WISHING-WELLS.
Fulfilment of Wishes by Divination--Love Charms--Hallow
E'en Rites, &c.--Wishing Tree--Wishing Holes--St. Govan's
Chapel and Well--Walsingham Wells--Wishing Stone in St. John's
Well--Healing Wells and Wishing Wells--St. David's Well--Bride's
Well--Marriage--Special Times for Wishing--St. Warna and
Wrecks--Wishing Well at West Kilbride--St. Anthony's Spring.
To bring about the accomplishment of a cherished desire by means of
certain rites has been a favourite mode of divination. By this method
it was thought that destiny could be coerced, and the wish made the
father of its own fulfilment. The means were various; but, underlying
them all, was the notion that the doing of something, in the present,
guaranteed the happening of something in the future. A mere wish was
not sufficient. A particular spot, hallowed by old associations, had
to be visited, and a time-honoured ceremony observed. But the ritual
might be of the simplest. It was perchance to some rustic gate that
the village maiden stole in the gathering gloaming, and there, with
beating heart, breathed the wish that was to bring a new happiness
into her life. Love charms, indeed, form an important group of wishing
superstitions. To this class belong Hallow E'en rites, such as eating
an apple before a mirror, and sowing hemp seed. These rites gave the
maiden a vision of her destined husband. In the one case, she saw his
face in the glass, and in the other, she saw him in the attitude of
pulling hemp. The dumb-cake divination, on the Eves of St. Mark and
St. John, also belongs to the same class of charms. Not more than
three must take part in the mystical ceremony. Concerning the cake,
an English rule says:--
"Two make it,
Two bake it,
Two break it,
and the third must put it under each of their pillows, but not a
word must be spoken all the time." Fasting on St. Agnes's Eve was
requisite on the part of any maiden, who sought on that festival to
have a vision of her bridegroom to be. According to an old Galloway
custom, a maiden pulled a handful of grass when she first saw the
new moon. While she pulled she repeated the rhyme--
"New moon, new moon, tell me if you can,
Gif I have a hair like the hair o' my gudeman."
The grass was then taken into the house, and carefully examined. If a
hair was found amongst the grass, it would correspond in colour with
the hair of the coming husband. In connection with all such charms,
it is certainly true what an old song says that "love hath eyes."
Her Majesty the Queen visited Innis Maree in September, 1877. When
describing her visit, Mr. Dixon, in his "Gairloch," says:--"She fixed
her offering in the wishing tree, a pleasantry which most visitors to
the island repeat, it being common report that a wish silently formed,
when any metal article is attached to the tree, will certainly be
realised. It is said that if anyone removes any offering that has
been fixed on the tree, some misfortune, probably the taking fire
of the house of the desecrator, is sure to follow." On a hill near
Abbotsbury, in Dorset, stands St. Catherine's Chapel. In its south
doorway are wishing holes. The knee is placed in one of the holes, and
the hands in the two above; and in this posture the visitor performs
the wishing ceremony. Half-way down the cliff near Stackpole Head,
in Pembrokeshire, is an ancient structure of rude masonry styled
St. Govan's Chapel, at one time the retreat of some recluse. Professor
Cosmo Innes, in the third volume of the "Proceedings of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland," gives an account of a visit to the spot,
and adds:--"The curious part of St. Govan's abode is his bed, or rather
his coffin, for it is a vertical interstice between two immense slabs
of rock, into which a body of common size can be forced with some
difficulty, the prisoner remaining upright. The rock is polished
by the number of visitors fitting themselves into the saint's bed
of penance, and the natives make you feel in the inner surface the
indentures caused by the ribs of the saint!" The polishing is mainly
due to the fact that the space has for long been used for wishing
purposes. Those who desire to test the efficacy of the spell must turn
themselves round within the hollow and think of nothing else during
the process, except what they are wishing for--a rather difficult test
under the circumstances! Close to the chapel is St. Govan's Well, under
a covering of stone-work. The spring had formerly a great reputation
as a health resort. Beside the remains of the once splendid monastic
buildings at Walsingham, in Norfolk, are wishing wells consisting of
two small circular basins of stone. In pre-Reformation times they were
much resorted to for the cure of disease. Being close to St. Mary's
Chapel, they were appropriately dedicated to the Virgin, to whom the
gift of healing was ascribed. Since then they have been popular as
wishing wells. The necessary ritual is thus described by Brand in
his "Popular Antiquities":--"The votary, with a due qualification
of faith and pious awe, must apply the right knee, bare, to a stone
placed for that purpose between the wells. He must then plunge to
the wrist each hand, bare also, into the water of the wells which are
near enough to admit of this immersion. A wish must then be formed,
but not uttered with the lips, either at the time or afterwards, even
in confidential communication to the dearest friend. The hands are
then to be withdrawn, and as much of the water as can be contained
in the hollow of each is to be swallowed. Formerly the object of
desire was most probably expressed in a prayer to the Virgin. It is
now only a silent wish, which will certainly be accomplished within
twelve months, if the efficacy of the solemn rite be not frustrated
by the incredulity or some other fault of the votary."
Pennant tells of a cistern connected with St. John's Well, near
Moxley Nunnery, at one time much used for bathing. Near these, and
below the surface of the water, was a piece of rock called the Wishing
Stone. Anyone who kissed this stone with firm belief in the efficacy
of the charm would have his desire granted. In this case the power of
securing the fulfilment of wishes went hand in hand with the power
of curing diseases. Generally speaking, however, as in the case of
Walsingham just mentioned, the former power supersedes the latter. In
other words, healing wells are transformed into wishing wells. When
such is the case, they are, as far as folklore is concerned, in
the last stage of their history. In the wood, clothing the steep
hill of Weem, in Perthshire, is St. David's Well, said to be named
after a former laird who turned hermit. The spring has a considerable
local fame, and many have been the wishes silently breathed over its
water. Part of an ancient stone cross lies at its margin, and on it
the visitor kneels while framing his or her wish. Visitors to wishing
wells commonly drop into the water a coin, pin, or pebble, thus keeping
up, usually without being aware of the fact, the custom of offering
a gift to the genius loci. The Rev. Dr. Gregor thus describes what
was dropped into the Bride's Well, in the neighbourhood of Corgarff,
Aberdeenshire:--"This well was at one time the favourite resort of
all brides for miles around. On the evening before the marriage,
the bride, accompanied by her maidens, went 'atween the sun an' the
sky' to it. The maidens bathed her feet and the upper part of her
body with water drawn from it. This bathing ensured a family. The
bride put into the well a few crumbs of bread and cheese, to keep
her children from ever being in want."
Desires of any kind may be cherished at wishing-wells, but there
is no doubt that matters matrimonial usually give direction to the
thoughts. According to a Yorkshire belief, whoever drops five white
pebbles into the Ouse, near the county town, when the minster clock
strikes one on May morning, will see on the surface of the water
whatever he or she wishes. Near Dale Abbey, in Derbyshire, is a certain
holy well. To get full advantage of its help, one has to go between
the hours of twelve and three on Good Friday, drink the water thrice,
and wish. There is no doubt about the meaning of the following lines
from the Bard of Dimbovitza, a collection of Roumanian Folk-Songs:--
"There, where on Sundays I go alone,
To the old, old well with the milk-white stone,
Where by the fence, in a nook forgot,
Rises a Spring in the daisied grass,
That makes whoso drinks of it love--alas!
My heart's best belovèd, he drinks it not."
In Sir Walter Scott's "Pirate" one of the characters expresses the
wish that providence would soon send a wreck to gladden the hearts
of the Shetlanders. At the other extremity of Britain, viz., in the
Scilly Isles, the same hope was at one time cherished. St. Warna,
who had to do with wrecks, was the patron saint of St. Agnes, one
of the islands of the group. She had her holy well, and there the
natives anciently dropped in a crooked pin and invoked the saint to
send them a rich wreck.
It would be useless to attempt to give a list of Scottish
wishing-wells; but the following may be mentioned. There is one in
West Kilbride parish, Ayrshire, close to a cave at Hunterston. There
is another at Ardmore, in Dumbartonshire. At Rait, in Perthshire,
is St. Peter's Wishing-well. In the united parishes of Kilcalmonell
and Kilberry, in Argyllshire, is the ancient ecclesiastical site of
Kilanaish. "Near the burial-ground," Captain White tells us, "is its
holy well, where it is proper to wish the usual three wishes, which,
on my last visit to the place, our party, including one lady, devoutly
did." The same writer gives the following particulars about another
Argyllshire spring:--"Near the Abbey of Saddell, Kintyre, is a fine
spring of the class known throughout Scotland as Wishing-wells, which
has always borne the name of Holy-well. It had the usual virtues and
wishing powers ascribed to it. A pretty little pillar with cross cut
upon it which has been mistaken for one of ancient date is scooped out
into a small basin to catch the drip of the water. It was erected by a
Bishop Brown, when residing at Saddell, in the beginning of the present
century, to replace another one that had formerly stood there. Beside
it, flows a stream called Alt-nam-Manach (the Monk's Burn), and this,
with the spring, no doubt formed the water supply of the monastery."
St. Anthony's Well, beside St. Anthony's ruined Chapel, near Edinburgh,
is probably the best known of Scottish wishing-wells. Its sanative
virtues have already been alluded to, but it is nowadays more noted
for its power of securing the fulfilment of wishes than the recovery
of health. A pleasant picture of the romantic spot is given by Sir
Daniel Wilson in his "Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time":--"The
ancient Hermitage and Chapel of St. Anthony, underneath the overhanging
crags of Arthur's Seat, are believed to have formed a dependency of
the preceptory at Leith, and to have been placed there, to catch the
seaman's eye as he entered the Firth, or departed on some long and
perilous voyage; when his vows and offerings would be most freely made
to the patron saint, and the hermit who ministered at his altar. No
record, however, now remains to add to the tradition of its dedication
to St. Anthony; but the silver stream, celebrated in the plaintive
old song, 'O waly, waly up yon bank,' still wells clearly forth
at the foot of the rock, filling the little basin of St. Anthony's
Well, and rippling pleasantly through the long grass into the lower
valley." The song in question gives expression to the grief of Lady
Barbara Erskine, wife of James, Marquis of Douglas, in the time of
Charles II., in connection with her desertion by her husband--
1. "O waly, waly up the bank
And waly, waly down the brae,
And waly, waly yon burnside,
Where I and my love wont to gae!
I lean'd my back unto an aik,
I thoucht it was a trusty tree;
But first it bow'd, and syne it brak:
Sae my true love did lichtly me.
2. O waly, waly, but love be bonnie
A little time while it is new;
But when it's auld, it waxes cauld,
And fades away like morning dew.
O wherefore should I busk my heid,
Or wherefore should I kame my hair?
For my true love has me forsook,
And says he'll never love me mair.
3. Now Arthur's Seat shall be my bed,
The sheets shall ne'er be pressed by me.
St. Anton's Well shall be my drink
Since my true love has forsaken me.
Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blaw,
And shake the green leaves aff the tree?
O gentle death! when wilt thou come?
For of my life I am wearie!
4. 'Tis not the frost that freezes fell
Nor blawing snaw's inclemencie;
'Tis not sic cauld that makes me cry,
But my love's heart's grown cauld to me.
When we came in by Glasgow toun
We were a comely sicht to see;
My love was clad in the black velvet,
And I mysel in cramasie.
5. But had I wist, before I kissed,
That love had been sae ill to win,
I'd lock'd my heart in a case of gold,
And pinn'd it wi' a siller pin.
O! oh! if my young babe were born,
And set upon the nurse's knee.
And I mysel were dead and gane,
And the green grass growing over me!"
Fortunately, the associations of St. Anthony's Well have not all been
so sad as the above. Many a hopeful moment has been passed beside its
margin. A little girl from Aberdeenshire, when on a visit to friends
in Edinburgh, made trial of the sacred spring. She was cautioned not to
tell anyone what her wish was, else the charm would have no effect. On
her return home, however, her eagerness to know whether the wish had,
in the meantime, been fulfilled, quite overcame her ability to keep the
secret. Her first words were, "Has the pony come?" St. Anthony must
have been in good humour with the child, for he provided the pony,
thus evidently condoning the breach of silence in deference to her
youth. Surely there must be something in wishing-wells, after all,
besides water.