_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--
"In tholdé dayés of the Kyng Arthour,
Of which that Britons speken greet honour,
All was this land fulfild of faïrye.
The elf queene with hir joly compaignye
Dauncéd ful ofte in many a greené mede.
This was the olde opinion as I rede,--
I speke of manye hundred yeres ago,--
But now kan no man se none elvés mo,
For now the greté charitee and prayeres
Of lymtours, and othere hooly freres,
That serchen every lond and every streem,
As thikke as motés in the sonné beem,--
Bléssynge hallés, chambres, kichenes, boures,
Citees, burghes, castels, hyé toures
Thrópés, bernés, shipnes, dayeryes,--
This maketh that ther been no faïryes."
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."
"Nancy Nares o' Pickering" [T V Z W Y].
"Nanny Pearson o' Goathland" [X].
"Nan Skaife o' Spaunton Moor," called also Mary or Jenny.
"Aud Mother Migg o' Cropton" [Z].
(Her real name was Sabina Moss).
"Sally Craggs o' Allerston" [V Z].
"Dina Sugget o' Levisham" [W Z].
"Hester Mudd o' Rosedale" [T V].
"And Emma Todd o' Ebberston [Y].
KEY TO LETTERS AGAINST THE WITCHE'S NAMES.
T Did also use the evil eye.
U Could turn thersels into a hare.
V Could turn thersels into a cat.
W Had a familiar.
X Could cripple a quickening bairn.
Y Well up in all matters of the black art.
Z Did use ye crystal.
"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.
[Illustration: 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."
[Illustration: 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.
Lealholm Hob.
Hob o' Trush.
T'Hob o' Hobgarth,
Cross Hob o' Lastingham.
Farndale Hob o' High Farndale.
Some hold Elphi to have been a hob of Low Farndale.
T'Hob of Stockdale.
Scugdale Hob.
Hodge Hob o' Bransdale.
Woot Howe Hob.
T'Hob o' Brackken Howe.
T'Hob o' Stummer Howe.
T'Hob o' Tarn Hole.
Hob o' Ankness.
Dale Town Hob o' Hawnby.
T'Hob o' Orterley.
Crookelby Hob.
Hob o' Hasty Bank.
T'Hob o' Chop Gate.
Blea Hob.
T'Hob o' Broca.
T'Hob o' Rye Rigg.
Goathland Hob o' Howl Moor.
T'Hob o' Egton High Moor.
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.
Elphi bandy legs, Elphi little chap,
Bent an wide apart, Thoff he war so small
Neea yan i, this deeal [dale], War big wi deeds o' kindness,
Awns a kinder heart. Drink tiv him yan an all.
Elphi great heead Him at fails ti drain dry,
Greatest ivver seen. Be it mug or glass
Neea yan i' this deeal Binnot woth a pescod
Awns a breeter een. Nor a buss fra onny lass.
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: A LOVE GARTER, DATED 1749.
The spaces were for the initials of the wearer of the garter and her
betrothed. These garters were raced for on wedding days, the winner of the
race being allowed to take the bride's garter.
]
Immediately after the wedding-ring had been put on, the youths of the
company would race from the church porch to the bride's house, and the
first who arrived claimed the right of removing the garter from her left
leg, the bride raising her skirts to allow him to do so. He would
afterwards tie it round his own sweetheart's leg as a love charm against
unfaithfulness. The bridegroom never took part in the race, but anyone
else could enter, runners often coming from distant villages to take part.
At the time of the outcry against the custom it is interesting to find
one, William Denis of Pickering, writing to a friend and stating that
"this racing for the bride's garter and the taking of the same from the
leg of the bride, is one of the properest public functions we have so far
as modesty is concerned."
Elaborately worked garters were worn "by any lass who would be happy in
her love." The one illustrated here is drawn from a sketch given by
Calvert. It bears the date 1749 and the two spaces were for the initials
of the lovers.
A Pickering man named Tom Reid who was living in 1800 but was an old man
then, was in his day a noted runner and won many races. He must have owned
several of these garters which are now so difficult to find. It is said
that one of the vicars of Pickering did much to put an end to the belief
in the powers of the garters as charms, collecting them whenever he had an
opportunity. He also put his foot down on every form of superstition,
forbidding the old folk to tell their stories.
The village maidens considered it a most binding vow to remain true to
their sweethearts if they washed their garters in St Cedd's Well at
Lastingham on the eve of St Agnes. Other practices performed at the same
spot are, like the spectre of Sarkless Kitty, better forgotten.
There can be little doubt that the death blow to this mass of ignorant
superstition came with the religious revival brought about by the
Methodists. Despite the hostile reception they had in many places the
example of their Christian behaviour made itself felt, and as the years
went by parents became sufficiently ashamed of their old beliefs to give
up telling them to their children. This change took place between about
1800 and 1840, but the influences that lay behind it date from the days of
John Wesley.
The sports common in the early part of last century include:--
Fox-hunting.
Badger-drawing.
Duck hunting with dogs and sometimes duck and owl diving.
Cock-fighting.
Cock-throwing at Eastertide.
Bull baiting and sometimes ass baiting.
Squirrel-hunting.
Rat-worrying.
"To make it quite sure to you howe greatly cocking was in voge seventy
years agone," says Calvert, "I have heard my own grandfather tell how he
and others did match their cocks and fight em for secret sake in the crypt
of Lastingham Church."
The entrance to the crypt was not at that time in the centre of the nave,
and the fact that it could be reached from the north side without going
into the church would make the desecration seem a far less scandalous
proceeding than it sounds.
It has also been supposed that Mr Carter, curate-in-charge of Lastingham
at a time prior to 1806, allowed his wife to keep a public-house in the
crypt. There is only one authentic account[1] of this parson-publican as
far as I have been able to discover and although it makes no mention of
the crypt it states that Mr Carter used to take _down_ his violin to play
the people a few tunes. If this did not indicate the crypt it may have
meant that he took his violin down from the vicarage to the inn, which may
have been the "Blacksmith's Arms" that adjoins the churchyard on the east
side. The parlour is certainly a much more cheerful place for refreshment
than the dark and chilly crypt, and it is interesting to find that the
benches in the inn are composed of panelling which I am told was formerly
in the church.
[Footnote 1: Anonymous booklet entitled "Anecdotes and Manners of a few
Ancient and Modern oddities, etc." Published at York, 1806.]
As the whole idea of the parson's wife conducting a public-house is
somewhat preposterous, although we have already been told that the clergy
at that time were on the whole "a despert reckless lot," it is interesting
to read the original account. "The Rev. Mr Carter, when curate of
Lastingham," it says, "had a very large family, with only a small income
to support them, and therefore often had recourse to many innocent
alternatives to augment it; and as the best of men have their enemies--too
often more than the worst, he was represented to the Archdeacon by an
invidious neighbour, as a very disorderly character, particularly by
keeping a public-house, with the consequences resulting from it. The
Archdeacon was a very humane, worthy, good man who had imbibed the
principles, not only of a parson, but of a Divine, and therefore treated
such calumniating insinuations against his subordinate brethren, with that
contempt which would ultimately accrue to the satisfaction and advantage
to such as listen to a set of sycophantic tattlers. ...therefore at the
ensuing visitation, when the business of the day was over, he in a very
delicate and candid manner, interrogated Mr C. as to his means of
supporting so numerous a family ... which was answered as related to me by
one well acquainted with the parties, in nearly the following words:--
"'I have a wife and thirteen children, and with a stipend of £20 per
annum, increased only by a few trifling surplice fees, I will not impose
upon your understanding by attempting to advance any argument to show the
impossibility of us all being supported from my church preferment: But I
am fortunate enough to live in a neighbourhood where there are many
rivulets which abound with fish, and being particularly partial to
angling, I am frequently so successful as to catch more than my family can
consume while good, of which I make presents to the neighbouring gentry,
all of whom are so generously grateful as to requite me with something
else of seldom less value than two or threefold.--This is not all: my wife
keeps a Public-House, and as my parish is so wide that some of my
parishioners have to come from ten to fifteen miles to church, you will
readily allow that some refreshment before they return must occasionally
be necessary, and where can they have it more properly than where their
journey is half performed? Now, sir, from your general knowledge of the
world, I make no doubt but you are well assured that the most general
topicks, in conversation at Public-Houses, are Politics and Religion, with
which, God knows, ninety-nine out of one hundred of those who participate
in the general clamour are totally unacquainted; and that perpetually
ringing in the ears of a Pastor, who has the welfare and happiness of his
flock at heart, must be no small mortification. To divert their attention
from those foibles over their cups, I take down my violin and play them a
few tunes, which gives me an opportunity of seeing that they get no more
liquor than necessary for refreshment; and if the young people propose a
dance I seldom answer in the negative; nevertheless when I announce it
time for their return they are ever ready to obey my commands, and
generally with the donation of sixpence, they shake hands with my
children, and bid God bless them.--Thus my parishioners derive a triple
advantage, being instructed, fed and amused at the same time: moreover,
this method of spending their Sundays being so congenial with their
inclinations, that they are imperceptibly led along the path of piety and
morality ...'" with many other arguments Mr Carter supported his case so
that "the Archdeacon very candidly acknowledged the propriety of Mr C.'s
arguments in defence of his conduct, and complimented him on his
discernment in using the most convenient vehicle for instruction."
Concerning a case of bear-baiting we have a most detailed account which
Calvert heads with "The Baiting of a Bear at Pickering, Tuesday, Aug.
15th, 1809, which I did myself witness." Then he begins: "A week Wednesday
senight there did with drum and pan pipes parade publickly the streets of
this town two mountebanks leading by a chain a monster brown bruin which,
as well as it being a good dancer and handing of its pole, its master did
aclaim it to be the master of any dog of no odds what be its breed and
which they would match for a crown to come off conqueror if given fair
play and a fifteen-foot chain. Now it happening that in these parts there
be living several sporting men some of which be owners of bull dogs of
good courage and nowther dog nor master ever shirking a fight more than
one dog was entered for to test its skill."
A day was fixed for the contests which were to take place in the
castleyard, and soon the news was so handed from mouth to mouth that the
demand for seats in the rough wooden stand, erected for those who chose to
pay, was so great that another stand was built and the first one was
enlarged.
On the appointed day a huge concourse including "farmers, butchers,
hucksters, badgers, cadgers, horse-jobbers, drovers, loafers and scamps
and raggels of all kinds" assembled in the castleyard.
There were "not a few young sparks and bespurred and beruffled bucks come
thither from as far as Hull" who had brought with them certain overdressed
women.
The first dog matched against the bear was owned by one Castle Jack "a
worthless waistrel." The bear received the rush of the dog standing on his
hind legs and gripped him in his forepaws, biting and crushing him to
death. After this no one seemed inclined to let their dogs go to such
certain death and the assemblage gradually became disorderly and many
quarrels and fights took place before the crowd finally dispersed.
Calvert says, "and so when I did withdraw myself, the whole crowd seemed
to be owther cursing, fighting, or loudly proffering for to fight any one.
As I took my steps back to my uncle I could not help but consider that
those of the Methodist holding, who did as we went towards the green [at
the west end of the market-place] beg and pray of us to be mindfull of our
sinfull pleasures and of the wroth to come and who did pray us to then
turn from our sinfull course, and though we who did pass them did so with
scoffs and ... gibes in some cases, yet I could not help but in my heart
consider that they were fully in the right on't."
There is a remarkable story recorded of the fatal result of hunting a
black-brushed fox found at Sinnington. It was on Thursday, January 13th,
1803, that "a black-brush'd fox was setten up at the high side of
Sinnington. Some there were who left the hounds the instant they seed the
colour of its brush for they minded that one who lived in those parts over
a hundred years agone and who was held to be wise in dark things had owned
a black-brushed reynard as a companion and which being on the moor on a
time when hounds came that way they gave chace and presently killed, w^ch
did so vex the wise dame that she was heard to cast a curse upon all those
who should ever after give chace to one of its offspring and it hath being
noted that by times when there be a black brush and it do be hunted that
it is never catched and there be always some ill fall upon him who does
first clap eyes on't and set the hounds on its scent. On this very day did
some then present give chace and followed for ower three good hours while
baith men, horses and hounds were all dead beat and just when they did aim
for to claim its brush one Holliday fell from his horse and brake his
neck, and he it was who had first set een on't. They were then close upon
Chop Yatt ower forty mile by the course they had run. It was then brought
to mind that one Blades a score years afore had been suddenly called to
account on the same venture.
"One verse of an old hunting ditty which tells a tale of four bold riders
who came by their death ower a cragg afollowing one of this same breed
many years agone now, it tells in this wise:--
"Draw rein and think, bold hunter halt,
Sly Reynard let go free,
To ride ahint yon full black brush
Means death to you or me.
No luck can come so get you home
And there tie up your steed,
Yon black brush is ye devil wand
It scents ye grave to feed."
The Sinnington hounds have long been famous in the North Riding, and their
history goes back to the earliest days of fox-hunting in these parts. The
Bilsdale being the only pack that claims an earlier origin. William
Marshall, the agricultural writer (mentioned a few pages further on),
hunted with the Sinnington pack for many years, and Jack Parker, huntsman
of last century, was a very notable character whose witty anecdotes are
still remembered. The silver-mounted horn illustrated here bearing the
inscription "Sinnington Hunt 1750" is preserved at Pickering. Until about
twenty-five years ago the pack was "trencher fed," the hounds being
scattered about in twos and threes at the various farms and houses in the
neighbourhood. The kennels are now at Kirby Moorside.
[Illustration: THE OLD HORN OF THE SINNINGTON HUNT. It is dated 1750 on
one of the silver bands.] A curious "Dandy Horse" race was held at
Pickering on June 22, 1813. Calvert describing it in his quaint way says:
"On this day, Tuesday, June 22, 1813, Robert Kitching, Hungate, Pickering
and S. Hutchinson of Helmsley, did bring off the wager they had laid of
ten guineas apiece for their men to race from Pickering to Helmsley
astride each of his master's dandy horse, which is a machine having two
wheels in a line afixed with forks to a support beam upon which there
resteth a saddle so high from the ground that the rider hath a grip on the
ground, for it be by the pressure of the foot upon the ground that this
new horse is shoved along, there be also a handle to hold by with a soft
pad, this is for to rest the chest against as to gain a greater grip with
the feet, the two Gladiators started fair away at ten of the clock, there
been then come together from all parts upwards it was held of two thousand
people, many on horseback arriving for to see this novel race from start
to finish." However, when the opponents had covered about half the
distance, one of them overstrained himself and gave up and the other
admitted that "he was ommaist at the far end" so that the crowd assembled
at Helmsley to see the finish waited in vain for the riders.
Although Pickering is several miles from the sea some of the more
important people of the town were for many years closely interested in the
whaling industry. It was about the year 1775, that Mr Nicholas Piper and
some of his friends made a bold financial venture in the purchase of the
_Henrietta_ which became in time one of the most successful Greenland
whalers sailing from the port of Whitby. Some of the ship's logs and also
an account book are preserved by Mr Loy at Keld Head Hall, and from them I
have been able to obtain some interesting facts. For a year or two the
ship yielded no profits, but in 1777 there was a sum of £640 to be divided
between the partners in the enterprise. Gradually the profits increased
until they produced an annual total of about £2000.
Some of the entries in the account book are curious. These are some of the
items in the preliminary expenses:--
"Jowsey's Bill for harpoon stocks and seal clubs, £3 2 8
To ye master to get hands in Shetland, 21 0 0
To ye sailors to drink as customary ye first
voyage, 1 1 0
A crimp shipping seamen, 0 6 0
Then in 1776 comes:--
"By ye crimp's bill Sept. ye 20th, 225 0 6
Each voyage meant an advantage to Pickering, for it supplied the salt pork
for the sailors. These are some of the entries:--
"1776. Paid for piggs at Pickering, £65 5 0
1777. Do. do. 59 19 6
Tom Dobson for carriage of do., 1 11 0
Window broke by firing a signal gun for
sailing, 0 4 6
1778. Cheeses at Pickering, £ 2 10 9
Paid for Piggs at Pickering, 55 14 5
Tom Dobson for carriage of piggs, 1 3 0
1779. James Gray's lodging ashore time of ye smallpox, 0 15 0
Paid for piggs at Pickering, 51 2 0
Paid at Saltergate for boys eating, etc., 0 4 6
[Illustration: A Typical Cottage of the Oldest Type.
This is at Hutton Buscel. The small window lighting the ingle-nook is
invariably in this position in the oldest cottages, and the recess and the
carved oak cupboard door are usually to be found in the wall as in the
illustration. In this, as in most of the cottages, a kitchen range has
taken the place of the open hearth.
]
One imagines that these boys were in charge of the pigs. But they must
have been pork by that time for the next entry is:--
"To Tom Dobson for carriage of pork, £1 16 0
and another entry mentions that it was packed in barrels at Pickering.
"1780. Grundall Saltergate for lads eating, etc., £0 8 6
Then comes a gap of about eight years, several pages having been torn out.
"1789. Robt. Dobson for carriage of pork, £1 4 0
1792. Lads at Saltergate as they came home, 0 2 6
1793. A man coming to Pickering to bring news of
ship--be ashore, 0 8 0
This apparently means that a man was sent to Pickering to tell the owners
that the _Henrietta_ had arrived.
"1799. Piggs at Pickering, £125 9 8
1801. Do., 181 8 8
1802. Do., 208 4 6
1815. Old Tom's expenses, turnpikes at Pickering, 0 6 6
In 1785 when the _Henrietta_ made her annual voyage to the northern seas
she had on board William Scoresby who in five years' time was to become
captain of the vessel. He was the son of a small farmer at Cropton and was
born on the 3rd of May 1760. His parents wished him to keep to
agricultural pursuits and after a very brief education at the village
school he commenced this arduous form of labour at the age of nine. He
kept to this work until he was twenty when he could no longer resist his
longings for a broader sphere of work. To obtain this he went to Whitby
and apprenticed himself to a ship-owner. He acquired a thorough knowledge
of seamanship with great rapidity and in his second year of service at sea
detected an error in the reckoning which would otherwise have caused the
loss of the ship. For this, his only reward was the ill-will of the mate
whose mistake he had exposed. He therefore joined the _Speedwell_ an
ordnance ship carrying stores to Gibraltar but falling in with the Spanish
fleet the _Speedwell_ was captured. Her men having been taken to Cadiz
they were sent inland to San Lucar de Mayor. From that place, through
being somewhat carelessly guarded, Scoresby and one of his companions were
successful in making their escape. They reached England after various
adventures and Scoresby having endured many hardships at sea settled down
again to farm work at Cropton for two years. Although having only the very
smallest means he was married at this time to Lady Mary Smith (she was
born on Lady-day), the eldest daughter of Mr John Smith, a landed
proprietor in a small way and a native of Cropton.
Having reached the position of skipper of the famous _Henrietta_, in 1790,
when only thirty years of age, Scoresby was saved from the financial
extremes to which he was likely to have been reduced, owing to his small
income and the increasing expenses of his family. Having successfully
commanded the _Henrietta_ for seven seasons and having augmented in this
way the incomes of the half-dozen Pickeronians interested in the success
of the ship, Captain Scoresby's reputation stood high in the Greenland
trade. In 1798 he accepted the more advantageous offers of a London firm
to command the _Dundee_. It was on his third voyage in that ship that,
having called at Whitby as usual to say good-bye to his wife and children,
Scoresby allowed his third child, William, to go on board the ship as she
lay in the roads. When the time came for him to go ashore he was nowhere
to be found, for having taken into his head the idea of going the voyage
with his father the little fellow had hidden himself. The shouts for
"Master William," however, brought him to the top of the companion at the
last moment, but his father, understanding the boy's great desire to stay
in the ship, decided to take him.
The voyage was notable on account of a very exciting incident on meeting
with a foreign privateer. The _Dundee_ was armed with twelve guns and was
manned by a crew of between fifty and sixty men, so that if brought to
extremities the ship could have made a good defence. Scoresby, however,
had every reason for avoiding a conflict, so keeping his ship in an
apparently defenceless state, with all the ports closed, he sent the men
to their quarters to prepare the guns for immediate action. No sign of
excitement or commotion was allowed to appear on deck so that when the
privateer came within shouting distance Scoresby walking the quarter deck
and the helmsmen steering were the only living beings visible to the
stranger. Suddenly, however, the six gun ports on each side of the
_Dundee_ are raised and a row of untompioned cannon are seen pointing
towards the enemy's broadside. The stratagem, according to the account
given by the younger Scoresby,[1] was such a huge surprise for the enemy
that he suddenly hauled off under full sail and not a shot was fired on
either side.
[Footnote 1: Scoresby, the Rev. William, D.D., "My Father," p. 108.]
After this voyage young Scoresby went back to school again until 1803 when
he became an apprentice on board the _Resolution_, a new ship of Whitby,
commanded and partly owned by his father. For several years he made the
Greenland voyage in the _Resolution_ and was chief officer when, in the
year 1806, his father forced the ship through the pack ice, as far north
as 81° 3O'. This was for long the highest point reached by any vessel and
the ship's cargo was completed in thirty-two days with twenty-four whales,
two seals, two walruses, two bears and a narwhal. The elder Scoresby who
was about six feet in height was a man of extraordinary muscular power.
His many successful voyages reveal his first-class qualities as a seaman
and navigator and his good judgment in emergencies seems to have been
almost instinctive. Although he is described[1] as an Arctic navigator,
exploration was only incidental to whale-catching, but his inventions of
the ice-drill and the crow's-nest did much to make Arctic voyages more
feasible.
[Footnote 1: "Dictionary of National Biography."]
The versatility of his son William was remarkable, for he may be described
as master mariner, author and divine and even then his varied scientific
knowledge is overlooked. During his latter years he was particularly
interested in magnetism and in 1856 made his last voyage in order to carry
out a series of systematic observations.
His life, written by his nephew R.E. Scoresby-Jackson, is of great
interest and Cropton may well be proud that it gave Dr Scoresby to the
world.
The memory of the _Henrietta_ is not likely to be forgotten so easily as
that of the Scoresbys, for gateposts made from whale jaws are common near
the coast of north eastern Yorkshire, and one on the road from Pickering
to Scarborough, between the villages of Hutton Buscel and East Ayton,
bears the name of the famous ship.
A contemporary of the Scoresbys was John Jackson, R.A. He was the son of a
tailor of Lastingham and was born at that very remote village on the 31st
May 1778. As a boy he showed a predilection for portrait-painting in the
sketches he made of his companions, although his father discouraged his
efforts in that direction, not wishing to lose his boy's services as an
apprentice to the tailoring business. When he was about nineteen he had
the good fortune to be introduced to Lord Mulgrave who brought him to the
notice of the Earl of Carlisle and soon after we find him studying the
great collection of pictures at Castle Howard.
Jackson's first attempt at a painting in oils was a copy of a portrait by
Sir Joshua Reynolds lent to him by Sir George Beaumont. Lastingham was
unable to supply him with proper materials, but he managed to obtain some
very rough paints and brushes from the village house-painter and glazier,
and with these crude materials made such an admirable copy that Sir George
or Lord Mulgrave or both together advised him to go to London, promising
him £50 a year during the time that he was working as a student. From this
time his progress was rapid. In 1804 he exhibited at the Royal Academy for
the first time, in 1815 he was elected an associate and in 1817 he
received the full honours of the Academy. Although he was a Wesleyan
Methodist, Jackson was broad-minded in his religious opinions, for he made
a copy of Correggio's "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane" (with the
figures increased to life size) for Lastingham parish church. The picture
is now on the north side of the apse but its original position was above
the communion table and in order to give the picture sufficient space and
light the apse of Transitional Norman date was very roughly treated.
Jackson contributed £50 towards the alterations, but the restoration at a
later date has fortunately wiped out these disfigurements.
Another boy destined to become a tailor was Francis Nicholson who was born
at Pickering in 1753. His father, who was a weaver, gave young Francis a
good education in Pickering, and wisely abandoning the tailoring idea the
boy was sent to Scarborough for instruction from an artist. After three
years he returned to Pickering and occupied himself in painting portraits
and pictures of horses, dogs and game for local patrons. Then followed a
period of study in London, where Nicholson made great progress and
eventually began to devote himself to water colours, for which in his long
life he was justly famous, well deserving the name generally given to him
as the "Father of water colour painting."
William Marshall, the agricultural expert and writer to whom we owe the
establishment of the Board of Agriculture was baptised at Sinnington on
28th July 1745. He was in his own words "born a farmer" and used to say
that he could trace his blood through the veins of agriculturists for
upwards of four hundred years. After fourteen years in the West Indies, he
undertook, at the age of twenty-nine, the management of a farm near
Croydon in Surrey. It was there, in 1778, that he wrote his first book. He
showed the manuscript to Dr Johnson who objected to certain passages
sanctioning work on Sundays in harvest time, so Marshall omitted them. His
greatest work was "A General Survey, from personal experience, observation
and enquiry, of the Rural Economy of England."
The country was divided into six agricultural divisions, the northern one
being represented by Yorkshire in two volumes. In the first of these, the
preface is dated from Pickering, December 21st, 1787, and the second
chapter is devoted to an exceedingly interesting account of the broad
valley to which Marshall gives the title "The Vale of Pickering." When he
died in 1818 he was raising a building at Pickering for a College of
Agriculture on the lines he had laid down in a book published in 1799.
His proposal for the establishment of a "Board of Agriculture, or more
generally of Rural Affairs" was carried out by Parliament in 1793, and so
valuable were his books considered that in 1803 most of them were
translated into French and published in Paris under the title of "La
Maison rustique anglaise." The inscription on Marshall's monument in the
north aisle of Pickering church which states that "he was indefatigable in
the study of rural economy" and that "he was an excellent mechanic, had a
considerable knowledge of most branches of science, particularly of
philology, botany and chemistry" is not an over statement of his merits.
[Illustration: The Ingle-Nook in Gallow Hill Farm near Brompton. Where
Wordsworth stayed just at the time of his marriage with Mary Hutchinson.]
In the year 1800 the little farm at Gallow Hill near Brompton was taken by
one Thomas Hutchinson whose sister Mary kept house for him. She was almost
the same age and had been a schoolfellow of the poet Wordsworth at Penrith
and had kept up her friendship with his family since that time, having
visited them at Racedown and Dove Cottage, while the Wordsworths had
stayed at the Hutchinson's farm at Sockburn-on-Tees. There was nothing
sudden or romantic therefore in the marriage which took place at Brompton
in 1802. Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy went down from London to the
pretty Yorkshire village in September, and stayed at the little farmhouse,
whose parlour windows looked across the Vale of Pickering to the steep
wolds on the southern side. The house, as far as I can discover, has not
been altered in the century which has elapsed, and the cosy ingle-nook in
the room on the right of the entrance remains full of memories of the poet
and his betrothed--his "perfect woman, nobly planned." On the fourth of
October the wedding took place in Brompton Church. The grey old steeple
surrounded and overhung by masses of yellow and brown foliage in the
centre of the picturesque, and in many respects, ideal little village,
must have formed a perfect setting for the marriage of one who was
afterwards to become the Poet Laureate of his country. The register for
the years 1754-1810 contains the following entry:--
"_Banns of Marriage_ ...
William Wordsworth of Grasmere in Westmoreland, Gentleman, _and_ Mary
Hutchinson _of_ Gallow Hill in the Parish of Brompton _were married in
this_ Church _by_ Licence _this_ fourth _Day of_ October _in the year one
thousand_ eight _Hundred and_ two _by me_ John Ellis officiating min^r.
This marriage was solemnized between us."
[Illustration: Facsimile of the Signatures in the Register.]
"In the presence of THOMAS HUTCHINSON.
JOANNA HUTCHINSON.
JOHN HUTCHINSON."
The same day Wordsworth with his wife and sister drove to Thirsk and two
days afterwards reached Grasmere, where they soon settled down to an
uneventful life at Dove Cottage. Dorothy Wordsworth could not "describe
what she felt," but we are told that she accepted her sister-in-law
without a trace of jealousy.
There is still preserved in Pickering one of the parchments on which were
enrolled the names of all those who were liable for service in the
militia. It is headed
"Militia Enrollment 1807-8"
and begins:--
"An enrollment of the names of the several persons who have been chosen by
ballot to serve in the Militia for five years for the west part of the
sub-division of Pickering Lyth in the North Riding of the County of York
and also of the several substitutes who have been produced and approved to
serve for the like term and for such further term as the Militia shall
remain embodied, if within the space of five years His Majesty shall order
the Militia to be drawn out and embodied and are enrolled in the place of
such principals whose names are set opposite thereto in pursuance of an
act of the 47th of King George III., Cap. 71, entitled an act for the
speedily completing the Militia of Great Britain and increasing the same
under certain delimitations and restrictions (14th Aug. 1807)."
The thirty-six men were taken as follows:--
8 from Middleton.
5 " Kirby Misperton.
16 " Pickering.
1 " Ellerburne.
1 " Levisham.
3 " Sinnington.
1 " Thornton.
Jonathan Goodall, a farmer of Middleton, induced Geo. Thompson of
Pickering, a farmer's servant, 30 years old, to stand for him, paying him
£42.
Wm. Newton, a farmer of Middleton, had to pay Geo. Allen, a linen draper
of Richmond, £47, 5s. as substitute.
The smallest amount paid was £20, and the largest sum was £47, 5s.
Substitutes seem to have been hard to find in the neighbourhood of
Pickering, and those few whose names appear had to be heavily paid. George
Barnfather, a farm servant of Kirby Misperton agreed to serve as a
substitute on payment of £42, and a cartwright of Goathland agreed for the
same sum, while men from Manchester or Leeds were ready to accept half
that amount.
The extreme reluctance to serve of a certain Ben Wilson, a sweep of
Middleton, is shown in a story told of him by a very old inhabitant of
Pickering whose memory is in no way impaired by her years. She tells us
that this Wilson on hearing of his ill-luck seized a carving-knife and
going to the churchyard put his right hand on a gate-post and fiercely cut
off the two fingers required for firing a rifle. He avoided active service
in this way and often showed his mutilated hand to the countryfolk who may
or may not have admired the deed.
In 1823 Pickering was kept in touch with Whitby, York and Scarborough by
coaches that ran three times a week. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday a
coach (Royal Mail) left the "Black Swan" in the market place for Whitby at
the painfully early hour of four o'clock in the morning; another Royal
Mail left Pickering for York at half-past three in the afternoon on
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. The stages were from
Whitby to Saltergate.
Saltergate to Pickering.
Pickering to Malton.
Malton to Spital Beck.
Spital Beck to York.
There was also what was called the "Boat Coach" that ran between Pickering
and Scarborough.
One of the last drivers of these coaches became a guard on the North
Eastern Railway, and he still lives in Pickering at the time of writing.
The parish chest in the vestry of Pickering Church contains among other
papers a number of apprenticeship deeds of a hundred to a hundred and
fifty years ago, in which the master promises that he will educate the boy
and "bring him up in some honest and lawful calling and in the fear of
God," and in most cases to provide him with a suit of clothes at the
completion of his term, generally at the age of twenty-one years.
The odd papers registering the arrival of new inhabitants in the district
include one dated 1729, and in them we find a churchwarden possessing such
a distinguished name as Hotham, signing that surname without a capital,
and in 1809 we find an overseer of the poor only able to make his mark
against the seal.
The largest bell in the church tower is dated 1755 and bears the
inscription, "First I call you to God's word, and at last unto the Lord."
It is said that this bell was cracked owing to the great strength of one
of the ringers, and that the date 1755 is the year of the re-casting. The
flagon is the only piece of the church plate belonging to this period. It
was made in 1805 by Prince of York.
In the year 1837 the Rev. Joseph Kipling, grandfather of Mr Rudyard
Kipling, was living at Pickering, and on the 6th of July of that year a
son, John, was born. Mr Joseph Kipling was a Wesleyan minister, and his
residence at Pickering was only a temporary one.
Another Wesleyan who was living at this time was John Castillo, the author
of many quaint poems in the Yorkshire dialect, and an original local
preacher as well. He died in 1845, and his grave is to be seen in the
burial-ground of the Wesleyan Chapel. It bears a verse from "Awd Isaac,"
the poem by which he is best known--
"Bud noo his eens geean dim i' deeath,
Nera mare a pilgrim here on eeath,
His sowl flits fra' her shell beneeath,
Te reealms o' day,
Whoor carpin care an' pain an' deeath
Are deean away."
In 1720 a new chapel was built at Pickering for Protestant Dissenters, but
before that time--as early as 1702--Edward Brignall's house was set apart
for divine worship by Dissenters. An Independent Church was formed in
1715, the people probably meeting in private houses for several years.
After this, little is known until 1788, when the Independent Church was
again established, and in the following year a chapel was built, and it
was enlarged in 1814.
It is an interesting fact that about 1862 the small manual organ in the
Independent church was played by a Mr Clark, who was organist at the
Parish church in the morning and at the chapel in the afternoon and
evening. Before this time the Independents had contented themselves with
violins and a bass viol, and for a time with a clarionette.
In 1801, the population of Pickering was 1994, and at the last census
before the accession of Queen Victoria it had increased to 2555.
During the Georgian period Pickering's only external illumination at night
was from that precarious "parish lantern," the moon. The drainage of the
town was crude and far too obvious, and in all the departments for the
supply of daily necessities, the individualistic system of wells,
oil-lamps or candles and cesspools continued without interference from any
municipal power.
The houses and cottages built at this time are of stone among the hills,
and of a mixture of brick and stone in the vale. Examples of cottages can
be seen in the village of Great Habton. They are dated 1741 and 1784, and
are much less picturesque than those of the seventeenth century, though
village architecture had not then reached the gaunt ugliness of the early
Victorian Age.
The parish registers throughout the district were regularly kept, and as a
rule contain nothing of interest beyond the bare records of births, deaths
and marriages. The great proportion of villagers, however, who at this
time signed their names with a mark, shows that the art of writing was
still a rare thing among the peasantry. The church account books of the
period reveal many curious items such as the frequent repairs of the
_thatch_ on the vestry at Middleton (thatched churches are still to be
seen in Norfolk and Suffolk), and "£5, 19s. 6d. in all for the Violin or
Base Musick" of the same church.
Churchwarden architecture of the deal boards and whitewash order made
hideous many of the village churches that required repairs at this time,
and if one discovers a ramshackle little porch such as that just removed
at Ellerburne, or a big window with decayed wooden mullions cut in a wall,
regardless of symmetry, one may be quite safe in attributing it to the
early years of the nineteenth century. One of the staple industries of
Pickering and the adjoining villages at this time was weaving, and a great
number of the cottages had the room on the opposite side of the passage to
the parlour fitted up with a loom.
We have now seen many aspects of the daily life in and near Pickering
during the Georgian period. We know something of sports and amusements of
the people, of their religious beliefs, their work, their customs at
marriages and deaths, and we also have some idea of the dreadful beings
that these country folk trembled at during the hours of darkness. We have
discovered more than one remarkable man who was born and bred in these
primitive surroundings, and we have learnt something of one of the trades
that helped to make Pickering prosperous.