Transcriber's Note:
Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without
note. Archaic, dialect and variant spellings remain as printed.
Greek text appears as originally printed. The carat (^) precedes a
superscript character. Missing chapter titles have been included to
match the Contents listing for readers' convenience.
LANCASHIRE
FOLK-LORE:
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE
SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES,
LOCAL CUSTOMS AND USAGES
OF
THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY PALATINE.
COMPILED AND EDITED BY
JOHN HARLAND, F.S.A.
AND
T. T. WILKINSON, F.R.A.S.
[Device]
LONDON:
FREDERICK WARNE AND CO.
BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
NEW YORK: SCRIBNER AND CO.
1867.
LONDON:
SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
PREFACE.
"Folk-lore," though a term that will not be found in our standard
dictionaries, from Johnson down to Webster, is nevertheless simply a
modern combination of two genuine old English words--_Folc_, the folk,
the people, "the common people;" and _Lár_, _Laer_, _Lora_, learning,
doctrine, precept, law. In the earlier days of our English tongue,
folk-land, folk-gemote, folk-right, &c., were terms in common use, and
amongst this class of compound words our fore-elders had _folc-lare_, by
which they denoted plain, simple teaching suited for the people, what we
should now call "popular instruction," and hence _folk-lare_ also meant
a sermon. _Folk-Lore_, in its present signification--and for its general
acceptance we are largely indebted to the Editor of that valuable
periodical _Notes and Queries_,--means the notions of the folk or
people, from childhood upwards, especially their superstitious beliefs
and practices, as these have been handed down from generation to
generation, in popular tradition and tale, rhyme, proverb, or saying,
and it is well termed Folk-Lore in contradistinction to book-lore or
scholastic learning. It is the unlearned people's inheritance of
tradition from their ancestors, the modern reflection of ancient faith
and usage. This Folk-Lore has not been wholly without record in our
literature. Hone in his delightful _Every-Day Book_, _Year Book_, and
_Table Book_, has preserved many a choice bit of England's Folk-Lore;
and his example has been ably followed in Chambers's _Book of Days_.
Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, Aubrey's _Miscellanies_, Allies's
_Antiquities and Folk-Lore of Worcestershire_, and other like works,
have noted down for the information and amusement of future generations
the prevalent superstitions, and popular customs and usages of the
people in particular districts, during a past age, and at the present
time. But the greatest and best depository and record of the Folk-Lore
of various nations is that excellent periodical _Notes and Queries_,
from which a charming little volume entitled "_Choice Notes from Notes
and Queries,--Folk-Lore_," was compiled and published in 1859.
But Lancashire has hitherto been without adequate record, at least in a
collected form, of its Folk-Lore. This has not been because of any lack
of such lore. The North of England generally, and Lancashire in
particular, is remarkably rich in this respect. Possessed and peopled in
succession by the Celts of ancient Britain, by the Angles and other
Teutonic peoples, by the Scandinavian races, and by Norman and other
foreign settlers at early periods,--the result of the respective
contributions of these various peoples is necessarily a large mass of
traditionary lore. To bring this together and present it in a collected
form is the object of this little volume. Its editors have been long
engaged, apart,--distinctly, and independently of each other,--in
collecting particulars of the superstitions in belief and practice, and
of the peculiar customs and usages of the people of Lancashire. One of
them, born in one of its rural districts, still rich in these respects,
is thus enabled to remember and to preserve many of those customs and
usages of his childhood and youth, now rapidly passing into decay, if
not oblivion. The other, conversant from his earliest remembrances with
the Folk-Lore of East Yorkshire, and with that of Lancashire for the
last thirty-five years, is thus enabled to compare the customs and
usages of both, and to recognise the same essential superstition under
slightly different forms. Similarity of pursuit having led to personal
communication, the Editors agreed to combine their respective
collections; and hence the present volume. They do not pretend herein to
have exhausted the whole range of Lancashire Folk-Lore; but simply to
have seized on the more salient features of its superstitious side, and
those of popular custom and usage. Part I. comprises notices of a great
number of superstitious beliefs and practices. Part II. treats of
various local customs and usages, at particular seasons of the year;
during the great festivals of the church; those connected with birth and
baptism; betrothal and wedding; dying, death-bed, and funeral customs;
as well as manorial and feudal tenures, services, and usages.
Should the present volume find favour and acceptance, its Editors may
venture hereafter to offer another, embracing the fertile and
interesting subjects of popular pageants, maskings and mummings,
rushbearings, wakes and fairs, out-door sports and games; punishments,
legal and popular; legends and traditions; proverbs, popular sayings and
similes; folk-rhymes, &c. &c.
_September, 1866._
But for unavoidable delay, consequent on the preparation of a
large-paper edition, this volume would have been published prior to
"Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the
Borders," by Wm. Henderson. As that work has appeared, it may be as well
to state that, notwithstanding similarity of subject, the two books do
not clash. Mr. Henderson's work relates chiefly to the three
north-eastern counties,--Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire,--with
large notices not only of the Scottish borders, but of Scotland
generally, and many details as to Devonshire folk-lore. Its notices of
Cumberland and Westmorland are fewer than of the three counties first
named; and Lancashire is only two or three times incidentally mentioned.
The field of this county palatine is therefore left free for the present
volume.
_January, 1867._
CONTENTS.
PART I.
SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES.
PAGE
Introduction 1
Lancashire Alchemists 23
Lancashire Astrologers 33
Bells 41
Beal-tine or Beltane Fires; Relics of Baal Worship 45
Boggarts, Ghosts, and Haunted Places 49
Boggart Hole Clough 50
Boggarts or Ghosts in Old Halls 51
House Boggarts, or Labouring Goblins 56
Hornby Park Mistress and Margaret Brackin 59
Boggarts in the Nineteenth Century 61
CHARMS AND SPELLS.
Charms and Spells against Evil Beings 62
A Charm, written in Cypher, against Witchcraft and Evil Spirits 63
The Crow Charm and the Lady-bird Charm 70
Pimpernel 71
The Mountain Ash, or Wicken or Wiggen Tree 72
Charms to Cure Sickness, Wounds, Cattle Distemper, etc. 74
Charms for the Toothache 75
Vervain, for Wounds, etc. 76
Charms to Stop Bleeding 77
Touching for the King's Evil 77
Cures for Warts 78
Cure for Hydrocephalus in Cattle 79
Cattle Disorders.--The Shrew Tree in Carnforth 79
Charms for Ague 80
Stinging of Nettles 80
Jaundice 80
To Procure Sleep by Changing the Direction of the Bed 80
THE DEVIL, DEMONS, &c.
The Devil 81
Raising the Devil 83
The Devil and the Schoolmaster at Cockerham 83
Old Nick 84
Demonology 86
Demon and Goblin Superstitions 88
Dispossessing a Demoniac 92
Demoniacal Possession in 1594 92
Demoniacal Possession in 1689 98
DIVINATION.
Divination 102
Divination at Marriages 103
Divination by Bible and Key 103
Another Lancashire form of Divination 104
Divination by the Dying 104
Second-sight 105
Spirits of the Dying and the Dead 105
Casting Lots, &c. 106
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
Druidical Rock Basins 106
Elves and Fairies 110
Folk-Lore of Eccles and the Neighbourhood 113
Tree Barnacles; or, Geese hatched from Sea-shells 116
Warts from Washing in Egg-water 121
Fortune-telling.--Wise Men and Cunning Women, &c. 121
Magic and Magicians 126
Edward Kelly, the Seer 126
Raising the Dead at Walton-le-Dale 128
An Earl of Derby charged with keeping a Conjuror 129
MIRACLES.
Miracles, or Miraculous Stories 131
Miracles by a Dead Duke of Lancaster and King 132
A Miraculous Footprint in Brindle Church 134
The Footprint at Smithells of George Marsh, the Martyr 135
A Legend of Cartmel Church 137
The Prophet Elias, a Lancashire Fanatic 138
OMENS AND PREDICATIONS.
Omens and Predications 138
Cats 141
Dogs 142
Lambs 142
Birds 142
Swallows 143
Magpies 143
Dreams 145
The Moon 149
Hæver or Hiver 149
Deasil or Widersinnis 151
Omens of Weather for New Year's-day 151
Death Tick or Death Watch 152
SUPERSTITIONS, GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS.
Popular Superstitions 153
Bones of St. Lawrence, at Chorley 157
The Dead Man's Hand 158
Nineteenth Century Superstition 164
Pendle Forest Superstition 164
East Lancashire Superstition 165
Superstitious Fears and Cruelties 167
Superstitious Beliefs in Manchester in the Sixteenth Century 168
Wells and Springs 169
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT.
Witchcraft in the Fifteenth Century 174
The Famous History of the Lancashire Witches 176
Dr. Dee charged with Witchcraft 178
The Lancashire Witches 179
Superstitious Fear of Witchcraft 182
A Household Bewitched 184
The Lancashire Witches of 1612 185
The Samlesbury Witches 194
Witchcraft at Middleton 195
Witchcraft in 1633-34 195
The Lancashire Witches of 1633-4 200
Lancashire Witch-finders 200
The Forest of Pendle--The Haunt of the Lancashire Witches 202
Pendle Hill and its Witches 204
Witchcraft about 1654 206
A Liverpool Witch in 1667 206
The Witch of Singleton 207
Witchcraft at Chowbent in the Eighteenth Century 207
Killing a Witch 208
A Recent Witch, near Burnley 209
"Lating" or "Leeting" Witches 210