Brutus stone in Totnes...

The Brutus Stone in Totnes today - image by myself (my photopgraph) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Apropos of landing-places, it may interest some of your readers to learn that the very stone upon which Brutus, the nephew of AEneas, landed at Totnes, still remains! It is inserted in the footway nearly opposite the Mayoralty-house in the Fore Street. "From Totnes, the neighbouring shore was heretofore called Totonesc : and the British History tells us, that Brutus, the founder of the British nation, arrived here; and Havillanus [John de Aloilla or Hauteville. according to Mr. Wright] as a poet, following the same authority, writes thus : —

" Inde dato cursu, Brutus comitatus Achate

Gallorum spoliis cumulatis navibus aequor

Exarat, ct superis auraque faventibus usus,

Littora felices intrat Totonesia portus."

" From hence griat Brute with his Achates steer'd.

Full fraught with Gallic spoils their ships appear'd;

The Winds and Gods were all at their command,

And happy Totnes shew'd them grateful land."

 Gibson's Camden.

Totnes is made mention of in the Lais de Marie : —

" II tient sun chemin tut avant.

A la mer vient, si est passer,

En Toteneit est arriver."

Lai d'Eliduc.

J. MlLNER BARRT, M.D.

Totnes, Devon, Jan. 30. 1850."

NOTES AND QUERIES. [No. 15. Feb. 9. 1850.]

Map - Totnes

Some Exmoor dialect words that reveal folklore from 1746

Wassailing the apple tree in our garden on old Twelfth- night - if you wish to use this photo please attribute this blog.

"Axwaddle = A dealer in ashes, and, sometimes, one that rolls in them.

Baggaged or Bygaged = Mad, bewitch'd

Chaungeling = An ideot, one whom the fairies have chang'd

Dowl = The Devil

Gallibagger = a bug-bear [Not sure if this is the mythical sort or simply an anxiety or iritation. In Dorset and the Isle-of-White a Gallybagger is a scarecrow.]

Huckmuck = A little tiny fellow [Thick, stubbed]


Leech-way = Path on which the dead are carried to be buried
 
Pixy = A fairy

Wassail = A drinking song on twelth-day-eve, throwing toast to the apple-trees in order to have a fruitful year; which seems to be a relick of a heathen sacrifice to Pomona //  // Wassail, or Was-Heil - to wish health, see Observat on Macbeth pg.41.

Whitwich = A pretend conjurer who discovers, and sells charms for witchcraft."

The Gentleman's Magazine 1746  Vol. 16 Aug Page 405

Blanford Forum - Bell ringing at Allhallows

It is stated in Kethe's Sermon preached at Blandford Forum in Dorsetshire, January 17th, 1570, p. 19, that "there was a custom, in the papal times, to ring hells at Allhallow-tide for all Christian souls."

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Map - Blandford Forum

Blanford Forum - Holy bonfires

Our midsummer fire last year - if you wish to use this photo please attribute this blog.

"It appears from the sermon preached at Blandford Forum, in Dorsetshire, January 17th, 1570, by William Kethe, that, in the papal times in this country, Fires were customary, not only on the Eves of St. John the Baptist at Midsummer, and of St. Peter and St. Paul the Apostles, but also on that of St. Thomas a Becket, or, as he is there styled, "Thomas Becket the Traytor.""

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Map - Blandford Forum

Blanford Forum - Sunday Revels

Nelsons Ale House, Blandford Forum - image by Trish Steel [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"It appears from a Sermon made at Blanford Forum, in the Countie of Dorset, on Wensday the 17th of January 157O, by William Kethe, 8vo, that it was the custom at that time for the Church Ales to be kept upon the sabbath-day ; which holy day, says our author, "the multitude call their revelyng day, which day is spent in bulbeatings, bearebeatings, bowlings, dicyng, cardyng, daunsynges, drunkennes, and whoredome," " in so much, as men could not keepe their servauntes from, lyinge out of theyr owne houses the same sabbath-day at night.""

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Map - Blandford Forum

Wassail and the worshiping of Heil at Cerne, Dorset

Our Wassail and the wassailing bowl - please attribute this blog if you use this photo.

 

"The following is a note of the same learned writer [Reed, of Reed's Shakspeare] on the Polyolbion, song 9 : "I see," says he, "a custome in some parts among us : I mean the yearly Was-haile in the country on the vigil of the New Yeare, which I conjecture was a usuall ceremony among the Saxons before Hengist, as a note of health-wishing (and so perhaps you might make it Wish-heil), which was exprest among other nations in that form of drinking to the health of their mistresses and friends. " Bene vos, bene vos, bene te, bene me, bene nostram etiam Stephanium," in Plautus, and infinite other testimonies of that nature (in him, Martial, Ovid, Horace, and such more), agreeing nearly with the fashion now used : we calling it a health, as they did also in direct terms ; which, with an idol called Heil, antiently worshipped at Cerne in Dorsetshire, by the English Saxons, in name expresses both the ceremony of drinking and the New Yeare's acclamation, whereto in some parts of this kingdom is joyned also solemnity of drinking out of a cup, ritually composed, deckt, and filled with country liquor," &c.

In Herrick's Hesperides, p. 146, we read,

" Of Christmas sports, the Wassell Boule,
That tost up, after Fox-i'-th'-Hole ;
Of Blind-man-buffe, and of the care
That young men have to shooe the Mare:
Of Ash-heapes, in the which ye use
Husbands and wives by streakes to chuse:
Of crackling laurel, which fore-sounds
A plentious harvest to your grounds."

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Map - Cerne

Bandford Forum - A list of Christian Sacrafices - Part 2

Bacon and Eggs - an offering to Christ? - Image from ChildofMidnight at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Common

[cont.] "...On Good Friday, they offered unto Christe Egges and Bacon to be in hys favour till Easter Day was past. The Sinnes committed betwene Easter and Whytsontyde they were fullye discharged by the pleasaunt Walkes and Processyons in the rogyng, I should say Rogation Weeke. What offences soever happened from that tyme to Midsomroer,. the fumes of the Fiers dedicated to John, Peter, and Thomas Becket the Traytor, consumed them. And as for all disorders from that tyme to the begynnyng of Christmasse agayne, they were in this Countrey all roonge away, upon All Halloun Day and All Soule's Day at night last past."

He adds, at p. 20,

"So sayth God to the brybyng Papistes, who requireth these thynges at your handes whiche I never commaundcd, as your Candles at Candlemasse, your Popish Penaunce on Ash Wensday, your Egges and Bacon on Good Friday, your Gospelles at superstitious Crosses, decked lyke Idols, your Fires at Midsommer, and your ringyng at Allhallountide for all Christen Soules ? I require, sayth God, a sorrowfull and repentaunt hart, to be mercyfull to the poore, &c.""... 

..." It is stated in a curious Sermon preached at Blanford Forum, in Dorsetshire, January 17th, 1570, by William Kethe, minister, and dedicated to Ambrose Earl of Warwick, Svo. Lond. p. 18. that on Good Friday the Roman Catholics " offered unto Christe Egges and Bacon to be in hys favour till Easter Day was past ;" from which we may at least gather with certainty that Eggs and Bacon composed a usual dish on that day."

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Map - Blandford Forum

[Jewish (and Catholic) people had a really horrible time in much of old intolerant England - including facing genocide and expulsion - please take this anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic sermon for its folkloric value only.]  

Bandford Forum - A list of Christian Sacrafices - Part 1

Bacon and Eggs - an offering to Christ? - Image from ChildofMidnight at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"In a most curious Sermon preached at Blandford Forum, Dorsetshire, Jan. 17, 1570, by William Kethe, Minister, and dedicated to Ambrose Earl of Warwick, 8vo. p. 18, speaking of the Jews, he says, "for the Synnes they daylie committed, they would be very busie in offryng Sacrifices and exercising themselves in Ceremonies;" adding, " a lyke kynde of policie was practised by the Papistes in the tyme of Poperie (in England) to bynde God to forgeve them theyr Sinnes. For whereas, in the tyme of Christmasse, the disorders were marvelous in those dayes, (and how it is now God seeth,) at Candlemasse, which some counte the ende of Christmasse, the Papistes would be even with God, by the tyme [they had offered hym a Bribe, and such a Bribe (beyng a Candle or Taper) as a very meane officer would take foule scorae of, though he could do a man but small pleasure in his sute. Shroft Tuesday was a day of great Glottonie, Surfeiting,and Dronkennes, but by Ashe Wensday at night, they thought God to be in their debt..." [cont.]

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[Jewish (and Catholic) people had a really horrible time in much of old intolerant England - including facing genocide and expulsion - please take this anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic sermon for its folkloric value only.]  

Banning the Wakes in Exeter and Somersetshire

Exeter Morris Men dancing!

"When an order was made in 1627 and in 1631, at Exeter, and in Somersetshire, for the suppression of the Wakes [I think these where Wakes on the night before the parish church's saint day, associated with dancing, music and drink, and the feasting on the day itself], both the Ministers and the People desired their continuance, not only for preserving the memorial of the dedication of their several Churches, but for civilizing the parishioners, composing differences by the mediation and meeting of friends, increasing of love, and unity, by these feasts of charity, and for the relief and comfort of the poor."

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Map - Exeter

Revel of Mary Magdaline - Stocklinch

Stocklinch Village today - image by Nigel Mykura [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"In Collinson's History of Somersetshire, vol. i. Abdick and Bulston Hundred, p. 64, speaking of Stocklinch, St. Magdalen Parish, the author says : "A Revel is held here on St. Mary Magdalen's day.""

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Map - Stocklinch

[Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesus, and a saint in the Catholic church.  After the first half of the first millennium AD it was suggested by Pope Gregory that she was a prostitute, although the Vatican revised this in 1969 (Wikipedia!) - so for the period Brand and Collinson where talking about she would have been thought of as a 'repentant' prostitute - It makes me wander what nature her revel took...  Saint Mary Magdalene's day was the 22nd of July]

Chew Valley Lake and the Tolling of the church bell

A part of Chew Valley Lake - by Stuart Buchan [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

[I have been listening to "Questions, Questions" on Radio 4 and in part of it they investigated whether church bells can ring under water (it turns out that they do, but that the sound is muted and has difficulty transferring back into the air - wish they had put a wooden boat in the water to act as a sounding board).

The reason they where doing this was to investigate the possible truth of the widespread myth about flooded (vanished) churches still tolling their bells.  I had grown up hearing this in relation to Chew Valley Lake (a reservoir) where it is said a village was flooded during its construction. The website for the lake says there was 16 farms and 11 other houses that where flooded during its construction in 1955 - it does not mention a church or a village. Wikipedia however mentions the small village of Morton, though there is no mention of a church.  I wander how in the 35ish short years between the construction and my standing on its edge as a child it had garnered this common myth?  Who told me?  I think it was either my dad or my friends dad - neither where from the area, but both had worked in the area planting trees.

Interestingly the nearby village of Chew Stoke was home to a well known family of bell and clock makers.

I even remember it being said that on drought years one could see the cockerel at the top of the spire poking out! The archaeologist part of me dismisses this as highly unlikely, even if there had been a church. If the dam builders had not knocked it down the water would have ruined it in a few years, if not months...

The radio program mentioned the town of Duwich, in Suffolk where it is also said you can hear the church bells ring.  Alan Lee and Brian Froud mention in their Faeries book that the Welsh Gwragedd Annwn, beautiful lake dwelling faerie maidens, lived in Welsh mountain lakes, and legends tell that in one of these lakes tall towers can bee seen in the depths and peals of bells heard...  It is obviously a persistent and widespread legend.]

Map - Chew Valley Lake

Exeter words...

I am sitting in a hospital bed with little to do besides people watch, especially before I paid an extortionate amount of money to use this Andrew Lansley henchmen installed partial internet portal....

So I have started to collect words~

My favourites are the words of endearment used by nurses to deal with patiants. The  more decreped you look the more they use these terms...

"my lovely"
"my darlin'/darling"
"love"
"sweatheart"
"poppet"

I also heard two Devon nurses joking about the Bristolian "my lover"...  "Sweatheart" went together with "love" and with "my darling".

Another bit of earwigging I did was of an ealderly Devon family (not saying exactly where) who came out with the following beautifuly poetic turns of phrase ~

"Every thin's chaingen', innette?" "Is et?" "Ooo, et es."

"We 'add a chreffec 'ail storm, and them cars was just crawlin' along..."

(Daughter reprimanding dad) "Here then, you got 'em, 'ant ee?"

"Dohn it mek the meat tender?" "Do et?"  "Yeh"  "Were d' ee gedd et?"  "Down Tesco's."

"Tis' WILD out there." (about the weather).

One person (no Devon accent) complained that her daughter she had carefully named Macey was called at  school "Maizey".  Maizey is dialect for crazy...

Common Land of Congrebury, Puxton and Week Saint Lawrence - part 1

A common near Congresbury - not sue if it is the same - by FollowMeChaps [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Collinson, in his Somersetshire, vol. iii. p. 586, says : "In the parishes of Congresbury and Puxton, are two large pieces of common land, called East and West Dolemoors, (from the Saxon dal, which signifies a share or portion,) which are divided into single acres, each bearing a peculiar and different mark cut in the turf, such as a horn, four oxen and a mare, two oxen and a mare, a pole-axe, cross, dung-fork, oven, ...." [cont.]

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Common Land of Congrebury, Puxton and Week Saint Lawrence - part 2

A common near Congresbury - not sue if it is the same - by FollowMeChaps [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

[cont.] "...duck's-nest, hand-reel, and hare's-tail. On the Saturday before Old-Midsummer, several proprietors of estates in the parishes of Congresbury, Puxton, and Week St. Lawrence, or their tenants, assemble on the commons. A number of apples are previously prepared, marked in the same manner with the beforementioned acres, which are 'distributed by a young lad to each of the commoners from a bag or hat. At the close of the distribution each person repairs to his allotment, as his apple directs him, and takes possession for the ensuing year. An adjournment then takes place to the house of. the overseer of Dolemoors, (an officer annually elected from. the tenants,) where four acres, reserved for the purpose of paying expences, are let by inch of candle, and the remainder of the day is spent in that sociability and hearty mirth so congenial to the soul of a Somersetshire yeoman."

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Map - Congresbury
Map - Puxton
Map - Wick Saint Lawrence
Map - Dolemoor

Glastonbury Walnut Tree

Saint Josephs Chapel, Glastonbury - By Francis Frith (Yale University Art Gallery [1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 

"Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, vol. ii. p. 265, speaking of Glastonbury, tells us, that, "besides the holy Thorn, there grew' in the Abbey Church-yard, on the North side of St. Joseph's Chapel, a miraculous Walnut Tree, which never budded forth before the feast of St. Barnabas, viz. the eleventh of June, and on that very day shot forth leaves, and" flourished like its usual species. This tree is gone, and in the place there of stands a very fine Walnut-tree of the common sort. It is strange to say how much this tree was sought after by the credulous; and, though not an uncommon Walnut, Queen Anne, King James, and many of the nobility of the realm, even when the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large sums of money for small cuttings from the original.""

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Map - Glastonbury

Whitsuntide in Yatton

Yatton church - Saint Mary's - By NotFromUtrecht (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, vol. iii. p. 620, speaking of Yatton, says, that " John Lane of this parish, gent, left half an acre of ground, called the Groves, to the poor for ever, reserving a quantity of the grass for strewing the church on Whitsunday.""

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Map - Yatton

Ray 1768 DONE!

Horray! Another book done!  I think it was almost exclusively Somerset proverbs that where actually attributed to a place here. There where a few dialect words mentioned in this text that I have left - a single word (e.g. Gowts - Somerset for Canals with French origins) seems a little too far from proper folklore.

The book can be viewed here.

"A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs; Also the most celebrated proverbs of Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish and other languages.  The whole methodically digested and illustrated, with annotations and proper explanations.

By the late Rev. and learned J. Ray, M. A.

MDCCLXVIII (1768)"

Somerset put-down

"You make the better side the worse. - Somerset"

Ray 1768



[Oooo - harsh!]

Animal cruelty in the 18th century - illustrated in a proverb

"As fond as an Ape of a whip. - Somerset. "

Ray 1768



[What a horrible proverb!  Presumably the origin lies in the preforming monkeys of the time.]

Proverb about sharing - Somerset

"Come every one heave a pound. - Somerset"

Ray 1768

[My wife says that still in Dorset amongst farmers sharing equipment a 'heave' is voluntary contribution to a shared project. "We all heave a third".]

Work or die - a proverb

"Here is Gerard's Bailiff, work or you must die with cold. - Somerset."

Ray 1768

[Can't find out who this horrible Gerard and his Bailiff is - but in a way I am quite glad - His name lives on only in infamy!]

Labourers proverb - Somerset.

"To heave and theave. -  Somerset. (The labouring husbandman.)"

Ray 1768

[Is 'theave' the same as 'thieve'? If so, does the thieving here refer to thieving from the animals he works with, or that his poverty is such he can only survive by thieving from others? - In that sense it is not dissimilar to modern Supermarkets failing to pay a living wage to their employees...  (Am I getting a little to political here?)]

Poverty and strife - a proverb from Somerset

"Poverty breeds strife. - Somerset."

Ray 1768



[The riots where predicted in the 18th century...]

The burden of physical violance - a Somerset proverb

"Words may pass, but blows fall heavy, - Somerset"

 Ray 1768



[18th century Somerset equivalent of 'Sticks and Stones'?] 

Free living Somerset Proverb - or the destitution of the poor...

"Out of door out of debt. - Somerset   - Of one that pays not when once gone. "

Ray 1768

Honest Miller - a proverb

"Every honest miller hath a golden thumb.  they reply None but a cuckold can see it. - Somerset."

Ray 1768

Fanatics in Somerset - a saying

"Wellington round-heads. - Proverbial in Taunton for a violent fanatick."

Ray 1768

Map - Wellington
Map - Taunton