helmsley, not only owns a cube but does at times play the craft for the entertainment of her lady visitors who wish their fortunes casting. I learn from Betty [Ellis] that these cubes were tossed upon the table and then used by the consultation of a book like unto that of the witche's garter but this book Betty kens nothing of its whereabouts. She aims one of her grandchilder must have gone off with it."
In the chapter devoted to Tudor times I have given an Elizabethan cure for an "ill caste" by a witch, but Calvert also tells us of a method for removing the spell from a "witch-held" house. "Of one thing I hear," he says, "which be minded unto this present day the which be that a bunch of yarrow gathered from off a grave and be cast within a sheet that hath covered the dead and this be setten fire to and cast within the door of any house thought to be witch held or having gotten upon it a spell of ill-luck, it shall be at once cleansed from whatsoever ill there be come again it as I hear even fevers and the like are on the instant driven forth. And this," he quaintly adds, "be worth while of a trial."
Of the awesome sights to be seen at night time Calvert gives many details.
"There be over anenst Cropton towards Westwood seen now and again at times wide asunder a man rushing fra those happening to cross his road with flaming mouth and having empty eye sockets, a truly terrible apparition for to come across of a sudden.
"At Bog Hall at times there is seen a plain specter of a man in bright armour who doth show himself thus apparrelled both on the landing and in a certain room.
"At that point where the Hodge and Dove mix their waters there is to be seen on Hallow Een a lovely maiden robed in white and having long golden hair down about her waist there standing with her bare arm thrown about her companion's neck which is a most lovely white doe, but she allowed none to come near to her.
"To the west of Brown Howe and standing by a boulder there be seen of a summer's eve a maiden there seated a-combing out her jet black tresses so as to hide her bare breast and shoulders, she looking to be much shamed to there do her toilet.
"And at the high end of Carlton anenst Helmsley there be seen at times a lovely maiden much afrighted galopping for very life oft casting her een behind her."
A SCENE IN NEWTON DALE WHEN THE COACH RAILWAY BETWEEN PICKERING AND WHITBY WAS IN USE IN 1836. (_From Belcher's book on the Pickering and Whitby Railway, 1836_.)
Concerning the existence of this lovely maiden we have indisputable evidence given us, for Calvert says that in the year 1762 "Jim Shepherd o' Reskelf seed the maiden galloping."
Then there was the figure of "Sarkless Kitty"; but this spectre, we are told, "having been public laid will now be seen never again and has the very mention of her name be now a thing forbid by all it must soon come to pass that the memory of this lewd hussey will be entire forgot and it of a truth be better so."
But this only rouses one's curiosity, for the spectre must have been surpassingly terrible to require the suppression of its very name.
It was in August in the year 1807 or 1809 (the manuscript is too much soiled to be sure of the last figure) that either the Vicar of Lastingham or his curate-in-charge publicly laid this spirit, which had for many years haunted the wath or ford crossing the river Dove where it runs at no great distance from Grouse Hall.
The ceremony was performed at the request of the whole countryside for there was a widespread outcry over the last victim. He was a farmer's son who, having spent the evening with his betrothed, was riding homewards somewhat late, but he never reached his house. On the next day his cob was found quietly grazing near the dead body of its master lying near the ford. There were no signs of a struggle having taken place, there were no wounds or marks upon the body, and his watch and money had not been touched, so every one concluded that he had seen Sarkless Kitty.
In the year 1770 the ford "had come to be of such ill repute that men feared to cross after dark and women refused to be taken that way," although as far as is known it was only men who came to harm from seeing Sarkless Kitty. The apparition was that of an exceedingly lovely girl who appeared "as a nude figure standing upon the opposite bank to that of the approaching wayfarer." Her beauty was so remarkable that those who had the ill-luck to come across the spectre could not refrain from gazing at it, and all who did so were believed to have died either at the same moment or soon afterwards.
Calvert, however, tells us that one Roland Burdon, who possessed a "Holy Seal," came face to face with Sarkless Kitty, but fortified by its virtues he survived the vision; then he adds: "This same Roland did slay in single combat the great worm or Dragon which at one time did infest Beck Hole to the loss of many young maidens the which it did at sundry times devour. He slew it after a fierce battle lasting over half a day throw the great power of the Holy Seal being about his person. This worm did also infest Sneaton Moor."
If we are to believe anything at all of this prodigious story we must place it among those which have been handed down from the time of the Danes and have become somewhat confused with later superstitions.
Coming back to the story of the beautiful spectre we find that in 1782 a certain Thomas Botran wrote down all the information he could find out in his time concerning the story of Sarkless Kitty, and Mr Blakeborough has added to it everything else that he has discovered relating to it.
It seems that there lived near Lastingham towards the close of the seventeenth century a girl named Kitty Coglan whose beauty was so remarkable that "folk at divers times come much out of their way in the pleasant hope of a chance for to look upon the sweetness of her face." She was, however, extremely vain, and her mother seems to have heard stories of her bad conduct, for she began to worry herself over her daughter's behaviour. Having had a curious dream she asked Takky Burton, the wise man of Lastingham, to tell her what it meant. He told her that the wonderful gem of her dream was her daughter Kitty, who like the gem had blemishes beneath the surface. Soon after this Kitty married the only son of a small farmer, but after they had lived together about four months he disappeared, and then Kitty seems to have gone from bad to worse. How long after this it was that the tragedy occurred is not known, but one day Kitty's naked dead body was found by the wath that her spirit afterwards haunted.
Two other stories that were at one time well known in the neighbourhood of Pickering must be mentioned. One feature of these old time legends is very noticeable, that is, how each ends with a moral usually of virtue overcoming vice. This was probably in some instances a new touch of colour given to the stories during the time when a religious wave swept over the dales.
"The White Cow of Wardle Rigg" is a good example of an old time legend, that owing to a natural process of alteration became gradually fitted to the beliefs and superstitions of each age in which it was told. How the story came to be localised is not known, but in its last phase it had reached this form.
Once an old couple lived near to Wardle Rigg, and bad seasons and other misfortunes had brought the wolf very near to their door. One night there passed by the humble cottage a little old lady driving along a thin and hungry looking white cow, she craved a crust and a drink of water for herself and shelter for the poor beast, this was readily granted by the old couple, they gave the old lady the easy-chair by the fire, and gave her of the best from their poor larder. She learnt from them how poor they were, and sorrowed with them.
In the middle of the night she called to them, as she stole silently out of the house, that for their kindness she left them all the worldly possessions she had, namely her white cow. This they were in no wise grateful for, because they could scarcely afford to feed it and it was too poor to sell or to hope to draw a drop of milk from.
But in the morning what was their surprise to find not a poor three parts starved cow, but a plump well fed animal, and with a bag full of milk, it indeed gave more milk than any cow they had ever known or heard of, their hay had also during the night grown to be quite a huge stack.
It was soon found that their butter was the best in all the dales, and was sought after far and wide, so that the old people were gradually filling their stocking with money. Added to this it was presently discovered that all who drank of the white cow's milk were cured, almost instantly, of a dreadful plague, which in the dales at that time was sending many young folk to an early grave. The fame of this wonderful cow soon spread. The old couple had given the milk to all those who fell ill of the plague, and people came to them from far off places.
It was then that their landlord determined by wicked arts to gain possession of this wonderful white cow, and sell the milk at a great price. His own child, his youngest daughter, falling ill of the plague determined him to carry out his evil design, and it was with sorrow and tears that the old folk watched their landlord lead their cow away.
When half way over the moor he was met by an old dame, "Where drivest thou my cow?" she demanded. Getting but a surly reply, and a threat to drive over her, she cried, "Let me teach thee how to milk my cow." So saying she seized hold of the cow's udder, crying out, "There's death in thee, there's death in thee," and then ran away. The landlord on reaching home was taking a cupful of the magic milk to his daughter, but setting it down for a moment a cat unseen commenced to lap from the cup and died instantly. The landlord then saw that in his greed he had outwitted himself. The good dame was brought to milk it under a promise of restoration, and all ended well.
The other story is known as "The Legend of Elphi." Elphi the Farndale dwarf was doubtless at one time the central figure of many a fireside story and Elphi's mother was almost equally famous. The most tragic story in which they both play their leading parts is that of Golpha the bad Baron of Lastingham and his wicked wife. The mother helped in hiding some one Golpha wished to torture. In his rage he seized the mother, and sentenced her to be burnt upon the moor above Lastingham.
Elphi to save his mother, called to his aid thousands of dragon-flies, and bade them carry the news far and wide, and tell the fierce adders, the ants, the hornets, the wasps and the weasels, to hurry early next day to the scene of his mother's execution and rescue her. Next morning when the wicked Golpha, his wife, and their friends gathered about the stake and taunted the old dame, they were set upon and killed, suffering great agonies. But Elphi and his mother were also credited with all the power of those gifted with a full knowledge of white magic, and their lives seem to have been spent in succouring the weak. Mr Blakeborough tells me that the remembrance of these two is now practically forgotten, for after most careful enquiry during the last two years throughout the greater part of Farndale, only one individual has been met with who remembered hearing of this once widely known dwarf.
The hob-men who were to be found in various spots in Yorkshire were fairly numerous around Pickering. There seem to have been two types, the kindly ones, such as the hob of Hob Hole in Runswick Bay who used to cure children of whooping-cough, and also the malicious ones. Calvert gives a long list of hobs but does not give any idea of their disposition.
The Hob of Lastingham was presumably named after the cross above the village, and not on account of his disposition.
Elphi we have seen had an excellent reputation and some eulogistic verses on him, written in a "cook book" and signed J.L., 1699, give further evidence of his good character.
About the middle of the eighteenth century the people of Cropton were sadly troubled by "a company of evil water elves having their abode in a certain deep spring at the high end of that village," and in order to rid themselves of the sprites, a most heathen ceremony was conducted at the spring, "three wenches" taking a prominent part in the proceedings which are quite unprintable.
RELICS OF WITCHCRAFT FOUND IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF PICKERING. The little figure shown in the centre is made of pitch, beeswax, bullock's blood, hog's lard, and fat from a bullock's heart. It was used for casting spells or people, the pin being stuck in the figure wherever the ¨ill-cast¨ was required to fall. The magic cube and ring are made of similar ingredients to the figure. The sigils or charms are made of lead.
Belief in the power of the witches and wise men was universal, and youths and maidens applied to the nearest witch in all their love affairs. The magic cube, the witches' garter, leaden charms known as sigils, and the crystal were constantly in use to secure luck, to ward off evil and to read the future.
One of the witches was believed to have fallen out with the Devil for, says Calvert, "John Blades, ironmonger of Kirby Moorside, tells me he well minds hearing of a despert fierce fight which on a time did happen between ye Devil and an old witch over their dues, over anenst Yaud Wath (ford) and whilst they did so fight, one by stealth did slip himself over and in that wise did for ever break her spell."
I am able to give an illustration of one of the figures made by a witch of these parts for causing some bodily injury to happen to her client's enemy. The custom was a common one in the circles of witchcraft. A youth having a rival for the hand of some attractive maiden and wishing him every imaginary evil he would apply to "Aud Mother Migg" or one of the other hags of the neighbourhood and explaining his position the witch would prepare a small figure of the rival. The ingredients would be of the same class as the magic cube already fully described (generally pitch, beeswax, hog's lard, bullock's blood, and fat from a bullock's heart), and in order to cause his rival to lose an eye, or to go lame, or deaf, or to have any particular complaint in any particular part of his body the jealous lover had merely to stick a pin in that portion of the little brown figure. The ceremony was elaborate, especially in regard to the disposal of that part of the mixture not used to make the figure, for in every case the cunning old women worked on the imaginations of their dupes. There can be no doubt that the morals of the country folk during the eighteenth century were at an exceedingly low ebb. The practice of compelling girls who had misconducted themselves to stand in church for three Sundays was only given up at Pickering in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Calvert describes how the miserable girl was first required to go before the parson or the squire or anyone of the "quality" to name the child's father, and "be otherwise questioned, and if it so happened that the squire was one of the hard-drinking class it was more than likely that he came well on in his cups. If so it would be more like than otherwise that he would put the lass and all present to shame by the coarse ... questions he would ask the poor wench. I have heard shame cried aloud myself by those who then came together.
"On the Sunday when the poor lass had to do her first penance it was in this wise--She had to walk from her home to the church porch with a soiled white sheet cast over her head to her feet, and there stand from the ringing of the first bell calling to morning prayer, and as the good folk did so pass her to ask of them for to pray for her soul and forgiveness of her great sin and frailty; and thither did she have to stand until the parson, after the reading of the morning prayer, did go to her and bring her into the church with the psalm of miserere mei which he shall sing or say in English. Then shall he put her before all those present, but apart from them, when he shall publicly call upon her to confess her fault which, be she a single wench she did say aloud, 'wherefore I ... putting aside my maiden duty to Almighty God have yielded unto the vile sin of fornication with ... who is the true father of my child, may Almighty God forgive me my sin.' But be it a wedded woman then she shall stand bareheaded and barelegged, and instead of fornication she shall say the word adultery, she being nobbut covered with a sheet from the shoulders. At this day (1824) I cannot but say I am glad to say that there be a good feeling abroad for its abolishment, indeed, there be in many places so strong a feeling again this way of judging our daughters for a fault of this kind that they have bidden the clergy to set their faces against any lass ever being so judged, and though our clergy be in the main but a despert reckless lot, I hear that mostly they are of the same mind as those they do hold as their flock. Indeed, at one village not far from here a father set his back against his lass standing at the church, though she had been so judged to do, and the whole of thereabouts siding with the lass it was held by the parson and his fox-chasing, wine-bibbing crew for to pull in their tongues a piece which they most wisely did, or, for a truth, they would have found themselves astride of the wrong horse. It is now time this shameful practice was for ever laid on one side for it be not for the good of our own daughters that they witness such sights even in a place called God's house, but it oft be ought but that to our shame and the greater shame of all who hold its government of it. I could here give you a good list of curious cases of the which for the most part I did witness myself of both the hearing and of the standing of both many wed and single so browten to public shame, but as it would be to no good purpose I will hold from the putting pen to paper in this matter, letting what hath been wrote end this matter, for of a truth it is to a better purpose that both pen, ink, paunce box and paper, can be putten." Concerning the innumerable customs and superstitions associated with the dead and dying, Calvert collected a number of interesting facts. "It be held by many," he writes, "that a dying body cannot quit this life if they do be lying upon a bed which happen to have pigeon feathers gotten in by chance.
"A body cannot get their time over with ease to themselves if there be one in the room who will not give them up. It be better for all such who cannot bring themselves to part with those they love to withdraw from the room so that death may enter and claim his rights.
"It be held to be a sure sign that an ailing body will die if there be a downcome of soot.
"It be also a sure sign that death be awaiting for his own if an ullot [owlet] do thrice hoot so that the ailing one do hear it and remark thereon.
"It be an ill sign if a death glow be seen to settle upon the face of an ailing one or if such cry out they do see a shroud o' the quilt.
"If there be a death watch heard, then the ailing one need not longer hold on to hope, for it be for that time gone from that house and will not enter again until a corpse be hugged out.
"It be an ill sign to the dying if a dark winged moth make at the bed light and fall at it, but it be a good sign should a light winged one come thrice and go its way unharmed. Even if it do fall at it, it doth say nothing worse than the ailing one will soon die but that the death shall be the freeing of a happy soul.
"An ailing one shall surely die if a dog come and howl thrice under the window.
"It be a good sign of peace to a parting soul if there do come near to the window a white dove.
"It be the custom as soon as death doth enter the chamber for one present to immediate rake out the fire, turn the seeing glass to the wall and on the instant stop the clock, but this stopping of the clock in the death-room be not at all places a common practise. After the boddy hath been attended to in all its proper officies it be a good sign if the eyes do shut of themselves, if not then but a few years sen it was held to be the work of some evil spirits in some cases owing to a misspent life. In those days it was the common thing for to get or borrow a pair of leaden sigs (charms) from some wise dame or good neighbour, the like of those made by Betty Strother and others wise in such matters. They being magic made did ward off not only from about the bed but from the room itself all the deamons of every sort and kind and did hold the een fast shutten so that neither witch or hellspell could get aback of their power and cungel them open again.
"Many there be who yet do grace their dead with a salt platter putten upon the breast of the corpse, and all those friends who do view the dead and it be the common custom for all so to do, do first touch the corpse on the face or hands and then lay their own hands upon the platter first having full and free forgiven the dead any fault or ill-feeling they had in life held as a grudge again the dead.
"In some spots it is a common thing for the wake wail to be sung over the boddy each night it be in the house as also for a rushlight to be kept alight from sunset to sunrise and for the death watchers for to tend the dead throw the night owther in the same room or in one so held that those watching could see the corpse, and they due at this day deggle the quilt and floor with rue water.
"It be always most carefull seen to that no four-footed thing come nigh hand, for it would be a despert ill thing if such by any mishap did run just across or loup over the corpse.
"There be always a great arval feast after the funeral to which all friends are bidden."
The remedies of this period were not greatly superior to those of the seventeenth century if one may judge from the gruesome concoction the details of which were given to Calvert by William Ness of Kirby Moorside.
"For the certain cure of a cancer take a pound of brown honey when the bees be sad from a death in ye house, which you shall take from the hive just turned of midnight at the full of the moon. This you shall set by for seven days when on that day you shall add to it the following all being ready prepared afore. One ounce of powdered crabs clawes well searced, seven oyster shells well burnt in a covered stone or hard clay pot, using only the white part thereof. One dozen snails and shells dried while they do powder with gently rubbing and the powder of dried earth worms from the churchyard when the moon be on the increase but overcast, which you will gather by lanthorn which you must be sure not to let go out while you be yet within the gate or there virtue be gone from them. All these make into a fine powder and well searce, this been ready melt the honey till it simmer then add three ounces each of brown wax, rossin, and grease of a fat pigg, and when all be come at the boil divide your powders to seven heaps and add one at a time. Do not shake your paper on which the powder hath been put but fold it carefully and hurry it at some grave as there be among what be left some dust of ye wormes which have fed upon ye dead. So boil it till all be well mixed and then let cool and if it be too stiff add swine grease till it work easy. When you would use it warm a little in a silver spoon and annoint the sore holding a hot iron over till it be nearly all soaked in, then sprinkle but a little finely doubled searced powder of viper where there be matter. This hath been tried many times and on different folk in these dales and hath done wonderous cures when all else failed them. And these words wrate on lambs skin with lambs blood and hung above the ill one's head hath wrought a most magick wonders of healing and some I do find ready to take oath on it. I leave it so."
But Pickering was not very much behind the rest of England when we discover that in the second edition of "A collection of above 300 receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery" published in 1719, and printed and sold in London is given the following:--
"A very good snail-water for a consumption. Take half a peck of Shell-snails, wipe them and bruise them Shells and all in a Mortar; put to them a gallon of New Milk; as also Balm, Mint, Carduus, unset Hyssop, and Burrage, of each one handful; Raisons of the Sun stoned, Figs, and Dates, of each a quarter of a pound; two large Nutmegs: Slice all these, and put them to the Milk, and distil it with a quick fire in a cold Still; this will yield near four Wine-quarts of Water very good; you must put two ounces of White Sugar-candy into each Bottle, and let the Water drop on it; stir the Herbs sometimes while it distils, and keep it cover'd on the Head with wet Cloths. Take five spoonfuls at a time, first and last, and at Four in the Afternoon."
It was only about eighty years ago that the old custom of racing for the bride's garter on wedding days was given up. In the early years of last century an improvement in public morals showed itself in a frequently expressed opinion that the custom was immodest, and gradually the practice was dropped the bride merely handing a ribbon to the winner of the race.