{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_17269/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_17269","id":"gutenberg_17269","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17269","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Environmental Issues","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Folklore -- England -- Peterborough","Weather -- Folklore"],"text":"Produced by Julie Barkley, Janet Blenkinship and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  WEATHER AND FOLK LORE\n  OF\n  PETERBOROUGH AND DISTRICT.\n\n\n  BY\n  CHARLES DACK.\n\n\n  PUBLISHED BY AND FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE\n\n  PETERBOROUGH\n  NATURAL HISTORY, SCIENTIFIC,\n  AND\n  ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.\n\n  1911.\n\n  PETERBOROUGH:\n  CHARLES HAWKINS, PRINTER, KING STREET\n\n [Illustration: MAY DAY, AT GLATTON, HUNTS.\n                    1856.\n              FROM A DRAWING BY\n  THE REV. E. Bradley, (_Cuthbert Bede_).]\n\n\n  _Old Customs! Oh! I love the sound.\n  However simple they may be,\n  What e'er with time hath sanction found,\n  Is welcome and is dear to me.\n                       John Clare._\n\n\n\n\nWEATHER AND FOLK LORE OF PETERBOROUGH AND DISTRICT.\n\n(Second Series).\n\n\nThis is a continuation of a Paper on the \"Survival of Old Customs\" in\nPeterborough and the neighbourhood which was read at the Royal\nArchaeological Society's meeting in 1898, with an addition of a few more\nold customs, and more particulars of others, to which I have also added\na collection of the quaint Weather and Folk Lore of this district. Being\nat a point where four counties are almost within a stone's throw,\nPeterborough possesses the traditions of the Counties of Huntingdon,\nCambridge, and Lincoln, as well as Northampton. It is rather difficult\nto locate these sayings to one particular County, so I have taken those\ncurrent within a radius of about fifteen miles.\n\nMost of them have been repeated to me personally and only in a very few\ncases have I copied any which have been printed and then only to make\nthe collection more complete.\n\nThe two Northamptonshire Poets, Dryden and John Clare, often notice the\nphases of the Weather, and John Clare, especially, describes the Rural\nCustoms and weather Lore of this district with a true Poets feeling and\namongst his M.S.S., now the property of the Peterborough Museum, are\nmany unpublished poems and also his Diary which, at present, is unknown\nto the general public. John Clare was well styled the English Burns and\nhis notes and Memoranda on the various local events are most valuable to\nthose who take an interest in the sayings and doings of the early part\nof the 19th century.\n\nMany charms are used at the present time and, altho' reticent, the\nvillagers, (when you have gained their confidence), will tell you of\ntheir belief in the various whims and of the successful results of their\npractice.\n\nIn almost every proverb where Peterborough is mentioned it is associated\nwith pride, and some people say that they are still applicable.\n\nThe first and second of the following rhymes date from before the\nReformation:\n\n  Crowland as courteous, as courteous may be,\n  Thorney the bane of many a good tree,\n  Ramsey the rich and Peterborough the proud,\n  Sawtry, by the way, that poor Abbey,\n  Gave more alms than all they.\n\n  Ramsey the rich of gold and of fee,\n  Thorney the flower of the Fen Country,\n  Crowland so courteous of meat and of drink,\n  Peterborough the proud, as all men do think,\n  And Sawtry by the way, that poor Abbaye,\n  Gave more alms in one day, than all they.\n\n  Peterborough the proud of their ancient See,\n  Thorney the flower of many a fair tree,\n  Crowland the courteous of their meat and drink,\n  Spalding the gluttons as all men do think,\n  Sawtry by the way, that old Abbaye,\n  Gave more in one day than all they.\n\n  Peterborough poor and proud.\n\nAnother version gives Peterborough:\n\n    Famous for pride and Stamford for poor.\n\nThe next two belong exclusively to Peterborough, and the first I have\nonly just obtained from a lady who remembers the verses, as they were\nrepeated early in the 19th Century:\n\n  When the Clock of the Abbey strikes three minutes fast,\n  There will be a gay wedding before the month's past;\n  When the Clock of the Abbey strikes three minutes slow,\n  The river's bright waters will soon overflow;\n  When the Church Clock and Abbey Clock strike both together,\n  There will soon be a death or a change of the weather.\n\nThe Abbey or Cathedral is dedicated to St. Peter, and the Parish Church\nto St. John. The Head Verger of the Cathedral until recently had charge\nof both clocks, and St. John's Clock was always kept slightly faster\nthan the Cathedral Clock. Canon Jones, when Vicar of St. John's, one day\nmet the late Verger, (Mr. H. Plowman, Senr.) and asked him why St John's\nClock was always faster than the Cathedral Clock, and the Verger\nreplied:--\"Well Vicar, you know, the other disciple did outrun St. Peter\non the way to the Tomb, so St. John has always kept in front ever\nsince.\"\n\nSometimes the coincidences mentioned in the verses occur and maintain\ntheir reputation for veracity:\n\n  If in the Minster Close a Hare,\n  Should for herself have made a lair,\n  Be sure before the week is down,\n  A fire will rage within the town\n\nIt is very strange but these two events have sometimes happened.\n\n    One fire brings two more.\n\nThis too has often occurred and in April of this year (1911) three fires\noccurred in this district within a week.\n\nThese are all I can remember which refer to Peterborough.\n\nBeginning with the County of Northampton we have:\n\nNorthamptonshire, more Spires, more Squires, more haughtiness, and less\nhospitality than any other County in England.\n\nNorthamptonshire for Spires and Squires.\n\nNorthamptonshire for Springs and Spinsters.\n\nThack and Dyke Northamptonshire like.\n\nMarholm, a village near Peterborough.\n\n\"They held together like the men of Marholm when they lost their\nCommon.\"\n\nThis is used when people are divided one against another.\n\nCaster where the woman is master.\n\n\"To lose a hog for a ha'porth of tar.\" The hog referred to is a yearling\nsheep.\n\n\"To live by the penny.\" Buying only when anything is absolutely\nrequired.\n\n\"As cross as two sticks.\"\n\n\"As cross as old Wilks.\" Who old Wilks was and why he was cross is lost\nin oblivion.\n\n\"As wise as Walton's calf who ran nine miles to suck a bull.\"\n\n\"Black as the pot.\"\n\n\"Topsy turvey Moses Webster.\" Used when things are in a disorderly\nstate.\n\n\"Dance a jig, then come back and buy a pig.\"\n\n\"Go to Farcet.\" This is a village near Peterborough and the expression\nis used instead of advising people to go to Jericho or any other place.\n\n\"As fat as moles.\"\n\n\"You've gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick,\" was a common\nexpression when I was a school boy, when anyone was relating something\nwhich was incorrect.\n\n  Come day, Go day, God sends Sunday.\n  Sunday moon, flood before it is out.\n  Singing before breakfast on Monday, cry before the week is out.\n  As Friday so Sunday.\n  Friday is either the fairest or foulest day of the week.\n  Sun always shines on Saturday little or much.\n\n    Saturday new moon and Sunday full,\n    Never good and never wull.\n\n\n      JANUARY.\n\n  On corner walls,\n  A glittering row,\n  Hang pit irons less for use than show,\n  With horse-shoe brightened as a spell,\n  Witchcraft's evil powers to quell.\n                           _John Clare._\n\nThe first thing on New Year's morning, open your Bible and the first\nverse your finger or thumb touches that verse, will betoken what will\noccur during the year.\n\nOn New Year's morning if a sprig of green is placed in the Bible, the\nverse on which it lies fortells the events of the year.\n\nIt is lucky for a dark man to enter the house first on New Year's\nmorning, and I know a man who used to see the Old Year out and the New\nYear in with a friend who always arranged for a very dark man to wait\nfor him outside his own house until he returned. The man then entered\nthe house first, and after a glass of something warm and good wishes, he\nleft.\n\nIt is also a custom on New Year's Eve for some people to hide a\nsovereign or half-sovereign outside the house and when leaving the house\non New Year's morning to pick up the piece of gold which is said to\nensure their having gold in their pockets all that year.\n\nWhatever is done on New Year's day, you will do throughout the year.\n\nAs the weather is the first twelve days of January so it will be for the\ntwelve months. Each day's weather is taken for the corresponding month.\n\nPlough Monday, First Monday after Epiphany. This custom has almost\npassed away. Only two lots of men were seen in Peterborough this year,\nthe Stores no doubt not encouraging them as the tradesmen did in the old\ntimes. In Northampton, in 1910, I saw numerous groups of children with\nblackened faces and grotesque dresses going about the streets on this\nday as Plough witches.\n\n  When the day lengthens,\n  Then the cold strengthens,\n\nOn Old Christmas day (7th January new style) the day has lengthened a\ncock's skip.\n\nJanuary White.\n\nIf the grass grows in January it grows the worse for it all the year.\n\n\n      ST. PAUL'S DAY, 25TH JANUARY.\n\nIn some verses dedicated To all my worthy Masters and Mistresses, by\n_John Small_, Bell-man, Stamford, 1850, is the following:--\n\n  If Saint Paul's day be fair and clear,\n  It doth betide a happy year;\n  If blustering winds do blow aloft,\n  Then wars will trouble our realm full oft,\n  And if by chance to snow or rain,\n  Then will be dear all sorts of grain.\n\n\n      FEBRUARY.\n\nFebruary fill dyke.\n\n\n      ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.\n\nChildren used to go round the villages and city on this day and sing:\n\n  Good Morrow, Valentine;\n  Please to give me a valentine;\n  I'll be yourn, if you'll be mine;\n  Good Morrow, Valentine.\n\n  Good Morrow, Valentine\n  First its yourn and then tis mine\n  So please give me a valentine.\n  Holly and ivy tickle my toe\n  Give me red apple and let me go.\n\n  Good Morrow, Valentine,\n  Parsley grows by savoury\n  Savoury grows by thyme\n  A new pair of gloves on Easter Day\n  Good Morrow, Valentine.\n\nThis was called going Valentining and some money or apples were given to\nthe children.\n\nIn Peterborough and district sweet plum buns used to be made and were\ncalled Valentine Buns. They were given by Godparents to their\nGodchildren the Sunday before and the next Sunday after Valentine's Day.\n\n\n      MARCH.\n\nMarch, many weathers.\n\nJohn Clare says:\n\n  March month of \"many weathers\" wildly comes,\n  In hail and snow and rain, and threatening hums and floods.\n\nMarch wind.\n\nA wet March makes a sad harvest.\n\nA March without water dowers the hind's daughter.\n\nIf March comes in smiling and gay\n\nSaddle your horses and go and buy hay.\n\n  March, Hic, Hac, Ham'\n  Comes in like a lion\n  And goes out like a lamb.\n\nIf March comes in stormy and black, she carries the winter away on her\nback.\n\n\n      MOTHERING SUNDAY.\n\nThis is Midlent Sunday when it was the regular custom, and even now very\ngeneral, for the children, especially those in service, to visit their\nparents on that day.\n\nChildren away from home write to their parents on Mothering Sunday if\nunable to get home.\n\nA special kind of cake was made for this day.\n\n\n      PALM SUNDAY.\n\nIt is known as Fig Sunday as figs are eaten and a fig pudding is a\nregular dish on this day. There used to be a great display of figs in\nthe Grocers' windows the week preceding Palm Sunday, but there is not\nsuch a show now.\n\n\n      GOOD FRIDAY.\n\nOn Good Friday, in 1904, I was reminded of an old custom by an old\nfriend who was staying with me. When some hot cross buns were offered,\nhe took one and told me to hold it with him and, whilst we were holding\nit together to repeat with him this couplet:--\n\n  Half for you half for me\n  Between us two good luck shall be.\n\nWhen this was being said we broke the bun in two. This is said to cement\nfriendship between the two who break the bun.\n\n\n      APRIL.\n\n      ST. MARK'S EVE.\n\nTake three tufts of grass plucked from a Churchyard, place them under\nyour pillow and repeat aloud:--\n\n  Let me know my fate, whether weal or woe\n  Whether my rank's to be high or low,\n  Whether to live single or be a bride,\n  And the destiny my star doth provide.\n\nIf this is done one dreams of the future.\n\n  When April blows his horn\n  'Tis good for hay and corn.\n\nApril showers make May flowers.\n\n26th April was called Break Day. The Fen Commons were broke or opened\nby turning in stock.\n\n\n      MAY.\n\nThe May Day Garlands are of various forms. Those in Peterborough are\nformed of two hoops fastened together to form a globe and a stick or\nstave through the centre. The hoops are decorated with flowers and\nribbons, and when the children possess one, the best doll is fixed on\nthe stick inside the garland. Two girls carry the garland which is\ncarefully covered with a white cloth. This is lifted at the houses and\nthe wondrous garland is exposed whilst the children sing the following\nsong, which is the favourite May Day song in the City. A friend has\nkindly given me the music and words which she wrote on the 1st May,\n1904: from the children's performance:\n\n[Illustration: Music]\n\n               I.\n\n  Good morrow, Lords and Ladies\n  It is the first of May,\n  We hope you'll view our garlands,\n  They are so bright and gay.\n\n    Chorus--To the green woods we will go,\n            To the green woods we will go,\n            To the green woods we will go,\n            To the green woods we will go.\n\n              II.\n\n  This bunch of May it looks so gay,\n  Before your door it stands;\n  It is but a sprout, but it's well spread out\n  By the work of our Lord's hands.\n\n    Chorus--To the green woods, etc.\n\n             III.\n\n  The Cuckoo sings in April,\n  The Cuckoo sings in May,\n  The Cuckoo sings in June;\n  In July she flies away.\n\n    Chorus--To the green woods, etc.\n\n              IV.\n\n  I'm very glad the Spring has come,\n  The sun shines out so bright;\n  The little birds upon the trees\n  Are singing for delight.\n\n    Chorus--To the green woods, etc.\n\n               V.\n\n  The roads are very dusty,\n  Our shoes are very thin;\n  We have a little money box\n  To put our money in.\n\n    Chorus--To the green woods, etc.\n\nThe Garlands are carried round on 1st May and on Old May Day.\n\nThe Huntingdonshire Garlands are usually of a pryamidical form of\nflowers and streamers, surmounted by a doll.\n\nThe frontispiece of May garland at Glatton is a copy of a water colour\ndrawing by the Rev. E. Bradley (Cuthbert Bede) when living there in\n1856.\n\nIn the earlier part of the last century it was the custom for a young\nman to get as large a branch as possible of May in flower on May 1st and\nfix it to his sweetheart's window. If the shutters were closed it was\nthrust through the diamond, oval, round, or heartshaped openings at the\ntop of the shutters. The larger the branch and the more the blossoms the\ngreater the compliment. If a quarrel had taken place, and peace not\nmade, then the angry swain would fix a branch of blackthorn in the place\nwhich otherwise should have held the May blossom.\n\nIn the country if the servant maids had not pleased the farm boys they\nused to get a branch of the crab apple and put it in the girl's window.\n\n\n      MAY DAY.\n\n  A branch of May I have brought you,\n  And at your door it stands;\n  Well set out, and well spread about\n  By the work of our Lord's hands.\n  Take a Bible in your hands,\n  And read a chapter through;\n  And when the day of Judgement comes,\n  God will remember you,\n  God bless ye all both great and small,\n  And I wish you a merry May.\n\nAnother variation is:--\n\n  Arise! Arise! ye dairy maids,\n  Shake off your drowsy dreams,\n  Step straightway to your dairies\n  And fetch us a bowl of cream,\n  If not a bowl of your sweet cream,\n  A pot of your brown beer;\n  And if we should tarry in this town,\n  We'll come again next year.\n\nWhen Caster Common Lands were open to all and the gates taken off on May\n13th, there was a struggle with the cottagers as to whose cow would get\nthrough the gateway first and the cow which secured the place of honour\nhad a garland of flowers put round its horns when driven home at night,\nand the cow which was last to get on the Common returned with a \"Dish\nClout\" tied to its tail.\n\n  Sunny May.\n\n  Cold May, good for corn and Hay.\n\n  Rain in May, makes plenty of Hay.\n\n  A May flood never did good.\n\nThe last two appear to be contradictory but the flood refers to the\nvalley of the Nene and the lowlands which are apt to be flooded when the\nriver overflows its banks. The mud and dirt consequently settle on the\ngrass and make it unfit for hay, but the rainfall does good, causes the\ngrass to grow and it is not injured by the silt.\n\n  Till May goes out, change not a clout.\n\n29th May, Restoration Day, commonly called Oak Apple Day from an oak\napple with oak leaves being generally worn on that day until noon. The\nleaves or apple at that time were put out of sight. Before noon everyone\nwas challenged to \"show your oak\" and if none could be seen a blow or a\npinch could be given, but after that hour the wearer of the oak could be\nstruck. School boys used to fix leaves on the top of their boots, hidden\nby their trousers, and when challenged would lift their foot and kick\nthe challenger, and so showing their oak and punishing the other boy.\n\nWhen you hear the cuckoo for the first time you must run or you will be\nlate for everything during the year.\n\n\n      WHIT SUNDAY.\n\nIn South Northamptonshire it is said:--\n\n\"Whatsoever one did ask of God upon Whit Sunday Morning, at the instant\nwhen the sun arose and played, God would grant him.\"\n\nTurn your money in your pocket the first time you hear the cuckoo.\n\nCount the number of times the cuckoo calls when you hear it for the\nfirst time and, as many times as it calls, so many years will it be\nbefore you are married.\n\nIf a maid hears a cuckoo on the first of May, and takes off her left\nshoe, she will find inside a hair the colour of her future husband's\nhair. Girls used to get up early on May morning and go into the country\nand wait to hear the cuckoo.\n\nAn old adage is:--Don't change your clothes until the cuckoo picks up\ndirt.\n\n\n      JUNE.\n\n  The oak's slow opening leaf, of deepening hue,\n  Bespeaks the power of Summer once again. _Clare._\n\n\n      JUNE ROSES.\n\nThe two June sayings are very optimistic:\n\n  A fine June, puts all things in tune.\n\n  A rainy June, sets all things in tune.\n\n\n      ST. PETER'S DAY, 29TH JUNE.\n\nThe gates of the Minster Precincts are still closed on this day to\nmaintain the right of privacy.\n\nThe Proclamations of St. Peter's and Bridge Fair by the Town Crier, in\nthe presence of the Mayor and Corporation, is still continued.\n\nA copy of the proclamation was fortunately obtained for me before the\nold Beadle died. He had not a copy but used to repeat it from memory.\n\n\n      SHEEP SHEARING. (JUNE).\n\nIt was the custom, when the shearing was finished, for the Shepherds and\nShearers to be entertained at supper by the Farmer. The Farmer's\nDaughter used to tie up posies of roses with ribbons and give a posy to\neach man, but the Head Shepherd always had the largest and best posy. It\nwas considered by the girls to be great fun to put a quantity of pepper\nin the roses for the Head Shepherd, so that the poor Shepherd had severe\nfits of sneezing. Being expected, the joke never failed to cause a\ntremendous noise of sneezing, both natural and mock.\n\nJune was the month during which the feast was held and it was held as\nrecently as 1856.\n\nIn some parts of Northamptonshire the last sheep to be sheared had a\ngarland of roses placed round its neck.\n\n\n      MIDSUMMER EVE CHARMS.\n\nAs the clock strikes Midnight take some hempseed and go into the garden\nand begin to throw the hempseed on the ground, repeating these words:--\n\n  Hempseed I sow,\n  Hempseed I hoe,\n  He that is my true love,\n  Come after me and mow.\n\nAfter this, look over your left shoulder and you will see your future\nspouse.\n\nIn some places the sower goes round the house.\n\nAnother is to go into the garden backwards, in silence, and gather a\nrose and keep it in a clean sheet of paper without looking at it, until\nChristmas Day, when it will be as fresh as in June, and if it is worn on\nthat day on the bosom he that is to be the husband will come and take it\nout.\n\nJust before twelve o'clock at night take a clean chemise, wet it and\nturn it inside out and put over a chair before the fire, and when the\nclock strikes midnight your future spouse will come and turn the\nchemise. This must be done in perfect silence as a single word will\nbreak the spell.\n\n\n      DUMB CAKE.\n\nOn Midsummer Eve three girls are required to make a dumb cake. Two must\nmake it, two bake it, two break it, and the third put a piece under each\nof their pillows. Strict silence must be preserved. The following are\nthe directions given how to proceed: The two must go to the larder and\njointly get the various ingredients. First they get a bowl, each holding\nit and wash and dry it together. Then each gets a spoonful of flour, a\nspoonful of water and a little salt. When making the cake they must\nstand on something they have never stood on before. They must mix it\ntogether and roll it. Then they draw a line across the middle of the\ncake and each girl cuts her initials each on opposite sides of the line.\nThen both put it into the oven and bake it. The two take it out of the\noven, and break it across the line and the two pieces are given to the\nthird girl who places a piece under each pillow and they will dream of\ntheir future.\n\nNot a word must be spoken and the two girls after giving the pieces to\nthe third girl have to walk backwards to bed and get into bed backwards.\nOne word or exclamation by either of the three girls will break the\ncharm.\n\nShould a gale arise and the wind appear to be rustling in the room,\nduring the baking or latter part of the preparation, if they look over\ntheir left shoulder they will see their future husbands.\n\nIn some districts the pieces of cake are eaten in bed and not put under\ntheir pillows but nothing must be drank before breakfast next morning.\n\nAnother variation is that two only make the cake and go through the same\nform as the preceding, only they divide it themselves, then each eats\nher portion and goes to bed backwards as in the first case and nothing\nmust be drank or a word spoken.\n\nAn uncooked dried salt fish eaten before going to bed in silence and\nwalking backwards and getting into bed the same way, causes ones future\nhusband to appear in a dream with a glass of water in his hand if a\nteetotaller, or a glass of beer if he is not one. Nothing must be drank\nbefore breakfast.\n\nAn old woman said she had tried it over 40 years ago and her husband\nbrought her a glass of beer and he was not an abstainer but rather the\nreverse.\n\n\n      SEPTEMBER.\n\n  Right glad to meet the evening's dewy veil\n  And see the light fade into glooms around. _Clare._\n\nThe Harvest Home Suppers are now almost a thing of the past. I went to\none about eight years ago and suppose it will be the last. It is held\nwhen the last load of corn is taken home. This load used to be decorated\nwith boughs and flowers and the youngest boy employed used to ride on it\nsinging:--\n\n  Harvest Home! Harvest Home;\n  Two plum puddings are better than one,\n  We've plowed, we've sowed,\n  We've reaped, we've mowed,\n  We've got our harvest home.\n\nThey also used to shout Largess! Largess! but seldom got anything given\nthem. It was merely an old custom.\n\nIn the evening the supper was held, and after supper songs were sung.\nThe oldest labourer used to propose the health of the Master and\nMistress and all would sing:--\n\n\n      HARVEST HOME.\n\n  Here's a health unto our Master, the giver of the feast,\n  Not only to our Master, but to our Mistress;\n  We wish all things may prosper whate'er he take in hand,\n  For we are all his servants, and all at his command.\n  Drink, boys drink, and see you do not spill,\n  For if you do you shall drink two, it is our Master's will.\n\n  I've been to France, I've been to Dover,\n  I've been to Harvest Home all the world over, over, and over,\n  Drink up your liquor and turn the bowl over.\n\nAnother:--\n\n  Here's health unto our Master the founder of the feast,\n  God bless his endeavours and give him increase,\n  And send him good crops that we may meet another year,\n  Here's our Master's good health boys come drink off your beer.\n\nSome of the old songs used to be regularly sung. \"The Poacher\" was\nalways a great favourite and the chorus, \"For its my delight on a starry\nnight\" used to be given with great force and feeling. I wish I could\nremember the old songs which are now forgotten.\n\nThe day on which Harvest was finished, and the corn safely \"Hovelled\"\nused to be called \"Wheat Hovel Day.\"\n\nIt was also the custom to decorate the last sheaf of corn with ribbons\nand flowers (It was only a small sheaf) and it was fastened to the wall\ninside the barn and left there until the next Harvest.\n\n\n      OCTOBER.\n\n    Hail, falling leaves! that patter round,\n    Admonishers and friends.\n\n  Come pensive Autumn, with thy clouds and storms,\n    And falling leaves and pastimes lost to flowers. _Clare._\n\n\n      MOPS.\n\nThese were assemblies of people after Michaelmas in want of servants\n(male or female) who were not hired at the Statutes held before\nMichaelmas.\n\n\n      ST. MARTIN'S DAY.\n\nThe 11th November is generally called Martlemas Day and old people still\nwatch for the direction of the wind at noon on this day as they believe\nit will continue in that quarter for the next three months.\n\nIt is also a saying that if the ice will bear a duck before Martlemas it\nwill not bear a goose all winter.\n\n\n      NOVEMBER.\n\n  When Winter comes in earnest to fulfil\n  His yearly task at bleak November's close.\n\n  Sybil of months, and worshipper of winds\n  I love thee, rude and boisterous as thou art. _Clare._\n\n\n      ST. CECILIA'S Day. NOV. 22.\n\nThe Lay Clerks of the Cathedral and friends used to be entertained by\nthe Dean and Chapter at a dinner at which a boiled leg of mutton was the\nprincipal dish. After dinner songs and glees were sung.\n\n\n      ST. CATHERINE'S DAY, NOV. 25TH.\n\nThe female children belonging to the Workhouse were dressed in white,\ntrimmed with coloured ribbons, and went in a procession headed by the\nWorkhouse Master and the tallest girl who wore a crown of gilt paper and\ncarried a sceptre and distaff. They stopped at the houses of the\nprincipal inhabitants and sang this song. Money was given them and they\nhad rump steak and onions for dinner, and a tea party, and games in the\nevening:\n\n  Here comes Queen Katrin as fine as any Queen,\n  With a coach and six horses a coming to be seen,\n  And a spinning we will go, will go, will go,\n                      And a spinning we will go.\n\n  Some say she is alive, and some say she is dead,\n  And now she does appear with a crown upon her head,\n                      And a spinning we will go, etc.\n\n  Old Madam Marshall she takes up her pen\n  And then she sits and calls for all her royal men.\n                      And a spinning we will go, etc.\n\n  All that want employment though spinning is but small,\n  Come list and don't stand still, but go and work for all.\n                      And a spinning we will go, etc.\n\n  If we set a spinning we will either work or play,\n  But if we set a spinning we can earn a crown a day.\n                      And a spinning we will go, etc.\n\n  And if there be some young men, as I suppose there's some,\n  We'll hardly let them stand alone upon the cold, cold, stone.\n                      And a spinning we will go.\n\nSpinning was the employment for the females in the old Work house, and\nin the Dean and Chapter's accounts of payments there are entries of\npayments on St. Catherine's Day for wheels and reels for the children of\nthe Workhouse.\n\n\n      DECEMBER.\n\n      ST. ANDREW'S DAY.\n\nDecember 11th, commonly called \"Tander,\" used to be kept by the\nLace-makers as a feast day. St. Andrew was their Patron Saint. On that\nday men and women used to go about dressed in each other's clothes, and\ncalling at various houses and drinking hot elder wine. On this day the\nMorris Dancers or Mummers began their visits. There were from four to\neight people who took part in the Mummery. The King, Beelzebub, Doctor,\nDoctor's man and Jack, the fool. Sometimes one took the part of the\nDoctor's horse and the Doctor made his entry riding on the horse, who\nwas on his hands and knees but he generally had a small stool in his\nhands to make him a little higher, when moving about. This is described\nin Old Customs.\n\nOn St. Andrew's Day it was a custom called \"Tander\" at Easton on the\nHill, about 12 miles from Peterborough, and other places, of the boys\nlocking the village Schoolmaster out of School and demanding the rest of\nthe day as a holiday, before the door was reopened. If the Schoolmaster\ncould obtain an entrance to the School before giving his consent, the\nholiday was not given.\n\n\n      ST. THOMAS'S DAY, 21ST DECEMBER.\n\nThe practice of women going Gooding is fast passing away. Very few bands\nof women are seen now in the towns, but at Farcet last year (1910) the\nwidows received about two shillings each for their share.\n\n\n      CHRISTMAS.\n\nFor a few weeks before Christmas Day the Waits and Singers still come\nround during the night time and on Boxing Days they call for their\nChristmas Boxes. The singers have now degenerated into two or three\nchildren who huddle together on the doorsteps of houses and sing through\nthe keyhole and letter box as fast and as loud as they can utter the\nvarious hymns of which, \"When shepherds watched their flocks by night.\"\nAs soon as they receive a halfpenny away they trot to the next house to\nrepeat the performance.\n\nA Green Christmas makes a fat Churchyard.\n\n  If a Christmas Day on a Thursday be,\n  A windy winter we shall see.\n\nIf the sun shines on Christmas day for however short a time, the\nfollowing year will be good for fruit.\n\n\n      INNOCENTS DAY, DECEMBER 28TH.\n\nCalled \"Dyzemass Day,\" it is considered very unlucky to begin anything\non this day and about sixty or seventy years ago many old people kept\nthis day more sacred than an ordinary Sunday.\n\n\n      COUNTRY DANCES.\n\nIn the old County families the Christmas or New Year's dances in which\ntenants and servants all united together are still kept up in this\ndistrict and anticipated and enjoyed as heartily as ever. The up-to-date\ndances are divided by the old Country dances which go with a vim and are\nenjoyed by all. In these dances the Master, Mistress, family and friends\ndance with the servants to the mutual good will and good feeling of all\nconcerned. The dance is generally opened by a Country dance in which the\nLady has the Butler for a partner and the Master the Housekeeper, and it\nis generally a handsacross and down the middle so that everyone meets\nduring the dance. \"The triumph\" is a great favourite and opens with the\nlady being taken down the centre by the gentleman next to her partner\nwho follows them to the bottom of the room and the two bring her back,\neach holding her by one hand and their other hands clasped and held over\nthe ladys head with a very pretty effect.\n\n\"La Tempete\" for noise and merriment takes a lot of beating and would\nsuit the modern dancing as it partakes more of a romp than a dance.\n\nThe \"Ribbon Dance\" when each couple holds the end of a ribbon (red,\nwhite, or blue). This is very pretty when the ribbons are held up in the\ndance. There are many others which might be mentioned but space is\nlimited. Sir Roger de Coverley always closed the ball.\n\n\n      SEDAN CHAIRS.\n\nA Sedan Chair used to be seen in the streets of Peterborough until the\nearly seventies. Certain old ladies would only go to Church or\nentertainments in it because it was taken into the entrance of the house\nor other place so that they could get in and out without being exposed\nto the weather. The harness worn by one of the men is seen in\nPeterborough Museum.\n\nIn 1905; for the first time within the recollection of the inhabitants\nof Peterborough, St. John's Church Bells were not rung on Wyldbore's day\nas the bell tower was not considered safe. The sermon was preached as\nusual.\n\nAt the end of the sowing season a large \"Siblet\" or seed cake, was made\nfor the farm labourers who ate it, and drank success to the sowing in\nhome brewed ale or mead.\n\nThe Curfew Bell is still rung at the Minster from May 1st, to August\n31st, at 8-50 p.m., and from September 1st, to April 30th, at 7-50 p.m.\nIt has only been discontinued for a short time and this was during the\nCommonwealth, since it was first started.\n\n\n      FIT RINGS.\n\nTo cure fits:--If a female, she collects nine pieces of silver and nine\nthree half-pennies from bachelors. The silver money is made into a ring,\nto be worn by the afflicted person and the half-pence is paid to the\nmaker of the ring for his work. If a male, he collects from females.\n\nI knew an old silversmith who was in great request to make these rings.\nHe used to save broken silver spoons to make the rings but lately he\nfound out he could buy the rings ready made so he did not trouble to\nmake any afterwards.\n\n\n      WEDDING RINGS.\n\nIt is unlucky for a bride to reverse her wedding ring on her wedding\nday.\n\nIf a bride can be persuaded to remove her ring and have some bride cake\npassed through the ring, and the cake, so passed, put under the pillow,\nthe person will dream of her future spouse.\n\n\n      GAMES.\n\n\n      EARTH AIR AND WATER.\n\nThis was a favourite game at Christmas parties for forfeits. The players\nsit all round the room, a small ball or a handkerchief tied up is then\nthrown by the leader at one. After several feints so as to catch one not\nwatching and throw the ball at that one and shouting Earth Air, or\nWater, and as soon as the word is said begins to count up to ten as fast\nas possible. The person hit by the ball has to name a bird, beast, or\nfish before ten has been counted or pays a forfeit. A name must not be\nmentioned which has been used by another person as that also entails a\nforfeit. It was not a game for a stammering person.\n\n\n      I LOVE MY LOVE.\n\nThis is another forfeit game. All sit round the room and one begins I\nlove my love with an A, because he is amiable, and everyone follows in\ntheir turn by repeating the form and qualification, beginning with the\nsame letter as Active, Artful, &c. Anyone using the word which has been\nused pays a forfeit. Then it goes round with the letter B and so on\nthrough the alphabet.\n\nThe Quaker Wedding:--The leader goes round with his eyes looking on the\nground and sings \"Hast thou ever been to a Quaker's Wedding.\"?\n\nThis is repeated until he or she stops before one of the party, who then\nanswers--Nay, friend, nay. The leader then says, \"Do as I do, Twiddle\nthy thumbs and follow me.\" The selected one follows the leader singing\nthe same words and both twiddling their thumbs. Then they are all got in\nline facing one way and kneel together as close as possible. When all\nare kneeling the leader gives a sly push to the one next to her and the\nwhole row fall over amidst great laughter. I have played this game at\nChristmas time and it was sometimes fixed as a forfeit.\n\nWhen playing a losing game at Cards, Dominoes, etc., the chair in which\nthe unlucky player is sitting should be turned (by the occupant) from\nright to left, to change the luck. It has been thought that this turning\nis a form of Sun Worship.\n\nCrane.:--This game was generally played during the Harvest Home Feast.\n\"A man holds in his hand a long stick, with another tied to the top of\nit, in the form of an L. reversed, which represents the long neck and\nbeak of the crane. This with himself, is entirely covered with a large\nsheet. He mostly makes excellent sport as he puts the whole company to\nthe rout, pecking at the young girl's and old men's heads, nor stands he\nupon the least ceremony in this character, but he takes the liberty to\nbreak the master's pipe, and spill his beer, as freely as those of his\nmen.\" This mostly begins the night's diversions, as the prologue to the\nrest, while the booted boys wind up the entertainment. _Clare._ Village\nMinstrel.\n\n\n      HANDSELL.\n\nIt is still a custom if a child has anything new to wear, to handsell\nit. That is to give a small coin to put in the pocket. The first money\nreceived on the day is called taking Handsell, and some spit on it and\nturn it to get good luck. When anything is used for the first time it is\nhandselled.\n\n\n      BOOT.\n\nThis was a kind of punishment for such boys as have carelessly neglected\ntheir duty in the harvest, or treated their labour with negligence\ninstead of attention, as letting their cattle get pounded or\noverthrowing their loads, etc. A long form is placed in the kitchen upon\nwhich the boys who have worked well sit, as a terror and disgrace to the\nrest in a bent posture, with their hands laid on each others backs\nforming a hedge for the \"boys,\" as the truant boys are called to pass\nover; while a strong chap stands on each side with a boot-legging\nstrongly strapping them as they scuffle over the bridge, which is done\nas fast as their ingenuity can carry them. _Clare's_ Village Minstrel.\n\nMeeting eyebrows are lucky, and those having them are said to have\ngreat luck with stock.\n\n\n      CUTTING NAILS.\n\n  Cut your nails on a Monday, cut for a gift.\n  Cut your nails on a Tuesday, cut them for thrift.\n  Cut your nails on a Wednesday, cut them for news.\n  Cut your nails on a Thursday, cut for a new pair of shoes.\n  Cut your nails on a Friday, cut them for sorrow,\n  Cut your nails on a Saturday, see your sweetheart to-morrow.\n  Cut them on Sunday, cut them for evil.\n  Cut them all the week round, and you'll go to the devil.\n\n    Better that child had ne'er been born,\n    Who cuts its nails on a Sunday morn.\n\n      Of a Friday's pare,\n      No good will come near.\n\nIf you cut your nails on Monday morning before breakfast, and without\nthinking of a fox's tail, you will have a gift before the week is out.\nWhen told this, I asked, Why not a fox's brush? \"Oh, no!\" was the reply,\n\"you may think of the brush but not the tail.\"\n\nWhite specks on the nails are called gifts, and the rhyme says:--\n\n  A gift on the finger is sure to linger,\n  A gift on the thumb, is sure to come.\n\nIn this district many mothers will not allow their babie's nails to be\ncut before they are a year old, but they bite the edges off. If the\nnails are cut the children grow up thieves.\n\nA new born babe, before being taken out of the house, should be carried\nup some stairs, but if it is born in a room at the top of the house, the\nnurse lifts it up and gets on a chair, and puts the child on the top of\nsomething high, so that it may rise in the world.\n\nIf a pair of shoes are placed on the table a quarrel is sure to ensue.\n\nThis part of the county appears to possess more than the normal number\nof senses. I have often heard people speak of their seven senses. Only a\nshort time ago a woman speaking of a neighbour who was a great sleeper,\nand also of her child, said they would sleep away their seven senses.\nAnd another woman who was startled said, \"You're enough to frighten me\nout of my seven senses.\" I should like to know what the two extra senses\nare. Instinct may, perhaps, be one!\n\n\n      MARRIAGE.\n\nThree times a bridesmaid, will die an old maid.\n\n\n      BRIDE'S DRESS.\n\n  Married in Grey, you will go far away.\n  Married in Black, you will wish yourself back.\n  Married in Brown, you will live out of town.\n  Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead.\n  Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl.\n  Married in Green, ashamed to be seen.\n  Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow.\n  Married in Blue, he will always be true.\n  Married in Pink, your spirits will sink.\n\n  Monday for health, Tuesday for wealth, Wednesday the best day of all.\n  Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses, Saturday no luck at all.\n\nMarry on Sunday so that you cannot repent before the week is out.\n\n\n      ANIMALS.\n\nIf a dog howls in front of a house it is a sign of a death very soon. If\na woman in the house takes off her left shoe and turns it upside down\nand puts her foot on it the dog ceases howling. I know of one instance\nwhere a dog howled in front of a house, and the mistress seeing and\nhearing the dog took off her left shoe and put her foot on it. The dog\nwas in the midst of a howl, and he finished it with a yell and turned\naway and ran from the house as fast as possible, but he returned very\nsoon and howled again. It was very strange, but an invalid visitor was\nstaying in the house, and he died exactly a week after the howling.\n\nTo be followed by a strange dog is lucky.\n\nIf a cat licks her foot and passes it over her left ear it is a sign\nthat a stranger will soon come.\n\nWhen a cat lies with her tail turned to the fire it is a sign of hard\nweather.\n\nIf a cat licks her tail it betokens rain.\n\nA strange black cat brings good luck into a house.\n\nWhen a cat is taken to a new home its feet should be buttered, and it\nwill stop.\n\nIf a cat has a cold and sneezes, all the people in the house will catch\nit.\n\nWhen Noah's Ark is seen in the sky it is a sign of much rain.\n\nIt is described by Clare as \"a long dark cloud stretching across the\nheavens, broad in the centre and tapering at each end, resembling the\nfigure of the ark, and supposed to foretell great floods. But it depends\non the direction of the ark. If it is from south to north it is a sign\nof good weather, but if from east to west bad weather.\"\n\nRain before seven, clear up before eleven.\n\nRain water collected as it falls on Holy Thursday is very good for\ndiseases of the eye.\n\nIf it rains on St. Swithin's day it portends a good crop of apples.\n\nRain in the east, three days at least.\n\nYou should always wish when on strange ground.\n\nIf you shiver someone is walking over your grave. This means someone is\ntalking of your death.\n\nIf you have a toothache you don't love true.\n\nWounds and corns aching are signs of rain or frost.\n\n  Left cheek burning someone is speaking well of you,\n  Right cheek burning someone is speaking ill of you.\n\nBut if you bite your finger when your cheek burns the person speaking\nill of you will bite his or her tongue.\n\n  Right cheek, left friend,\n  Left cheek, right friend.\n\nIt is unlucky for a man to meet a cross-eyed woman, but the ill-luck is\nbroken if he spits on the opposite side to that by which he passes her.\n\nTo lay an umbrella on a bed is to bring disappointment to the occupant.\n\nIf a shirt, or any other garment, is put on inside out, it must remain\nso all day and so avoid bad luck.\n\nA Caul or Kell is the thin membrane which sometimes covers the face of\nan infant at its birth, and is supposed to betoken good fortune.\nSometimes they are sold, and the general price used to be about three\nguineas. Seafaring men would buy them as preservatives from drowning,\nand also for good luck. In 1862 a poor woman wanted to sell one to my\nmother for my welfare, and all sorts of good luck and fortune were to\nbelong to the possessor, but my mother would not speculate, so I lost\nthe chance.\n\nWhen pricked by a thorn, and to prevent the wound from festing, the\nfollowing verse should be repeated:\n\n        Our Saviour was of a Virgin born,\n  His head was crowned with a crown of thorn,\n        It never cankered or festered at all,\n  And I hope in Christ Jesus this never shall.\n\nWhen a wise woman, or anyone, is called in to attend and charm anyone,\nthe person to be operated upon must have an earnest belief that a cure\nwill be effected, and the words \"Please\" and \"Thank you\" must not be\nused or the charm fails. In some cases the charmer blesses or hallows\ncords or leather thongs which the patient wore tied round the neck.\n\n\n      WHOOPING COUGH.\n\nOn the 22nd January, 1908, two women were talking together in Long\nCauseway. One asked the other how her child was? (It was suffering from\nwhooping cough). The mother replied, \"No better. The other day Mrs. ----\ntold me to steal a bit of raw meat from a butcher's and cut a hole in\nit, and put a lock of my hair in the hole and give it to a dog to eat. I\ndid it, but it is no better.\" I had previously heard this, but with the\ndifference that it should be a lock of the child's hair.\n\n\n      WASHING.\n\n  They who wash on a Monday have all the week to dry,\n  They who wash on a Tuesday are not so much awry,\n  They who wash on a Wednesday not so much to blame,\n  They who wash on a Thursday wash for shame,\n  They who wash on a Friday wash in need,\n  But they who wash on Saturday are sluts indeed.\n\nIt is unlucky to wash on \"Good Friday.\" The legend says:--\"A woman who\nwas washing when Our Lord was passing on his way to be crucified threw\nsome dirty water over him.\"\n\nTwo persons washing together in the same basin or bowl, or drying\nthemselves with the same towel, will very soon quarrel, but this may be\nprevented by each making the sign of a cross with their finger-tips on\nthe surface of the water.\n\nIf, when washing, the soap slips from your hands and falls on the ground\nyou will hear of a death before the week is out.\n\nIf a woman has a fine day for washing the first time after Michaelmas\nDay, she will have fine washing days all the year.\n\n\n      SNEEZING.\n\nSneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger, sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger,\nsneeze on Wednesday get a letter, sneeze on Thursday, something better,\nsneeze on Friday, sneeze for sorrow, Saturday, see your true love\nto-morrow.\n\nTo sneeze three times in succession, is a sign of a gift.\n\n      PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL.\n\nOn July 26th, 1681, the Rev. John Wray, M.A., F.R.S., writes in his\ndiary:--\n\n     \"We (Mr. Wray and Mr. Willoughby) began our journey northwards from\n     Cambridge, and that day, passing through Huntingdon and Stilton, we\n     rode as far as Peterborough, 25 miles. There I first heard the\n     Cathedral Service. The Choristers made us pay money for coming into\n     the choir with our spurs on.\"\n\n\n      BELLS.\n\n  Helpston cracked pippins,\n  And Northborough cracked pans,\n  Glinton fine Organs,\n  And Peakirk tin pans.\n\nThe Churches of Tansor and Cotterstock are not very far from each other.\nCotterstock has four bells, and Tansor only two. The villagers say that\nthe Cotterstock bells ask:\n\n       \"Who rings the best? Who rings the best?\"\n\n  and Tansor proudly and rapidly replies,\n\n       \"We do, We do, We do, We do.\"\n\nTansor now possesses three bells, so their answer now is \"We three do.\"\n\nThe Pancake bell is still rung regularly in Peterborough on Shrove\nTuesday.\n\nThe Gleaning bell is rung in the district.\n\nIn some Parishes a bell was tolled during the time of a corpse being put\nin its shroud, and was called the \"Winding Bell.\"\n\nThe Church Bells of Helpston, Northborough, Glinton, and Peakirk are\ndescribed as:--\n\n\n      PERSONAL.\n\nA mole spot on the body, is considered lucky.\n\nOne with the mole on the neck, will gather money by the peck.\n\nA mole on the left shoulder, betokens a drunken husband.\n\n  Right eye itching, sign of joy,\n  Left eye itching, sign of sorrow.\n\n  Right eye joy, left eye cry.\n\nIf your nose itches, you will kiss or shake hands with a fool.\n\nNose itching, going to hear news.\n\nRub it on wood and it's sure to come good.\n\nPalm of right hand itching, you will receive money.\n\nLeft palm itching, you will pay money away.\n\nIf your knee itches, you will kneel in a strange Church.\n\nIf your foot itches, you will walk on strange ground.\n\n\n      FOLK LORE (3)\n\nThe moon, meek guardian of the night. _John Clare_ (unpub.)\n\nTo see the new moon for the first time through glass is unlucky\nespecially the first one in the year.\n\nYou should always turn the money in your pockets when you see the first\nnew moon in the year, and if one of the other sex is near an interchange\nof kisses increases the good luck.\n\nTo see the new moon the first time over your right shoulder is lucky,\nbut if over the left shoulder it is unlucky.\n\nThe first new moon in the year is stronger in its influence than the\nothers.\n\nIf the new moon does not appear until the fourth day, it foretells a\ntroubled time for the whole month.\n\nWhen the moon appears on the fourth day very clear and sharp and rather\non the slant, it promises mostly fair weather for the month.\n\nAn erect moon is said to threaten wind.\n\n  Near full moon a misty sunrise,\n  Bodes fair weather and cloudless skies.\n\n  When the clouds of the moon to the West fly away,\n  You may safely rely on a settled fair day.\n\n  When mountains and cliffs in the clouds appear,\n  Some sudden or violent showers are near.\n\nSun rising red and fiery foretells wind and rain. If cloudy and the\nclouds decrease it is a sign of fair weather.\n\nIf after rising the sun goes to bed again (that is going behind clouds)\nit is a sure sign of rain.\n\n  The evening red, the morning grey,\n  Are surely signs of a very fine day.\n\nChildren are told they may go and play in the fields, or open, when the\nsun shines on both sides of the hedge.\n\nA black cat following anyone into a home brings good luck.\n\nMice coming into a house indicate a death.\n\nA mouse running over anyone is an infallible sign of death.\n\nThe squeaking of mice behind the bed of an invalid, or the appearance of\na white mouse running across a room, are also signs of death.\n\nPigs should be killed when the moon is on the rise.\n\nIf killed when the moon is waning the fat of the pork will shrink.\n\nIt is unlucky to bring a squirrel into a house.\n\nThe first time you see any lambs turn your money.\n\nIf their heads are turned towards you it is lucky, but if their tails it\nis the reverse.\n\nMoles work harder than general before rain.\n\nA mole's foot carried in the pocket is a sure prevention against\nwitches.\n\n\n      BIRDS.\n\nCrows foretell rain when they caw and walk along on the banks of rivers\nand pools.\n\nA crow alighting in front of anyone walking is unlucky.\n\nTwo crows bring good luck, and if they fly away over the person's head\nit is very great good luck.\n\nFour crows foretell a death in the person's family.\n\nI was recently told that two crows alighting on a house betokens a\ndeath, and a very peculiar instance was given. My informant told me that\nhis coat of arms bears three Choughs and the night before his father\ndied two crows sat on the window sill of his father's bedroom, and it\nwas remarked that one of the three birds being absent foretold the death\nwhich occurred next day.\n\nA bird flying into a house foretells a death.\n\nA white pigeon is a bird of ill omen, and if after hovering about it\nalights on a house it is a token of the death of one of the inmates.\n\nA hen crowing is a sign of death.\n\nWhen swallows fly low it foretells rain.\n\nThe cuckoo comes in May. In June he changes his tune. In July he goes\naway. In August away he must, for a cuckoo in September nobody can\nremember.\n\nIt is said woodlarks are never found in Northamptonshire.\n\nLarks rising very high and singing for a long time is a sign of fine\nweather.\n\nKites flying aloft betokens fine weather.\n\nPeacock's feathers, even now, are considered to bring bad luck into a\nhouse.\n\nWhen you see a heron flying the first time in the year put the tips of\nyour right thumb and the finger nearest the thumb together and form a\nring. Then wish and at the same time spit through the opening, and if\nthe spittle does not touch the hand the wish comes to pass. This, I\nbelieve, is a strictly local custom, as there is a heronry in Milton\nPark, about three miles from Peterborough.\n\n\n      BEES.\n\nOn the death of their master or mistress one of the family or household\nmust go to the hives and tap on them and say who is dead and who is to\nbe their new master. If this is neglected the bees will pine away. Some\nsugared beer is given to the bees at these times.\n\nThe various flights of bees are named as follows: A swarm. 2. A cast. 3.\nA colt or second cast, and should there be a fourth, which is very rare,\nit is called a spem--a swarm from a swarm is called a virgin swarm.\n\nThe different values of the swarms are described in this rhyme:\n\n  A swarm of bees in May\n  Is worth a load of hay;\n  A swarm of bees in June\n  Is worth a silver spoon;\n  A swarm of bees in July\n  Is not worth a fly.\n\nBees flying far from their hives and coming home late foretells fine\nweather.\n\nBees are more industrious just before rain, but do their best to reach\ntheir hives before the rain falls.\n\n\n      INSECTS.\n\nSpiders were considered efficacious in cases of Ague. If put alive in a\nbag and tied round the neck or swallowed alive wrapped in paste.\n\n  If you wish to live and thrive\n  Let the spiders run alive.\n\nSpider webs in the air or on the grass and nets foretells fair weather.\n\nA spider on one's clothes means a new suit or dress.\n\nWoodlice, of the kind which roll themselves up when touched, if\nswallowed in that state, were taken for the ague.\n\nWith regard to wearing out boots, there is a doggrel on this subject:--\n\n  Trip at the toe, live to know woe,\n  Trip at the ball, live to spend all,\n  Trip at the heel, live to do well.\n\nOne funeral brings two more.\n\nA variation of this makes the \"two more\" dependent on a Sunday\nintervening between the death and burial of the body.\n\nAnother variation affirms that the first death must be that of a female.\n\nWhen a grave opens for a \"she,\" it will open for three.\n\nIt is the custom, in some places, to place some salt, in a pewter plate,\non the chest of a dead body; but especially when the death has been\nthrough dropsy. This was done only a short time since.\n\nThe roaring noise of a fire foretells a quarrel in the house.\n\nA thin flake of smut on a bar of the grate betokens a visit from a\nstranger.\n\nCinders flying out of the fire, taking the form of a purse and giving a\njingling noise when shaken, foretells the receiving of money. When they\nare in the shape of a coffin (and with no jingling) this betokens a\ndeath.\n\nIf anyone by stirring or otherwise makes a dull fire get bright, it is\nsaid to make his or her sweetheart smile.\n\nTo prevent cramp at night place your shoes by the bedside in the form of\na T. One end pointed to, and the end of the other shoe pointed from the\nbed, is also considered a preventative.\n\nKnives laid edge upwards on the table cut Angels' feet.\n\nTwo knives, crossed on the table, foretells a quarrel within an hour.\n\nTo drop a knife mean a male visitor and, in the case of a fork, a female\nvisitor.\n\nNever give, or accept, a sharp edged or pointed present without giving a\ncoin in exchange, or friendship will be broken.\n\nKnives crossed and laid on the floor is a strong protection against the\npower of witchcraft.\n\nA very old woman told me she once tried the knives on one of her\nneighbours, as she suspected the woman of overlooking her; so she asked\nthe woman to come and see her one day but before the woman came into the\nhouse she crossed two knives and put them on the floor in a dark corner.\nWhen the suspected person came in she wouldn't sit down and soon left,\nappearing to be very uncomfortable; so she was a \"wrong un\" but the old\nlady said she was all right after that, and had no more trouble.\n\nStraws crossed and placed on a footpath, or on the road, prevents a\nwitch from passing.\n\nMany years since I remember hearing of this being done as a suspected\nwoman was coming along, and it was said the woman got very angry and\nfoamed at the mouth but she didn't pass the straws.\n\nThe following is in use at the present time:--\n\nIf a husband runs away from his wife she buys a pennyworth of Dragon's\nBlood, wraps it in paper, and places it under her pillow when she goes\nto bed, and it is sure to draw him back again.\n\nA chemist in Peterborough had a letter a few years since, from a woman\nin the Fens, asking him to send her a \"pennorth of Dragons Blood\" for\nthis very purpose; and the following shows that the custom is in use,\neven in the United States of America, at the present time according to\nthe following extract from the \"Daily Express\" of 18th February, 1905:\n\n          Drank Dragon's Blood.\n\n      Buffalo Bill's wife gave him love Philtres.\n\n          \"Express\" Correspondent.\n\n  Cheyenne (Wyoming), Friday, February 17th., 1905.\n\nIt came out, during the hearing of Buffalo Bill's divorce case to-day,\nthat he had been dosed with many love Philtres.\n\nMrs. Cody, his wife, was extremely jealous of him and imagining that his\naffection for her was gone, mixed gipsy love potions in his drinks. One\nof these, which was supposed to be particularly efficacious, was known\nas \"Dragon's Blood.\"\n\nMrs. Parker, a witness, told the court that Mrs. Cody believed that\nevery woman was infatuated with her husband, and confided to her the\nnames of many prominent women who, she said, were in love with him.\n\nThe witness stated, in cross examination, that during these outbursts of\njealousy Colonel Cody was beside himself with rage.\n\nDragon's Blood is not a fluid. It is a resin from certain kinds of palm.\n\nAt Oundle \"There is a Well that is credibly reported to drum as a\npresage of very great alterations to publick affairs.\" M.S.S. dated\n1703, of the Phillips Stourhead Collection, No. 22244.\n\nI came across this Croyland rhyme some time since:--\n\n  In Holland fen, now mark the name,\n    Old Croyland stands, of mickle fame,\n  There is a wine of a certain class,\n    There is fodder like sword grass,\n  There's a bed as hard as stone,\n    Thence depart, with \"get ye gone.\"\n\nIf you can peel an apple with the paring in one piece take the peel by\none end with the right hand and wave it three times over your head and\nthrow it over your left shoulder, and it will fall in the form of the\nfirst letter of your sweetheart's christian or surname.\n\nWith the first cherry pie of the season, those who partake of it count\nthe stones, to know their prospect of matrimony. The counting is done in\nthis manner and, at the same time, repeating these words over and over\nagain until all the stones on the plate have been counted:--\n\n1st. stone \"This year,\" 2nd stone \"Next year,\" 3rd stone \"Sometime,\"\n4th. stone \"Never,\" and on which word the last stone falls, that is the\nfate.\n\n\n      GENERAL.\n\n\"Grandfather\" Clocks, and especially those which have been in a family\nfor two or three generations, are regarded as capable of foretelling\ndeaths in a family. If one falls down, stops without any apparent cause,\nor strikes several times more that it ought to do without stopping, then\nthese events are certain signs of death.\n\nA well known barrister told me he had bought an old Grandfather clock,\nand his man had entire charge of it. One morning the man found the clock\nhad fallen down during the night and he was very much disturbed about it\nand said there would be a death soon, and within a week the man's father\ndied.\n\nIn another case a man said he was cleaning a clock which his father had\nmade, and the owner told him what a good clock it was, but, said she,\n\"It was completely master of your father for a time. He came to clean it\none day, and after a few weeks it stopped, and he went again and\nattended to it, but it was no use, so was given up as a bad job. The\nowner was certain a death would soon occur, and shortly after her\nhusband's mother died. When she heard of the death she set the pendulum\nswinging, and it had never stopped since, except to be cleaned.\"\n\nIt is very seldom that other kinds of clocks are credited with these\npowers although at Werrington there was, in a cottage, a small wooden\nDutch clock called in this neighbourhood a \"Sheep's head\" clock. It was\nhanging on the wall and had not been going for some years, the weights\nand pendulum had been lost and the lines were wrapped round the clock.\nOne Sunday morning before the woman and her husband had risen from bed,\nbut were both wide awake, they distinctly heard this clock strike \"one\"\nand by the next mail they received notice that their son, a soldier on\nForeign service, had died that Sunday morning, and at one o'clock.\n\nThere are several things worn as charms and amulets, which are\nattributed with various powers, and one favourite is a \"Lucky bone\"\nwhich is worn for good luck. This bone is taken from a sheep's head, and\nis in the form of a T.\n\nA stone with a hole through it, is worn and highly valued for its Good\nLuck.\n\nThe stones that have only one large hole, are hung on bed heads, and in\nstables.\n\nHorse shoes, when found, are very lucky and should be nailed over the\nthreshold, or over the hearth. I have seen some at Cotterstock Hall,\nAlwalton Hall, and other houses, attached to the door. They are also\nnailed over stable doors. If there are any nails in the shoe, when found\nby a single person, then, as many nails as there are, so many years will\nit be before the marriage of that person.\n\nThorney men, seeing a small portion of a horse shoe lying in the road,\npick it up and throw it over their shoulder, so that no ill-luck may\nbefall them.\n\nA knuckle bone or a cramp bone carried in the pocket prevents cramp.\n\nA potato, chestnut or a nutmeg carried in the pocket prevents\nrheumatism.\n\nA piece of wicken is worn as a cure for the ague.\n\nA mole's foot or a load stone, in the pocket, is a protection against\nwitches.\n\nAlthough lamps and gas have generally supplanted candles, in the country\nwhere candles are still used, the spark on the wick is considered to\ndenote the coming of a letter, and the melted tallow or composition\nforming a winding sheet denotes a death.\n\nWhen a candle burns blue or dim, a spirit is said to be in the room.\n\nIt is very unlucky to return to the house for anything after leaving it,\nalthough the spell is broken if the person sits down before coming out\nof the house again.\n\nTwo people, meeting on a staircase, is a sign of an approaching wedding.\n\nWhen walking together, two lovers must not pass on different sides of\nturnstiles, road posts, or lamp posts, or they will certainly quarrel.\n\nIt is bad luck, when two persons are walking together, to separate and\none to turn back against a gate; but if one of them sits down for a\ntime, whilst the other walks away, the bad luck is turned.\n\nTo spill salt is a sign of sorrow or anger; but if the spilt salt is\ngathered up in a spoon and thrown over the left shoulder the luck is\nturned.\n\nAn old shoe thrown after anyone starting on a new undertaking is\nconsidered to carry good luck; especially if it goes over the head and\ndoes not hit the person.\n\nFlies are more troublesome before rain.\n\nGnats playing up and down in the open air near sunset is a sign of heat.\n\nIf in the shade, warm and mild showers, but if they join in stinging\nthose who pass them it presages cold weather and rain.\n\nChildren, even now, when they find a Ladybird or cow lady say:--\n\n          Click, Clock, Clay. What time o'day.\n  One o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock, Click, clock, clay.\n\nAnother custom is to get a ladybird and put it on the back of the hand\nand say:--\n\n  Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,\n    Your horse is on foot, your children are gone;\n  All but one, and that's little John,\n    And he lies under the grindle stone.\n\nIf it does not fly away then it is thrown up into the air.\n\nIn some places the insect is called cow lady, and then the rhyme begins\ncow lady, cow lady, etc.\n\n\n      PLANTS.\n\nWhen the Dandelion clocks are blowing children carefully pluck them and\nwith as perfect a head as possible hold it upright in front of them and\nsay:--\n\n  Clicketty, Clock, what's o'clock?\n\nand then try and blow as much off the head as possible, and as many\ntimes as it takes to blow the down off the heads such will be the time.\n\nChildren gather Timothy grass and beginning with the top seed say:--\n\n  Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich man,\n  Poor man, Beggar man, Thief.\n\nAt each word the hand touches the next seed and on whichever name the\nlast seed comes such will be the sweetheart. The words are repeated over\nand over again until all the seeds are counted.\n\n\n      FLOWERS AND SEEDS.\n\nClare mentions these signs in his Shepherds Calender\n\n  And scarlet-starry points of flowers,\n    Pimpernel, dreading nights and showers\n  Oft call'd \"the Shepherd's weather-glass,\"\n      That sleeps till suns have dried the grass,\n  Then wakes, and spreads its creeping bloom,\n    Till clouds with threatening shadows come,\n  Then close it shuts to sleep again;\n    Which weeders see and talk of rain,\n  And boys, that mark them shut so soon,\n  Call \"John that goes to bed at noon.\"\n\nSeeds should be sown and plants and roots planted when the moon is on\nthe rise to ensure successful results.\n\nIf seeds are sown when the moon is on the wane there will be bad crops.\n\nIf a man or woman plants a sage tree and it thrives, the one who planted\nthe tree will rule the house.\n\nIf a single man pulls up a sage tree at midnight on Christmas Eve a\nstorm will arise and the man's future wife will appear.\n\nIt is unlucky to bring holly into the house before Christmas Eve.\n\nAll evergreens used for Christmas decoration should be burnt on\nCandlemas day and care must be taken to burn all the holly berries,\notherwise a death in the family may be expected for each berry left in\nthe house unburnt.\n\nMistletoe should hang in the house from one Christmas to another.\n\nIt is unlucky to bring the May flower or the Chestnut blossom into the\nhouse.\n\nIf flowers like the Dandelion or Pimpernel are closed or shut up it\nfortells rain and bad weather, but if quite open fine weather.\n\nWhen the mulberry tree begins to shoot, the last frost has gone. In\nHunts it is called the wise tree.\n\nThe shooting of the Ash and Oak in the Spring is carefully watched, and\nthe first appearance of the new shoots accords with this rhyme:--\n\n  If the Ash before the Oak,\n    Then there'll be a regular soak;\n  But if the Oak before the Ash,\n    Then there'll only be a splash,\n\nI have seen children eating apples and taking the pips one by one and\nrepeating this doggrel:--\n\n  Cobbley, Cobbley, fly away\n    Bring me an apple tomorrow day.\n\nAt the words \"fly away\" they used to throw the pip away, in the firm\nbelief that they would have another apple the next day for every pip\nthrown; but only one pip from each apple could be used by each child.\n\n\n      KING'S CLIFFE.\n\nOn Palm Sunday the Church used to be decorated with palm branches in the\nseats and windows.\n\nOn Christmas Day the parishoners and clerk used to meet at the Church,\nat three o'clock in the morning and sing a Psalm and then proceed to the\nCross, and to every gentleman's house in the town for which they\nreceived a largesse during the holidays.\n\nA winding bell used be tolled on a dead person being put into her\nshroud.\n\n\n      GODMANCHESTER.\n\nIf a man dies intestate and leaves a family the youngest son becomes the\nheir to the property.\n\n\n      HUNTINGDON.\n\nOnce a year, the Freemen of Huntingdon used to meet on the Market Hill,\nthey then proceeded in procession dragging a horse's skull with them and\nperambulated the bounds of the Freemen's lands. At certain points there\nare boundry holes dug, these holes they re-dig and hold a boy (one of\nthe Freemen's sons) up by his heels with his head in the hole, and\nstrike him (on the part prepared by nature for that purpose), with the\nspade. This is done at each hole. A different boy was whipped at every\nhole so that several could remember where the holes were dug, especially\nthe hole at which each individual had suffered, and the memory of the\nhole was impressed on mind and body, and the position of the boundary\nmarks were thus registered.\n\nFor many years the annual custom has been discontinued, and takes place\nat irregular intervals. It has only occurred once during this century.\n\nThe men of Godmanchester sometimes formed bands on the same day and when\nthey met the men of Huntingdon a free fight and struggle took place\nbetween them to secure the horse's skull.","title":"Weather and Folk Lore of Peterborough and District","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":12241}