uninteresting character; but the town of Hartlepool itself has a long
history, which begins in 640, when St. Hieu founded a convent there, of
which St. Hilda was afterwards abbess. The house was destroyed by the
Danes, and Hartlepool disappears from history, to reappear at the end of
the twelfth century as a flourishing port belonging to Robert de Bruce,
Lord of Annandale. Hitherto it had not been included in the Bishopric of
Durham, but in 1189 the overlordship of the whole district of Hartness
was bought by Bishop Hugh Pudsey from Richard I. The succeeding Bishop,
Philip de Poitou, obtained possession of the town, but not until the
burgesses had bought a charter from King John in 1200, granting to them
the customs of Newcastle-on-Tyne, while the same King granted to William
de Bruce, Lord of Hartlepool, the right to hold a weekly market and a
fair at the Feast of St. Lawrence (August 10). The burgesses obtained
another charter from Bishop Richard le Poore in 1230, in which he
conceded to them the right to form a Merchant Gild and to elect a mayor.
From this time the burgesses of Hartlepool were able to manage their own
affairs in their own way, and enjoyed more independence than there was
in any of the other towns of Durham. Their chief misfortunes befell them
after Robert de Bruce became King of Scotland in 1305. Hartlepool
escheated to the King of England, and in consequence the Scots felt a
special enmity against it. The town was attacked more than once in the
ensuing wars, but the walls and ramparts, which had been built by Robert
de Bruce (1245-95) made it one of the strongest places in the Bishopric.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century these fortifications were
still among the finest specimens of Edwardian architecture in the
kingdom, but when the trade of the town revived later in the century,
the ancient walls were pulled down to make way for the new pier and
docks, and hardly any trace of them now remains. In 1599, by the good
offices of Lord Lumley, the burgesses of Hartlepool obtained from Queen
Elizabeth a charter of incorporation, under which the town was governed
until 1834, when the conditions of the charter were not fulfilled, and
it lapsed. The present governing charter of the town was obtained in
1850. The borough of West Hartlepool has grown up in the nineteenth
century on the south side of the bay on which Hartlepool stands.
_Durham to Stockton._
The Durham and Stockton road passes through Bishop Middleham, where one
of the Bishop’s manor-houses used to stand, and through Sedgefield,
about eleven miles from Durham, a market-town which received the grant
of a weekly market and fair at the Feast of St. Edmund the Bishop
(November 16) from Bishop Kellaw in 1312.
The borough of Stockton lies on the north bank of the Tees, twenty miles
south of Durham. It is situated in the district which in early times
formed the wapentake of Sadberg, and comprised all the lands lying along
the north bank of the river. The wapentake, which was purchased by
Bishop Pudsey in 1189, at the same time as Hartlepool, had a separate
organization from the rest of the Bishopric, and its courts were held at
Sadberg, which is now a small village about three miles east of
Darlington. Stockton itself, however, seems to have come into the
Bishop’s hands before the purchase of the wapentake, as it is included
in the Boldon Book, 1183. The date of the incorporation of the borough
is unknown, but there are grants by several of the Bishops, dated 1310,
1602, and 1666, of a weekly market and a fair at the Feast of St. Thomas
à Becket (December 29). There is also an interesting letter relating to
the customs practised both at Newcastle and at Stockton, which was sent
by the Mayor of Newcastle
[Illustration: THE PALACE, BISHOP AUCKLAND.]
to the Mayor of Stockton in 1344 in reply to certain questions which the
people of Stockton had addressed to Newcastle as their mother town. The
municipal government of the borough was in the hands of the mayor and
the borough-holders, seventy-two in number, until Stockton was included
in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835.
_Durham to Barnard Castle._
The road to Barnard Castle branches off from the North Road about a mile
south of Sunderland Bridge, and travels south-west into Aucklandshire.
This district included Binchester, Escomb, Newton, and all the
Aucklands, Bishop Auckland, St. Andrew’s Auckland, St. Helen’s Auckland,
and South Auckland. Aucklandshire lay on the borders of the Bishop’s
great forest of Weardale, and the services of the tenants, as described
in Boldon Book, were closely connected with the Bishop’s great
hunting-parties in the forest. All the tenants had to provide ropes for
snaring the deer, and to help to build the Bishop’s hall in the forest,
with a larder, a buttery, a chamber, a chapel, and a fence round the
whole encampment, when the Bishop went on the great hunt. They also kept
eyries of falcons for the Bishop, and attended the roe-hunt when
summoned. In return for their services at the great hunt they received a
tun of beer, or half a tun if the Bishop did not come, and 2s. "as a
favour." The little town of Bishop Auckland was called a borough in the
fourteenth century, when the weekly markets and the fairs held on
Ascension Day, Corpus Christi Day, and the Thursday before October 10,
formed the chief commercial centre of the neighbourhood, but it has
never been incorporated, and is now an urban district.
To the south of Aucklandshire lies the barony of Evenwood, about a
quarter of a mile west of the road. This was one of the early baronies
of the Bishopric, held by the family of Hansard. Evenwood was bought by
Bishop Bek in 1294, and his successors maintained a manor-house and park
there. After passing by Evenwood, the road leads through Raby Park to
Staindrop.
Staindrop was one of the vills over which the Bishop and the Convent of
Durham disputed at the beginning of the twelfth century. Bishop Ralph
Flambard restored it to the monks by the charter of restitution which he
executed on his death-bed; and they kept it out of the clutches of
succeeding Bishops by granting it in 1131 at an annual rental of £4 to
Dolphin, son of Ughtred, one of the progenitors of the family of
Neville. Henceforward, Staindrop remained part of the Neville estates in
the Bishopric. In 1378 Bishop Hatfield granted to John Lord Neville the
right to hold a weekly market and a fair there at the Feast of St.
Thomas the Martyr (December 21). The whole of the Neville estates were
confiscated in 1570, after the rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland
and Westmorland in 1569, and Staindrop remained in the hands of the King
until 1632, when it was purchased by Sir Henry Vane, from whom the
present owner, Lord Barnard, is descended.
Barnard Castle is twenty-five miles from Durham, and lies on the north
bank of the Tees. It did not form part of the Bishopric at the time of
the Conquest, and was granted by William Rufus to Guy Balliol in 1093.
Barnard Balliol, his son, built the castle _circa_ 1132, and apparently
founded the borough, for the first extant charter, granted by his son
Barnard to the burgesses of Barnard Castle _circa_ 1167, refers to the
elder Barnard’s concessions to them. By this charter the burgesses were
granted the customs of Richmond (Yorks). Barnard Castle was a manorial
borough, and is now an urban district. The burgesses obtained charters
from Hugh (1212-28), John (_circa_ 1230), and Alexander, third son of
John. All the Balliol estates in England were forfeited by John Balliol,
sometime King of Scotland, in 1295. Barnard Castle was claimed by Bishop
Bek, but Edward I. granted it to Guy
[Illustration: BARNARD CASTLE.]
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The Bishops of Durham made frequent efforts
to obtain possession of the town, and although they were unsuccessful,
they obtained Parliamentary recognition of the fact that Barnard Castle
was part of the Bishopric. Richard III., by his marriage with Lady Anne
of Warwick, became lord of the town, which Lady Anne inherited from her
father, the King-maker. Barnard Castle escheated to the crown in 1485,
and was finally granted to the Earl of Westmorland. In 1569, on
receiving the news that the northern Earls had risen against the Queen,
Sir George Bowes of Streatlam seized and garrisoned the castle, where he
was besieged by the rebels; and although he was forced to surrender
after a ten days’ siege, the delay had given the royal troops time to
come up, and insured the defeat of the insurgents. After the rebellion
Barnard Castle escheated to the crown again, and was leased to the
valiant Bowes. It was finally purchased by Sir Henry Vane in 1632 (see
above).
_Durham to Alston._
The road from Durham to Alston, in Cumberland, passes by the field of
the Battle of Neville’s Cross, fought on St. Luke’s Eve, October 17,
1346, in which David of Scotland, who had invaded England while Edward
III. and all his forces were in France, was defeated by the troops which
he contemptuously called "an army of women and priests," because they
were raised by Queen Philippa, and the four divisions were commanded by
the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of Lincoln and
Durham. The cross which Ralph, Lord Neville, erected on the battle-field
was destroyed in 1589.
The next place of interest on the road is Brancepeth, which lies four
and a half miles south-west of Durham. The family of Bulmer of
Brancepeth held one of the early baronies of the Bishopric (see under
Evenwood); the estate finally descended to an heiress, the first of the
many noble ladies whose stories lend interest to the place. She married
Geoffry de Neville, _circa_ 1150. Sixty years after, in 1227, there was
again a sole heiress to Brancepeth; she married Robert FitzMeldred, Lord
of Raby, and her son assumed his mother’s name, becoming the first
Neville of Raby and Brancepeth. When the Neville estates were forfeited
in 1570, the Countess of Westmorland was allowed to remain at the
castle, and there, though beset by spies, she contrived her husband’s
escape to Flanders. The surveys of the estate that were made in 1597 and
1614 mention that wild cattle were preserved in Brancepeth Park, as they
still are at Chillingham. The escheated lands passed from one owner to
another. In 1769 they were again inherited by an heiress, Bridgit, the
only daughter of William Bellasis. She died five years after coming into
her inheritance. The story goes that she pined away for love of a
neighbouring squire, Robert Shafto, who had wooed and forsaken her; and
the old Bishopric song of "Bobby Shafto" is said to be the record of the
brief happiness of the lovelorn lady.
The market-town of Wolsingham lies sixteen miles west of Durham. It was
one of the Bishop’s forest vills, lying on the moors of Weardale; and in
the entry about it in Boldon Book mention is made of Ralf the Beekeeper,
who held six acres for his service in keeping the bees, which were sent
out on to the blossoming heather in the twelfth century, as they are to
this day. Wolsingham lies on the north bank of the Wear, and, after
passing through the village, the road follows the course of the river
westward to Stanhope, which lies in the lead-mining district of West
Durham. Half-way between Wolsingham and Stanhope lies Frosterley, where
are the quarries of Frosterley marble.
Stanhope itself lay in the heart of the forest of Weardale, and was the
spot to which all those who owed hunting-service must make their way
when the Bishop’s great hunt was proclaimed. In 1327 the English and
[Illustration: BRANCEPETH CASTLE IN 1777.]
Scottish armies, commanded on the one side by Edward III., and on the
other by the Earl of Murray and Sir James Douglas, lay encamped for some
days over against each other on the hills round Stanhope. No battle was
fought, and the Scots withdrew by night, having deceived Edward by false
intelligence. The remains of the earthworks in which the two armies
entrenched themselves may still be seen.
St. John’s Chapel, seven miles west of Stanhope, is the last
considerable village on the road to Alston before it crosses the
boundary of Durham. The chapel is mentioned in the fifteenth century,
and a market and annual fair were held there, but there were few
inhabitants until the end of the eighteenth century. From St. John’s
Chapel the road leads up over the moors, past the sources of the Wear,
and crosses the county boundary on Killhope Moor.
FOLK-LORE OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM
BY MRS. NEWTON W. APPERLEY
Whoever makes a study of the folk-lore of a county will find that its
customs, beliefs, and superstitions, have their origin in immemorial
antiquity. To find out the reason for many a curious and apparently
frivolous observance it is necessary to go back many centuries, to the
time when a nature-worship, already immeasurably old, was practised;
when the sun and moon, fire, water, and earth, were personified by gods
and goddesses. Festivals were held in honour of each, and stones and
trees, wells and rivers, had their temples and devotees. These were
overlaid by and mingled with the successive rituals of Roman, Saxon, and
Dane, and finally were almost, but not quite, conquered by Christianity.
The older faiths made a stubborn resistance to the reformer, and though
adapted and altered, many of their usages survive to this day.
The four great Fire Festivals of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter were
Christianized and dedicated anew; some of the gods and goddesses were
re-named as saints; and many of the rites belonging to their worship
were modified into Christian observances.
But the people kept their old superstitions, and placed their faith in
the charms and amulets belonging to the ancient worship. In the North
especially the old beliefs lingered long, and even now, in the twentieth
century, many quaint customs are to be found. Most of the people who
practise them could give no reason for so doing, and have certainly no
knowledge of their origin. It is "lucky" to do this, and "unlucky" to do
that, is all they can say.
The county of Durham, though the especial patrimony and property of St.
Cuthbert, is particularly rich in legends and traditions, in places both
haunted and hallowed, and in old-world observances of all kinds. Many
are the stories of giants, brownies, fairies, ghosts, witches, and
"worms" or dragons, told of and in it.
The Gabriel Hounds--those monstrous human-headed dogs, whose pause over
a house is said to bring death or misfortune to its inmates--are still
heard traversing the air, though they are seldom seen.
Tales of the Hand of Glory--that unhallowed taper made of the hand of a
hanged man, holding a candle made of the fat of a murderer, whose light
would send all the inhabitants of a house to sleep, and enable a burglar
to make his easy way throughout it--are still told.
And the Fairy Hills near Castleton, Hetton-le-Hole, Middridge, and other
places where fairies used to dance their nightly rounds, are still
pointed out. Cattle were often shot by their tiny arrows, and children
frequently wore necklaces of coral or of peony seeds, as otherwise they
might have been stolen and taken away to Fairyland.
Mr. Henderson, in his _Folk-lore of the Northern Counties_, is convinced
that there is firm faith in ghosts and their power of revisiting the
earth throughout the whole county of Durham.
Witchcraft is to some extent believed in. It is not long since an old
woman reputed to be a witch died at Aycliffe, and charms against their
power have been, and are still, practised; indeed, they are still
"crossed-out" by those who make the sign of the cross on loaves before
they are put in the oven, and by the butchers who make, or used to make,
a cross on the shoulder before selling it. A crooked sixpence, a piece
of rowan-wood, or a four-leaved clover worn in the pocket, will keep
them away. A self-bored stone or a horseshoe hung over the bed or in the
byre will prevent their evil influence from harming either person or
property; and should you be so unfortunate as to meet a reputed witch,
it is well to close your fingers round your thumb, and repeat the rhyme:
"Witchy, witchy, I defy thee,
Let me go quietly by thee!"
And there were wise men, and especially wise women, who knew many spells
of might to be used against them and against fairies.
It is clear that a child born into this haunted country, and surrounded
from his birth by signs, portents, and auguries, must carry through his
life a belief in the superstitions of his forefathers.
The day of birth is most important, for it always influences the
character and fortunes of the child.
"Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for its living;
But the child that’s born on Sabbath-day
Is wise and bonny and good and gay."
Children born during the hour after midnight see spirits, and this
uncanny gift continues through life. If born with a caul, the child will
always be lucky. Children born in May are said to be seldom healthy.
A cake and cheese should always be provided before the birth of an
infant. These are cut by the doctor, and all present partake of them, on
pain of the poor child growing up ugly. The nurse keeps some of this
cake and cheese, and when she takes the child to be christened she gives
them to the first person whom she meets of opposite sex to that of the
child. If boys and girls are being christened at the same time, the boys
must be christened first, as otherwise the girls would have beards, the
boys none!
Baptism is thought to be good for a child, and it is often said that
children never thrive till they are christened. It is well if they cry
during the ceremony, for it means that "the devil is going out of them."
There is some warrant for this belief, for until the time of Edward VI.
a form of exorcism, in order to expel the evil spirit from the child,
was still used in the Baptismal Service.
A child who does not cry at baptism will not live.
It is unlucky to call a child by its future name until it has actually
received it, and most especially should one avoid naming it after a dead
brother or sister. The child will probably die also, or, if it lives,
will never prosper.
Some nurses will never put a child’s dress over its head until it is
christened, but always draw it up over the feet. I never could hear why.
And the inside of the hands should not be washed during this time. Some
go so far as to say that the right hand should not be washed for a year,
so as not to "wash the luck away."
But before taking a child out of its mother’s room the careful nurse
will see that it does not go downstairs first, as that would mean a
descent in life for it. If it is impossible for it to go upstairs, she
must take it in her arms, and mount a chair or stool with it, thereby
assuring it of a rise in life.
The mother should go nowhere till she has been churched, as she would
carry ill-luck to the house she entered.
The baby should receive three, sometimes four, presents when it first
visits another house. These are its "almison," and consist of an egg,
bread, salt, and sometimes a piece of money. The bread and salt are
things used in sacrifices; the egg has always been a sacred emblem; the
money is for luck, and should be carefully kept.
Never rock a cradle when empty, or you may rock another baby into it.
And this is very likely to be the case if the reigning baby cuts its
teeth very early, for, as the proverb says, "Soon teeth, soon toes"
(another set of them). If it tooths first in the upper jaw, that means
death in infancy. Later, on losing a tooth, the cavity should be filled
with salt, and the tooth thrown into the fire with the words:
"Fire, fire, burn bane,
God send me my tooth again!"
It is an ancient custom, when a family is sold up, to except the cradle,
and leave it in the possession of its original owner.
The nails should not be cut for a year, or the child will become a
thief. Bite them off, and all will be well.
When the child grows older, the nails should never be cut on Friday or
Sunday. These are unlucky days, but, as the rhyme tells us, other days
do very well:
"Cut them on Monday, cut them for health;
Cut them on Tuesday, cut them for wealth;
Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for news;
Cut them on Thursday, a pair of new shoes;
Cut them on Friday, cut them for sorrow;
Cut them on Saturday, a present to-morrow;
But he who on Sunday cuts his horn,
Better that he had ne’er been born!"
Still later in life, another verse says:
"Sunday shaven, Sunday shorn,
Better hadst thou ne’er been born!"
The hair should always be cut when the moon is waxing, and all clippings
and combings should be burnt, or "the birds will take it for their
nests." Probably the original idea, like that attached to the clippings
of the nails, was that they should be destroyed, lest some enemy should
use them to work an evil spell against the owner.
If the hair burn brightly when thrown into the fire, it means long life
to the owner; if it smoulder, it is a sign of death.
If you swallow a hair, it will wrap itself round your heart and kill
you. Howitt tells this seriously as having caused the death of Herbert
Southey.
The mother should be careful to see that no child is allowed to jump
over the head of another, as in that case the overleapt infant would
never grow. The Kafirs have the same idea, and some tribes will not play
leap-frog for that reason.
When a seventh son is born, it is still said that he ought to be a
doctor. He was anciently supposed to be able to cure the "king’s evil"
by touching; and the seventh son of a seventh son had still higher and
more Divine attributes. If a seventh daughter appeared without any boy
intervening, she was to be a witch.
When the boy is old enough to put his instilled and inherited beliefs
into practice, he may charm the butterfly to alight on his hand by
saying (it must be said often enough!):
"Le, la let, ma bonnie pet!"
If he wishes for fine weather, he may sing:
"Rain, rain, go to Spain!
Fair weather come again!"
The snail will look out from its shell if he says:
"Snail, snail, come out of your hole,
Or else I’ll beat you as black as a coal!"
And when stung by a nettle, dock-leaves are laid on the stung place, and
this rhyme chanted:
"Nettle in, dock out;
Dock in, nettle out;
Nettle in, dock out;
Dock rub nettle out!"
If he puts a horse-hair into water, it will turn into an eel.
Durham schoolboys used, when they saw a rainbow, to make a cross of
straws or twigs upon the ground, in order to send it away, or, as they
said, to "cross out the rainbow."
Borrow tells of "the gipsy mystery of the trus’hul, how by making a
cross of two sticks the expert in occultism could wipe the rainbow out
of the heavens"; and the charm might have its roots still farther back
in the cross of Thor, anciently used to dispel rain and thunderstorms.
In Confirmation, those who are touched by the Bishop’s left hand will
never marry.
When the time for marriage comes, it is important to choose a lucky day
and season. The days of the week are thus fated:
"Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health,
Wednesday the best day of all;
Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses,
And Saturday no luck at all."
It is well to avoid marriage in Lent, for
"If you marry in Lent,
You’ll live to repent."
And May is an unlucky month for weddings, as for births. But the time
being happily settled, the bride must not hear the banns given out, or
her children will be deaf and dumb, and neither she nor any of the
guests must wear anything green. She should wear
"Something old, something new,
Something borrowed, and something blue."
The day of the marriage should be fine, "for happy is the bride whom the
sun shines on." The bridal party is escorted to church by men armed with
guns, which they continually fire. After the ceremony it is the
clergyman’s privilege to kiss the bride; and outside the church people
are probably waiting with "hot-pots," of which the whole party must
taste.
At St. Helen’s Auckland, and other villages, the "race for the
bride-door" for a ribbon or kerchief is still customary.