An ill-bred. Londoner calls a shilling a _hog_, and half-a-crown a
_bull_. He little knows what havoc he is making with our modern
theorists, who assert that nothing is worthy of belief, or ought to be
relied upon, before the era of "legitimate" or written "history." These
terms corroborate and identify themselves with the most ancient of
traditionary customs, long ere princes had monopolised the surface of
coined money with their own images and superscriptions. They are
identical with the very name of money among the early Romans, which was
_pecunia_, from _pecus_, a flock. Among the same people, it is well
known, the word _stipulatio_ signified the striking of a bargain, which
was done by placing two straws, _stipes_, one across the other. The same
mode is practised to this day in the Isle of Man, existing, in all
probability, from a period earlier than the foundation of Rome itself.
Is the coincidence accidental or traditional? If the latter, what a
history it tells of the migration of the species!
How much might be written of amulets, cups, and horns of magical power,
from the divining cup of Genesis to the Amalthean horns, and the goblet
of Oberon, which he gave to Huon of Bordeaux, the supernatural power of
which, passing into an hundred shapes of fiction, may be found in our
baronial halls--a pledge, to a certain extent, like the invulnerability
of Achilles, of the good fortune of its possessor. It is wonderful that
Shakespeare, who is so happy in the verisimilitude of his fairy lore,
and so apt to embellish his plot with its mythology, should not have
thought of causing the king-making Earl of Warwick to lose the horn of
that prodigious cow--no doubt one of those guardian pledges bestowed
upon his family--by way of presage to his fall. Deer's antlers, there
can be little doubt, were placed in the halls of our forefathers, a
votive offering to the Diana of the Scandinavian Pantheon; as it was the
custom in like manner to ornament the temples with the heads of
sacrificial victims in the Greek and Roman worship. The eagerness of our
sportsmen for the "brush," as the first trophy in the chase, has in all
probability originated from the same propitiatory notion.
Few would expect to meet with fragments of the worship of Juno in the
racing of country girls for an inner garment, and the hunting of the pig
with his tail greased; yet practised, but rapidly becoming obsolete, in
wakes and other pastimes from Scotland to the Land's End.
Thus far we have examined tradition by the test of positive experience.
There is still a gleaning of poetry which might be culled, in some few
districts, from the "lyre of the unlettered muse." There are songs
scattered up and down our own and the neighbouring counties among the
population least affected by the spread of literature which are of great
antiquity, and are not to be found in any books or writings now extant.
A few of these might be gathered in; while to some, who love the tone
and humour of the old ballads, they would be an acquisition of great
value. But the intercourse between master and man, between town and
country, and even amongst the learned themselves, becomes so cold and
repulsive, either from increasing refinement or reserve, that there
seems little hope of our finding any one who will take the trouble to
collect them, or a sufficient number of real admirers of these relics
who would come forward to ensure a suitable reward for the labour. We
are sorely disgraced among foreigners for inattention to the course and
progress of our own learning. No work exists, like those which
illustrate and embellish the French, Italian, and German literature,
which professes to give a summary view of its history. The knowledge of
its antiquities, its customs, manners, laws, modes of feeling, and
pursuits, except in the instances before mentioned, and a few other
praiseworthy exceptions, have been shamefully obscured by an eagerness
for supporting a system, the ridiculous rivalry of pretence, and by the
discredit thrown upon such labours by modern pedantry. A new version of
Camden, rectified by all the discoveries subsequent to his time;--that
which is found useless or erroneous left out, and the work enlightened
by new researches, entered into by a number of inquirers equal in all
respects to the task, and exerted over every part of the country, would
very much aid the cause of learning and the future progress of our
knowledge.
The following traditions, we would fain hope, will not be found quite
destitute of utility. They are some addition to our existing stock of
knowledge, either as illustrating English history, manners, and customs
now obsolete, or as a collection of legends, having truth for their
basis, however disfigured in their transmission through various
modifications of error, the natural obscurity arising from distance, and
the distorted media through which they must necessarily be viewed.
Perhaps a main source of this inaccuracy arises from the many and
heterogeneous uses to which the breakings up, the fragments of tradition
have been subjected and applied. Like those detached yet beautiful
remnants of antiquity, built up with other and absolutely worthless
materials in the rude structures of the barbarian by whom they have been
disfigured, traditions are generally presented to us torn from their
original connection with edifices once renowned for beauty and
magnificence. It is our wish, as it has been our aim, to rescue these
ruins from degradation and decay. Gathered from many an uninviting heap
of chaotic matter, they are now presented in a different form, and under
a more popular aspect. We cannot pretend to say that we have invariably
assigned to them their true origin, or that their real character and
position have been ascertained. Still, we would hope, that, as relics of
the past rescued from the oblivion to which they were inevitably
hastening, they are not either an uninteresting or inelegant addition to
the literature of our country.