HOW WATER BECAME HOLY.
Change from Paganism to Christianity--Columba--Spirits of
Fountains--Hurtful Wells--Stone Circles--Superstitions
regarding them--Standing Stones and Springs--Innis
Maree--Maelrubha--Influence of early Saints--Names of
Wells--Stone-coverings--Sacred Buildings and Springs--Privilege
of Sanctuary--Some Examples--Freedstoll--Preceptory of Torphichen
and St. John's Well--Cross of Macduff and Nine-wells.
We come next to ask how water became holy in the folklore sense of the
word. Fortunately we get a glimpse of springs at the very time when
they passed from pagan to Christian auspices. The change made certain
differences, but did not take away their miraculous powers. We get this
glimpse in the pages of Adamnan, St. Columba's biographer, who narrates
an incident in connection with the saint's missionary work among the
Picts in the latter half of the sixth century. Adamnan tells us of a
certain fountain "famous among the heathen people, which the foolish
men, having their senses blinded by the devil, worshipped as God. For
those, who drank of this fountain, or purposely washed their hands
or feet in it, were allowed by God to be struck by demoniacal art,
and went home either leprous or purblind, or at least suffering from
weakness or other kind of infirmity. By all these things the pagans
were seduced and paid divine honour to the fountain." Columba made use
of the popular belief in the interests of the new faith, and blessed
the fountain in the name of Christ in order to expel the demons. He
then took a draught of the water and washed his hands and feet in it,
to show that it could no longer do harm. According to Adamnan the
demons deserted the fountain, and many cures were afterwards wrought
by it. In Ireland more than a century earlier, St. Patrick visited
the fountain of Findmaige, called Slan. Offerings were wont to be
made to it, and it was worshipped as a god by the Magi of the district.
It is difficult to determine exactly from what standpoint our pagan
ancestors regarded wells. The nature-spirits inhabiting them, styled
demons by Adamnan, were malignant in disposition, if we judge by the
case he mentions; but we must not therefore conclude that they were so
in every instance. Perhaps it is safe to infer that most of them were
considered favourable to man, or the reverse, according as they were
or were not propitiated by him. Even in modern times, some springs
have been regarded as hurtful. The well of St. Chad, at Lichfield,
for instance, causes ague to anyone drinking its water. Even its
connection with the saint has not removed its hurtful qualities. In
west Highland Folk-Tales allusion is made to poison wells, and such
are even yet regarded with a certain amount of fear. In the article on
the parish of Kilsyth in the "Old Statistical Account of Scotland," it
is stated that Kittyfrist Well, beside the road leading over the hill
to Stirling, was believed to be noxious. Successive wayfarers, when
tired and heated by their climb up hill, may have drunk injudiciously
of the cold water, and thus the superstition may have originated.
Stone circles have given rise to much discussion. They are perhaps
best known by their popular name of Druidical temples. Whatever were
the other purposes served by them, there is hardly any doubt that
they were primarily associated with interments. Dr. Joseph Anderson
has pointed out that a certain archæological succession can be
traced. Thus we find first, burial cairns minus stones round them,
then cairns plus stones, and finally, stones minus cairns. At one
time there was a widely-spread belief that men could be transformed
into standing stones by the aid of magic. This power was attributed
to the Druids. There are also traditions of saints thus settling their
heathen opponents. When speaking of the island of Lewis, Martin says,
"Several other stones are to be seen here in remote places, and some
of them standing on one end. Some of the ignorant vulgar say that they
were men by enchantment turned into stones. Such monoliths are still
known to the Gaelic-speaking inhabitants of Lewis as Fir Chreig, i.e.,
false men. We learn from the "New Statistical Account of Scotland"
that the two standing stones at West Skeld, in Shetland, were believed
by the islanders to have been originally wizards or giants. Close to
the roadside on Maughold Head, in the Isle of Man, stands an ancient
runic cross. A local tradition states that the cross was once an
old woman, who, when carrying a bundle of wool, cursed the wind for
hindering her on her journey, and was petrified in consequence.
With superstitions thus clinging to standing-stones it is not to
be wondered that springs in their neighbourhood should have been
regarded with special reverence. In the "Old Statistical Account of
Scotland" allusion is made to Tobir-Chalaich, i.e., Old Wife's Well,
situated near a stone circle in the parish of Keith, Banffshire,
and to another well not far from a second circle in the same
parish. The latter spring ceased to be visited about the middle
of last century. Till then offerings were left at it by persons
seeking its aid. The writer of the article on the island of Barry,
Inverness-shire, in the same work, says, "Here, i.e., at Castle-Bay,
there are several Druidical temples. Near one of these is a well
which must have been once famous for its medicinal quality, as also
for curing and preventing the effects of fascination. It is called
Tobbar-nam-buadh or the Well of Virtues." Under the heading "Beltane,"
in "Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary," the following occurs:--"A town
in Perthshire, on the borders of the Highlands, is called Tillie
(or Tullie) Beltane, i.e., the eminence or rising ground of the
fire of Baal. In the neighbourhood is a Druidical temple of eight
upright stones, where it is supposed the fire was kindled. At some
distance from this, is another temple of the same kind, but smaller,
and near it a well still held in great veneration. On Beltane morning,
superstitious people go to this well and drink of it, then they make
a procession round it, as I am informed, nine times; after this, they
in like manner go round the temple." Gallstack Well, at Drumlanrig,
in Dumfriesshire, is near a group of standing stones. From examples
like the above, we may infer that some mysterious connection was
supposed to exist between standing stones and their adjacent wells. In
the Tullie Beltane instance indeed, stones and well were associated
together in the same superstitious rite.
A striking instance of Christianity borrowing from paganism is to be
seen in the reverence paid to the well of Innis Maree, in Loch Maree,
in Ross-shire. This well has been famous from an unknown past. It
is dedicated to St. Maelrubha, after whom both loch and island are
named. Maelrubha belonged to the monastery of Bangor, in Ireland. In
the year 673, at the age of thirty-one, he settled at Applecrossan,
now Applecross, in Ross-shire, and there founded a church as the
nucleus of a conventual establishment. Over this monastery he
presided for fifty-one years, and died a natural death in 722. A
legend, disregarding historical probabilities, relates that he was
slain by a band of pagan Norse rovers, and that his body was left in
the forest to be devoured by wild beasts. His grave is still pointed
out in Applecross churchyard, the spot being marked by a pillar slab
with an antique cross carved on it. For centuries after his death
he was regarded as the patron saint, not only of Applecross, but of
a wide district around. Pennant, who visited Innis Maree in 1772,
thus describes its appearance: "The shores are neat and gravelly;
the whole surface covered thickly with a beautiful grove of oak,
ash, willow, wicken, birch, fir, hazel, and enormous hollies. In the
midst is a circular dike of stones, with a regular narrow entrance,
the inner part has been used for ages as a burial-place, and is still
in use. I suspect the dyke to have been originally Druidical, and
that the ancient superstition of Paganism had been taken up by the
saint, as the readiest method of making a conquest over the minds of
the inhabitants. A stump of a tree is shown as an altar, probably the
memorial of one of stone; but the curiosity of the place is the well of
the saint; of power unspeakable in cases of lunacy." Whatever Pennant
meant by Druidical, there is reason to believe that the spot was the
scene of pre-Christian rites. In the popular imagination the outlines
of Maelrubha's character seem to have become mixed up with those of
the heathen divinity worshipped in the district. Two circumstances
point to this. Firstly, as Sir Arthur Mitchell remarks in the fourth
volume of the "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,"
"The people of the place speak often of the God Mourie instead of
St. Mourie, which may have resulted from his having supplanted the
old god." Secondly, as the same writer shows, by reference to old
kirk session records, it was customary in the parish to sacrifice a
bull to St. Mourie. This was done on the saint's day, the 25th of
August. The practice was still in existence in the latter half of
the 17th century, and was then denounced as idolatrous.
We thus see that the sacredness of springs can be traced back through
Christianity to paganism, though there is no doubt that in some
instances it took its rise from association with early saints. In
deciding the question of origin, however, care must be taken,
for, as already indicated, the reverence anciently paid to wells
led to their selection by the early missionaries. The holy wells
throughout the land keep alive their names. An excellent example
of a saint's influence on a particular district is met with in the
case of St. Angus, at Balquhidder, in Perthshire. In his "Notes in
Balquhidder" in the "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland," vol. ix. (new series), Mr. J. Mackintosh Gow remarks,
"Saint Angus, the patron saint of the district, is said to have come
to the glen from the eastward, and to have been so much struck with
its marvellous beauty that he blessed it. The remains of the stone
on which he sat to rest are still visible in the gable of one of the
farm buildings at Easter Auchleskine, and the turn of the road is
yet called 'Beannachadh Aonghais' (Angus's blessing). At this spot
it was the custom in the old days for people going westward to show
their respect for the saint by repeating, 'Beannaich Aonghais ann
san Aoraidh' (Bless Angus in the oratory or chapel), at the same
time reverently taking off their bonnets. The saint, going west,
had settled at a spot below the present kirk, and near to a stone
circle, the remains of which, and of the oratory, persons now living
remember to have seen." After alluding to another stone circle in a
haugh below the parish church manse, Mr. Gow mentions that this haugh
is the stance of the old market of Balquhidder, long a popular one
in the district. It was held on the saint's day in April and named
Feill-Aonghais, after him. In the immediate neighbourhood there is a
knoll called "Tom Aonghais," i.e., Angus's hillock. In the grounds of
Edinchip there is a curing well called in Gaelic, "Fuaran n'druibh
chasad," i.e., the Whooping-cough Well, beside the burn "Alt cean
dhroma." "It is formed of a water-worn pot hole in the limestone
rock which forms the bed of the burn, and is ten or twelve inches in
diameter at the top and six inches deep. There must be a spring running
into the hollow through a fissure, as no sooner is it emptied than
it immediately refills, and contains about two quarts of water. The
well can easily be distinguished by the large moss-covered boulder,
round and flat, like a crushed ball, and about seven feet in diameter,
which overshadows it, and a young ash tree of several stems growing
by its side." This well was famous for the cure of whooping-cough,
and children were brought to it till within recent years. The water
was given in a spoon made from the horn of a living cow. When the
patients could not visit the spring in person, a bottleful of the
healing liquid was taken to their homes, and there administered. The
district round the lower waters of Loch Awe, now comprising the united
parishes of Glenorchy and Inishail was held to be under the patronage
of Connan. There is a well at Dalmally dedicated to him. According
to a local tradition he dwelt beside the well and blessed its water.
In addition to springs named after particular saints, there are some
bearing the general appellation of Saints' Wells or Holy Wells. There
are Holy Rood and Holy Wood Wells, also Holy Trinity and Chapel
Wells. There are likewise Priors', Monks', Cardinals', Bishops',
Priests', Abbots', and Friars' Wells. Various springs have names
pointing to no ecclesiastical connection whatever. To this class
belong those known as Virtue Wells, and those others named from the
various diseases to be cured by them. On the Rutherford estate,
in the parish of West Linton, Peeblesshire, there is a mineral
spring called Heaven-aqua Well. Considering the name, one might
form great expectations as to its virtues. There is much force in
the remarks of Dr. J. Hill Burton, in his "Book Hunter." He says,
"The unnoticeable smallness of many of these consecrated wells makes
their very reminiscence and still semi-sacred character all the more
remarkable. The stranger in Ireland, or the Highlands of Scotland,
hears rumours of a distinguished well, miles on miles off. He thinks
he will find an ancient edifice over it, or some other conspicuous
adjunct. Nothing of the kind. He has been lured all that distance,
over rock and bog, to see a tiny spring bubbling out of the rock,
such as he may see hundreds of in a tolerable walk any day. Yet,
if he search in old topographical authorities, he will find that the
little well has ever been an important feature of the district; that
century after century it has been unforgotten; and, with diligence he
may perhaps trace it to some incident in the life of the saint, dead
more than 1200 years ago, whose name it bears." There are a few wells
with a more or less ornamental stone covering, such as St. Margaret's
Well, in the Queen's Park, Edinburgh, and St. Michael's Well, at
Linlithgow. St. Ninian's Well, at Stirling, and also at Kilninian,
in Mull; St. Ashig's Well, in Skye; St. Peter's Well, at Houston,
in Renfrewshire; Holy Rood Well, at Stenton, in Haddingtonshire;
and the Well of Spa, at Aberdeen, also belong to this class.
As already indicated, standing stones and the wells near them were
associated together in the same ritual act. A curious parallelism
can be traced between this practice and one connected with Christian
places of worship. Near the Butt of Lewis are the ruins of a chapel
anciently dedicated to St. Mulvay, and known in the district as
Teampull-mòr. The spot was till quite lately the scene of rites
connected with the cure of insanity. The patient was made to walk
seven times round the ruins, and was then sprinkled with water from
St. Ronan's Well hard by. In Orkney it was believed that invalids
would recover health by walking round the Cross-kirk of Wasbister
and the adjoining loch in silence before sunrise. In some instances
sacred sites were walked round without reference to wells, and, in
others, wells without reference to sacred sites. But when the two were
neighbours they were often included in the same ceremony. In the early
days when Christianity was preached, the structures of the new faith
were occasionally planted close to groups of standing stones, and it
may be assumed that in some instances, at least, the latter served to
supply materials for building the former. Even in our own day it is
not uncommon for Highlanders to speak of going to the clachan, i.e.,
the stones, to indicate that they are going to church. The reverence
paid to the pagan sites was thus transferred to the Christian, and
any fountain in the vicinity received a large share of such reverence.
In former times, both south and north of the Tweed, churches and
churchyards were regarded with special veneration as affording
an asylum to offenders against the law. In England the Right of
Sanctuary was held in great respect during Anglo-Saxon times, and
after the Norman Conquest laws were passed regulating the privileges
of such shelters. When a robber or murderer was pursued, he was free
from capture if he could reach the sacred precincts. But he had to
enter unarmed. His stay there was only temporary. After going through
certain formalities he was allowed to travel, cross in hand, to some
neighbouring seaport to quit his country for ever. In the reign of
Henry VIII., however, a statute was passed forbidding criminals thus
to leave their native land on the ground that they would disclose state
secrets, and teach archery to the enemies of the realm. In the north of
England, Durham and Beverley contained noted sanctuaries. In various
churches there was a stone seat called the Freedstoll or Stool of
Peace, on which the criminal, when seated, was absolutely safe. Such a
seat, dating from the Norman period, is still to be seen in the Priory
Church at Hexham, where the sanctuary was in great request by fugitives
from the debatable land between England and Scotland. The only other
Freedstoll still to be found in England is in Beverley Minster. The
Right of Sanctuary was formally abolished in England in the reign of
James I., but did not cease to be respected till much later. Such being
the regard in the middle ages for churches and their burying-grounds,
it is easy to understand why fountains in their immediate neighbourhood
were also reverenced. Several sanctuaries north of the Tweed were
specially famous. In his "Scotland in the Middle Ages," Professor
Cosmo Innes remarks, "Though all were equally sacred by the canon,
it would seem that the superior sanctity of some churches, from
the relics presented there, or the reverence of their patron saints,
afforded a surer asylum, and thus attracted fugitives to their shrines
rather than to the altars of common parish churches." The churches of
Stow, Innerleithen, and Tyningham were asylums at one time specially
favoured. The church on St. Charmaig's Island, in the Sound of
Jura--styled also Eilean Mòr or the Great Island--was formerly a noted
place of refuge among the Inner Hebrides. So much sanctity attached to
the church of Applecross that the privileged ground around it extended
six miles in every direction. In connection with his visit to Arran,
Martin thus describes what had once been a sanctuary in that island:
"There is an eminence of about a thousand paces in compass on the
sea-coast in Druim-cruey village, and it is fenced about with a stone
wall; of old it was a sanctuary, and whatever number of men or cattle
could get within it were secured from the assaults of their enemies,
the place being privileged by universal consent." The enclosure was
probably an ancient burying-ground.
The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, otherwise known as the Knights
of Rhodes, and also as the Hospitallers, received recognition in
Scotland as an Order about the middle of the twelfth century. They
had possessions in almost every county, but their chief seat was at
Torphichen, in Linlithgowshire, where the ruins of their preceptory
can still be seen. This preceptory formed the heart of the famous
sanctuary of Torphichen. In the graveyard stands a stone, resembling
an ordinary milestone with a Maltese cross carved on its top. All the
ground enclosed in a circle, having a radius of one mile from this
stone, formed a sanctuary for criminals and debtors. Other four stones
placed at the cardinal points showed the limits of the sanctuary on
their respective sides. At some distance to the east of the preceptory
is St. John's Well, "to which," the writer of the article in the
"New Statistical Account of Scotland" says, "the Knights of St. John
used to go in days of yore for a morning draught;" and he adds,
"whether its virtues were medicinal or of a more hallowed character
tradition can not exactly inform us, but still its waters are thought
to possess peculiar healing powers, if not still rarer qualities which
operate in various cases as a charm." Perhaps no Scottish sanctuary
has been more talked about than the one at Holyrood Abbey, intended
originally for law-breakers in general, but latterly for debtors
only. De Quincey found a temporary home within its precincts. Through
recent legislation, chiefly through the Debtors (Scotland) Act of
1880, the sanctuary has been rendered unnecessary, and its privileges,
though never formally abolished, have accordingly passed away.
In a pass of the Ochils, near Newburgh, overlooking Strathearn, is a
block of freestone three and a half feet high, four and a half feet
long, and nearly four feet broad at the base. This formed the pedestal
of the celebrated cross of Macduff, and is all that remains of that
ancient monument. The shaft of the cross was destroyed at the time
of the Reformation, in the sixteenth century. In former days the spot
was held to be a privilege and liberty of girth. When anyone claiming
kinship to Macduff, Earl of Fife, within the ninth degree committed
slaughter in hot blood and took refuge at the cross, he could atone
for his crime by the payment of nine cows and a colpindach or year-old
cow. Those who could not make good their kinship were slain on the
spot. Certain ancient burial mounds, at one time to be seen in the
immediate neighbourhood, were popularly believed to be the graves
of those who thus met their death, and a local superstition asserted
that their shrieks could be heard by night. A fountain, known as the
Nine Wells, gushes out not far from the site of the cross, and in
it tradition says that the manslayer who was entitled to claim the
privilege of sanctuary washed his hands, thereby freeing himself from
the stain of blood.