The Lost Land of Lyinesse, or Lethowsow - Part 5

  The Scillonian ferry regularly crosses the waters above the legendary Lyonesse.  If you wish to use my photo please attribute this blog!

[cont.] "..."Strabo expressly tells us that the Cassiterides (so called from the Greek name of tin, there produced) were in his time only ten in number; whereas they are now divided into a hundred and forty rocky islets. Solinus also makes mention of a large and respectable island, called Silura, evidently the Scilly of present times, lying on Damnonian or Cornish coast, and separated from the mainland by a strait turbulent and dangerous--a character which sufficiently marks the compression of its waters. And William of Worcester, an author of our own country, thirteen centuries after Solinus, states, with a degree of positive exactness, stamping authenticity upon its recital, that between Mount's Bay and the Scilly Islands there had been woods, and meadows, and arable lands, and a hundred and forty parish churches, which before his time were submerged by the ocean. Uninterrupted tradition since this period, which subsists to the present day vigorous and particular, authenticates his account, and leaves no doubt upon the wind that a vast track of land, which stretched anciently from the eastern shore of Mount's Bay to the north-western rock of Scilly (with the exception of the narrow strait flowing between the Long-ships and Land's End), has, since the age of Strabo and Solinus, and previous to that of William of Worcester, been overwhelmed and usurped by the waves of the sea. . . . The depth of the water at the Land's End is about eleven fathoms; at the Long-ships, eight; to the north of them, twenty; to the south, thirty; and twenty-five, twenty, and fifteen fathoms between them and the north-west of Scilly. The shallowest water occurs in the mid-space between Cornwall and the Isles. "--A Tour through Cornwall in the Autumn of 1808, by the Rev. Richard Warner.

"Yet the cause of that inundation, which destroyed much of these Islands (the Scilly Islands), might reach also to the Cornish shores, is extremely probable, there being several evidences of a like subsidence of the land in the Mount's Bay. The principal anchoring-place, called a lake, is now a haven, or open harbour. The Mount, from its Cornish name, we must conclude to have stood formerly in a wood, but now, at full tide, is half a mile from the sea, and not a tree near it; and in the sandy beach betwixt the Mount and Penzance, where the sands have been dispersed by violent high tides, I have seen the trunks of several large trees in their natural position."-- Borlase, Phil. Trans., vol. xlviii. part I..... [cont.]"

Hunt 1903

Map - Longships

Map - Land's End

Map - Isles of Scilly

Map - Saint Michael's Mount 

A prophecy of Merlyn - the burning of Paul, Penzance and Newlyn

Looking towards Mousehole and Merlyn's Rock (about center of the picture) - Image © Copyright VR6Lee and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

"PROPHECIES by Merlyn are tolerably prevalent in Cornwall. The character of these may be known by one or two examples --

"Aga syth tyer, war and meyne Merlyn
Ara neb syth Leskey Paul, Penzance hag Newlyn."

This has been translated--

"There shall land on the stone of Merlyn,
Those who shall burn Paul, Penzance, and Newlyn."

This prophecy is supposed to have been accomplished when the Spaniards, in the reign of Elizabeth, landed at Mousehole, a fishing village in the Mount's Bay. Near the pier at Mousehole is still a rock called "Merlyn Car," or "Merlyn's Rock," and not far from it another, called "the Spaniard.""

Hunt 1903

Map - Paul

Map - Penzance

Map - Newlyn

Map - Mousehole

Map - Merlyn Car / Merlyn's Rock

Map - The Spaniard

The Men-Scryfa and Castle Lesgudzhek

Men Scryfa - image by Jim Champion [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"AT the entrance to Penzance rises, rather abruptly, a hill, crowned with a very remarkable earthwork. It is known as Castle Lesgudzhek, or, the " Castle of the Bloody Field," to this day.

Tradition, our only guide, tells us that this castle was one of the strong places of a British king, in the third or fourth century; that a rival chieftain, from the eastern part of Danmonium, besieged him. The defence was long and desperate. The besiegers, wearying of the unsuccessful toil, retired at length to the plains of Gulval; and that the besieged left his castle, and gave his enemies battle on the plain which extends from Penzance to Marazion. The "bloody field" remained in possession of the chieftain of Lesgudzhek, and the leader of the eastern men was killed near where he was buried. The Men-Scryfa, or inscribed stone, was raised over his grave,--its height, nine feet, being the exact height of the defeated warrior ?

RIALOBRAN CUNOVAL FIL

is engraven on the block; thus handing to us the name of the unfortunate warrior, who was probably the son of the hero from whom Gulval draws its name; and if so, may we not suppose that he was but endeavouring to recover the possessions which once belonged to his parent."

Hunt 1903

Map - Castle Lacudjack Hill

Map - Men-Scryfa

Map - The Battle Plain

A megalith cut into two ovens at Bospothennis

The semi deserted hamlet at Bosporthennis - image by Carl Weaver [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 "The following are a few of the interesting remains of old Cornwall which have entirely disappeared from the neighbourhood within a few years-...

...In Bosprenis Croft there was a very large colt or cromlech. It is said to have been fifteen feet square, and not more than one foot thick in any part. This was broken in two parts some years since, and taken to Penzance to form the beds for two ovens."

Hunt 1903



Map - Bosporthennis Coit (site of a large broken Cromlech - possibly the one mentioned)

A Midsummer Meander

Midsummer's Day on Dartmoor - If you wish to use my photos please attribute this blog, thanks!

[Yesterday was the longest day of the year - the 21st of June - the solstice: Midsummer! We did not do much to celebrate this year, we simply climbed a big hill in Chagford with friends and drank cider.

In the evening we did see the smoke from one distant bonfire rise - a day after the Midsummer Eve, but who knows - it could have been a Midsummer fire!

Most Midsummer lore is old lore, even in the West Country. I have read of rights happening on Midsummer solstice from Roman times (and almost definitely before) through to the 19th century.  They range from the rolling of flaming wheels down hillsides to the lightning of fires on their top through to the modern festivals of today.

The only 'folk' (or grassroots) custom I have been aware of in my lifetime is the summer solstice sunrise at Stonehenge. This is on the very edge of the West Country by anyone's standards, but it attracts people from across the area.

I distinctly remember my Granny (who lived in Dorset) witnessing from her car some of the horrible police violence against travelers during the event that became known as the 'battle of the beanfeild' in the 1980's (a really good fair account is found in this book). At this time a convoy of travelers in decorated buses and cars where making their way to the annual meeting place of Stonehenge for a free (and illegal) festival at the stones for midsummer, which was also attended by the Druids.

Stonehenge free festival Midsummer 1984, the year before it was violently shut down - Salix alba at en.wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) 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

Later, in the 1990's, when this festival was supposedly 'closed down' I remember talking to adults (I was a teenager) who had spent the night hiding in ditches and evading police helicopters to participate in the magical (and peaceful) midsummer sunrise. A fair number of people emerged from their hedges and ditches and trees to celebrate together within the exclusion zone guarded so rigorously half a mile away by a ring of riot police!

Later still, in the early 2000's when the open celebrations once again became legal I remember coming back from work along a Devon lane and spotting a group of  friends who lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle centered on Dartmoor. They pulled over, leaned out of the car window and said "We're off to the stones. Want to come?". I was tired from digging and declined. I did not know them that well and they where going for a few days.  It was only that night I realised that the next day was the Solstice. I have always regretted not taking that ride!

It was once said (and may still be) that certain stone circles on Dartmoor dance in a ring for Midsummer (in A Book of Dartmoor by Sabine Baring-Gould 1900).  These including Belstone circle, said to have been formed from cursed maidens who dared to dance on the sabbath (A Book of the West Vol. 1 by Sabine Baring-Gould 1900). 

Midsummer, like all the solstices and equinoxes and all the quarter festivals in between seem quite 'thin' times, when the boundaries of the worlds are at their most bridgeable, especially for the Pixie folk and their kin.

Perhaps this is why the Maidens of Belstone could dance again at Midsummer.

In Cornwall stories are told of miners meeting and doing deals with the Knockers and 'smae folk' at this time, while on the edge of the cliffs at Lands End the verdant flowers of the Fairy Gardens can be observed most easily in the Midsummer moonlight. Midsummer was also when one Cornish maid observed the Small People tending her cow (also due to a four leaved clover).

At Ottery Saint Mary an event is held to commemorate an old folk tale where the pixies battled with the monks to try to prevent them casting or ringing the church bells. Eventually they where thwarted and one bell christened 'Mary'. When she sounded all pixies where banished within her call (a good version in this book). The festivities today celebrate this, with a temporary reprieve given around midsummer. Children then play the part of the Pixies, running amok and trapping the bell-ringers!

Midsummer on Natadon - our own granite gateway to the piskies on Nattadon Hill, Chagford (this is not a widely held bit of lore - however a few of my friends regularly pass through this gap and make wishes or prayers or other spells) - If you wish to use my photos please attribute this blog, thanks!

Midsummer is now widely celebrated by organised festivals in places such as Penznace or Littleham in Devon.

The festive spirit of Midsummer was present in the early 19th century as well. Dartmoor tin miners considered it very unlucky to work on Midsummer day (in A Description of the Part of Devonshire Bordering On the Tamar and the Tavy, by Anna Eliza Bray 1836)

At Buckland-on-the-Moor a sheep was taken and sacrificed on a rock in front of a large crowd on Midsummer day, sprinkling themselves with its blood, before feasting and holding competative games (in Devonshire And Other Original Poems by Elias Tozer 1873).  A similar event with the roasting of a ram took place at Holne on Dartmoor at Midsummer (from Guide to Dartmoor:  Southern and Western Section by William Crossing 1914) - though Theo Brown says this was a May day event (in Kingsteignton Ram Roasting Fair, Folklore, Vol. 61, No. 3 (Sep., 1950), p. 153). There were also Midsummer games held at Penberth in Cornwall (Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900)

At Whitborough in Cornwall a midsummer festival was held by a tumulli where a phantom Black Dog had appeared (from The Black Dog by Theo Brown in Folklore, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 175-192)

On Dartmoor in the 19th century the forests pony drifts where held around midsummer, and started with the blowing of a horn through a holed stone on top of a hill. This was to separate the horses of those with rights to the moor to those with out (in A Book of Dartmoor by Sabine Baring-Gould 1900). Mrs Bray talks of an older less regulated custom whereby any cow or sheep found on the moor was impounded on old Midsummer day.  They where then held ransom by the farmer that had caught them - a sort of mischief day for animal rading!

Fire characterized the Midsummer days of old, referred to by some Victorian writers as Baal-, or Bale-Fires, and was revived in the early 20th century by the 'Old Cornwall Society'. Midsummer fires are now lit on the hilltops at Carn Brea, Kit Hill, Saint Breoch Beacon and Castle an Dinas.  Perhaps my chance siting of a bonfires smoke this year on the edge of Dartmoor could be a current Devonian incarnation of this.

A distant Midsummer bonfire spotted from Nattadon Hill near Chagford, placed near the summit of a hill like days of old! - If you wish to use my photos please attribute this blog, thanks!

At the very western end of Cornwall on the evening of the 23rd of June huge fires where lit on the hilltops,  The next day enjoyable 'excursions' took place at sea (from The Year Book by William Hone). This was also reported for Midsummer-eve at Penzance and Falmouth (which can fall between the 20th-24th of June). Around 1800 the clifftops from the Lizard to Lands End where lit up in great numbers that shrank and then vanished over the next hundred years.  At Escols in Cornwall these fires where lit from ones kindled on a Garrick Zan, or Holy Rock, used with fire at other times to determine guilt, and said to have been the first altars of Christian worship(from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900).

At Penzance the fires where even more exciting. Flaming tar barrels and bonfires lined the middle of the roads and weaving in amoung them where young people of both sexes carrying tar soaked canvas on 3 to 4 foot poles. These they lighted and swung around their heads producing vast flames. The shopfronts where lit up with many candles on still Midsummer-Eve nights.  The night ended with strings of young people threading through and over the fires, showered with sparks and fireworks.  The next day many people took to the water at a Quay Fair in large numbers (from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900). 

At Saint Just and other mining areas young miners would set shallow charges of gunpowder to light at Midsummer. Lands End fields where blessed at Midsummer by running around them with flaming torches (from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900). Cattle where blessed by passing burning brands of gorse over their backs by people walking sunwise around them (from A Calendar of Country Customs by Ralph Whitlock 1978.  This book has other Midsummer West Country lore in it, but is still in copyright, so I shall not disclose it!).

There is a valley near Zennor where 'all the Witches of the West' where said to meat up at Midsummer, and on the evening before the Witches of Penwwith would light a fire on top of every rock till the whole valley was ablaze.  Here it was supposed by some that they reaffirmed their pact with the Devil (from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900).

Snakes where also given to gathering on Midsummer Eve, knotting themselves into a tight ball, which then formed a bubble and hardened. It this was found it was good luck for the finder, giving them prosperity (from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900).

A Midsummer fire in 2009 at Castle An Dinas - by Talskiddy from wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Midsummer was a particularly potent time of year for omens and charms of love.

One Devonian charm for both sexes was to go at midnight on Midsummer eve to the church and walk home slowly scattering hempseed and saying -

Hempseed I sow, hempseed I mow,
She (or he) that will my true love be,
Come rake this hempseed after me.

The young person would then look over their shoulder on own porch and would thus see their future spouse following them eating up the seed (from Folk rhymes of Devon by William Crossing 1911).

The words to a Cornish version of the same charm  ran thus -  

" Hemp-seed I sow, Hemp-seed I hoe,"

(the action of sowing the seed and of hoeing it in, must be deliberately gone through) ;—

"And he
Who will my true love be,
Come after me and mow."

There is a danger, though, of standing in the Church porch on Midnight on Midsummer Eve (in Cornwall at least).  One might witness each of the people who where to die that year passing you by.  Invariably the last one would be you (from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900).

Alternatively a young woman could reveal her lover initials by preforming a ritual with her shoes at midnight. First she would take her shoes and place them in a T shape and say -

I place my shoes like the letter T,
In hopes my true love I shall see,
In his apparel and his array,
As he is now and every day.

repeating this three times, each time reversing the shoes. Then she would take a bowl full of water and float face down lots of bits of paper, each with a letter of the alphabet upon it. On waking in the morning the initials of her lover would be revealed.

If this fails she can brake an egg white into a tumbler of water at noon on Midsummer's Day and divine from the form it takes who is her lover.

If this also fails she waits till the first new moon after Midsummer and say -

All hail, new moon, all hail to thee !
I prithee, good moon, reveal to me
This night who shall my true love be;
Who he is, and what he wears,
And what he does all months and years.

Her lover will then somehow be revealed... (from Folk rhymes of Devon by William Crossing 1911).

Back in Cornwall another spell deployed by a young woman was to (in silence) take off her shift, wash it, turn it inside out and hang it in front of the fire. At midnight she would see her future husband at midnight turning it the right way out (from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900). 

The evening Midsummer sun fingers its way across Dartmoor - If you wish to use my photos please attribute this blog, thanks!

In Devonshire a young woman would pick a full blown rose blindfolded on Midsummer day at the strike of twelve. This she folded in white paper and kept it till Christmas Day. Miraculously it would still be fresh and she could place it on her bussom, her future husband being compelled then to pluck it from her (from Devonshire And Other Original Poems by Elias Tozer 1873).  A similar custom occurred in Cornwall, the only difference being that she need not be blind, only travel backwards it to the garden. The rose was then sewn into a paper bag, and worn to church on Chistmas Day. Rather more gently the rose could then be requested, as well as simply taken (from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900).

This all sounds quite raunchy to me - open roses represented the full flower of womanhood, as opposed to the budding rose of the virgin, while plucking a flower can be synonymous with 'deflowering'...

On Midsummer's day a single full rose was the rent paid for Gidliegh castle.

Children early on Midsummer Eve at Penzance decorated their heads with wreathes of flowers (from Popular Romances of the West of England by Robert Hunt 1900).

To me at least midsummer is the fullest time of year, the year is a like a young mother, the first lush harvests coming in, the fruits swelling and the days long. May day and the childhood joys of spring are behind us and the old wise autumn time of full cupboards and contented reflection is yet to come. This seems to fit with the strong West Country connections of Midsummer, full roses and predictions of love and marriage!

One only need look to the rhyme of John Barleycorn, collected in the West Country, to see the potent adult strength of Midsummer -

"...There he remained till midsummer,
And looked both pale and wan ;
Then Barleycorn he got a beard,
And so became a man..."

(From A Westcountry Garland by R N Worth 1875)]

Midsummer on Dartmoor - If you wish to use my photos please attribute this blog, thanks!

The Hobby Horse of Devon and Cornwall

The revived horse of Penzance - the Penglaz Obby Oss

"A form of amusement popular in Devon and Cornwall is that of the Hobby Horse. This practice of assuming the forms of animals and counterfeiting their actions is of ancient date and probably formed part of the Roman Saturnalia.

The hobby horse consists of a compound figure. The head and tail of a horse, with a light wooden frame for the body (generally a couple of very slender hurdles joined at the top bars) is attached to the shoulders of a couple of strong youths, one in front with his head covered with a horse-faced mask, and another at the back who cleverly conceals his head under the frame.

The frame covered with trappings reaching to the ground hides the feet of the actors and prevents the discovery that the supposed horse has none. Thus equipped the men prance about, imitating the curvettings and motions of a horse.

As the hobby horse perambulates the streets and capers about, the village band preceding it, the children strike at it with whips and sticks ; uproarious shouts of laughter rend the air, and a great deal of rough play is indulged in."

Hewett 1900

[This sounds quite different to the surviving horses at Minehead and Padstow, which only take a single person to operate them - this sounds more like a pantomime horse. Perhaps Hewett was writing more authoratativly than she could actually justify. Or perhaps she knew of a Hobby Horse or Obby Oss that had survived undetected... I doubt it.]

Map - Penzance
Map - Padstow
Map - Minehead

Raftra House

"Looking up the valley [of Porthcurno], a few trees and the chimney-tops and part of the roof of in old house are to be seen. It is Raftra House, once the largest mansion west of Penzance; built, tradition says, by the Tressillians, a grand old Cornish family, who, before it was finished, had, it is said, run through their patrimony, and had to sell it and the lands for less than the building lead cost them."

Valentine (undated)

Map - Raftra

Smugglers and Wreckers in Cornwall

Helford River - Frenchmans Creek - © Copyright Mel Landells and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

"There is a cave in these cliffs [of Mullion] that is of some extent, and was probably in old days a resort and hiding-place of smugglers, who were rather abundant in this wavewashed county, which had also an evil reputation of being the abode of wreckers. There were many smugglers' caves or holes on the banks of the Helford river, and several have been discovered on the coast about St. Keverne by the falling in of their roofs. In one near Penzance a skeleton was discovered with its clothes on, lying beside two or three kegs of spirits."

Valentine (undated)

Map - Mullion
Map - Helford River
Map - Saint Keverne
Map - Penzance

Layon Cromlech/Dolmen/Quoit/Portal Dolmen

Cromlech at Layon - engraved by Scot, published in The Gallery of Nature and Art, 1814.

From ancestryimages.com

 "Not more than two miles from Penzance stands the celebrated cromlech of Lanyon -- often pronounced Lanine. This, like all the other cromlechs, marks, no doubt, the resting-place of a British chieftain, many of whose followers repose within a short distance of this, the principal monument."

Hunt 1903

[This view would no longer be supported archaeologically - portal dolmens where repeatedly used and reused, including, but not necessarily exclusively, for the deposition and re-use of human remains, possibly as a community 'ancestor' rather than an individual]

Map - Layon Cromlech

St Levan Fairies

'YEARS since--the time is past now--the green outside the gate at the end of Trezidder Lane was a favourite place with the Small Folks on which to hold their fairs. One might often see the rings in the grass which they made in dancing, where they footed it. Mr Trezillian was returning late one night from Penzance; when he came near the gate, he saw a number of little creatures spinning round and round. The sight made him light-headed, but he could not resist the desire to be amongst them, so he got off his horse. In a moment they were all over him like a swarm of bees, and he felt as if they were sticking needles and pins into him. His horse ran ofl and he didn't know what to do, till, by good luck, he thought of what he had often heard, so he turned his glove inside out, threw it amongst the Small Folk, and ere the glove reached the ground they were all gone. Mr Trezillian had now to find his horse, and the Small Folk, still determining to lead him a dance, bewildered him. He was piskie-led, and he could not find out where he was until broad daylight. Then he saw he was not a hundred yards from the place at which he had left his horse. On looking round the spot where he had seen the Small Folk dancing, be found a pair of very small silver knee-buckles of a most ancient shape, which, no doubt, some little gentleman must have lost when he was punishing the farmer. Those who knew the families will well remember the little silver buckles, which were kept for some time at Trezidder and some time at Raftra.'

Hunt 1903

How Joan lost the sight in her eye - part 4

'..."The work of the world" had Joan to find her way out of Penzance. She couldn't keep the road, she was always tumbling into the ditch on her blind side. When near the Fawgan, poor Joan, who was so weary that she could scarcely drag one leg after the other, prayed that she might find a quiet old horse on which she might ride home.

Her desire was instantly granted. There, by the roadside, stood an old, bony white horse, spanned with its halter.
Joan untied the halter from the legs and placed it on the head of the horse; she got on the hedge, and seated herself on the horse's back.

There she was mounted, "Gee wup, gee wisp; k'up, k'up, k'up." The horse would not budge. Busy were Joan's heels rattling against the ribs of the poor horse, and thwack, thwack went a thorn-stick over his tail, and by and by the old blind brute began to walk. Joan beat, and kicked, and k'uped, and coaxed, the horse went but little faster until it got to the top of the hill.

Then away, away, like the wind it went through Toldava Lanes, and it swelled out until the horse became as high as the tower. Over hedges and ditches, across all the corners that came into the road, on went the horse. Joan held on by the mane with both hands, and shouted, "Woa! woa! woey!" until she could shout no longer.
At length they came to Toldava Moor; the "ugly brute" took right away down towards the fowling-pool, when Joan, fearing he might plunge in and drown her, let go her hold...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

How Joan lost the sight in her eye - part 3

'...However, without stopping to take touch drink, she started alone for Penzance. She had wasted, as it was, so much time, that it was nearly dark when she reached the market.

After having made her purchases, and as she was about to leave the market, who should Joan spy but Betty's husband, Tom Trenance. There was, stealing about in the shadows, picking from the standings, shoes and stockings from one, hanks of yarn from another, pewter spoons from a third, and so on. He stuffed these things into capacious pockets, and yet no one appeared to notice Tom.

Joan went forth to him.

"Aren't ye ashamed to be here in the dark carrying on such a game?"

"Is that you, Dame Joan," says Tom; "which eye can you see me upon?"

After winking, Joan said she could see Tom plain enough with her right eye.

She had no sooner said the word than Tom Trenance pointed his finger to her eye, and she lost the sight of it from that hour...'

Hunt 1903

How Joan lost the sight in her eye - part 2

'...Joan went in, and Betty was delighted, sure enough, to see her, and sent the children out of the way. But Betty couldn't walk to Penzance, she was suffering pain, and she had been taking milk and suet, and brandy arid rue, and she must have some more. So away went Betty to the othe, room for the bottle.

Joan seized the moment, and taking a very small bit of the ointment on her finger, she touched her right eye with it. Betty came with the bottle, and Joan had a think; when she looked round she was surprised to see the house swarming with small people. They were playing all sorts of pranks on the key-beams and rafters. Some were swinging on cobwebs some were riding the mice, and others were chasing them into and out of the holes in the thatch. Joan was surprised at the sight, and thought she must have a four-leaved clover about her...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

How Joan lost the sight of her eye - part 1

'JOAN was housekeeper to Squire Lovell, and was celebrated for her beautiful knitting. One Saturday afternoon Joan wished to go to Penzance to buy a pair of shoes for herself, and some things for the Squire. So the weather being particularly fine, away she trudged.


Joan dearly loved a bit of gossip, and always sought for company. She knew Betty Trenance was always ready for a jaunt to be sure, everybody said Betty was a witch; but, says Joan, "Witch or no witch, she shall go; bad company is better than none."

Away went Joan to Lemorna, where Betty lived. Arrived at Betty's cottage, she peeped through the latch-hole (the finger-hole), and saw Betty rubbing some green ointment on the children's eyes. She watched till Betty Trenance had finished, and noticed that she put the salve on the inner end of the chimney stool, and covered it over with a rag....' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

Fairy Ointment - part 5

'...When the Squire awakened the old woman, she told him the story which I have told you. Her master, however, said that he didn't believe she had been into Penzance at all, but that she had stayed in the Cove arid got drunk: that when dark night came, she had endeavoured to find her way home,--lost her road, -- fallen down, and probed her eye out on a furze bush, and then gone off in drunken unconsciousness. Nancy told her master that he was no better than an unbelieving heathen; and to the day of her death she protested that Tom Trayer put her eye out. Jenny's ointment is said to have been made with a four-leaved clover, gathered at a certain time of the moon. This rendered Fairyland visible, and made men invisible.'

Hunt 1903

Fairy Ointment - part 3

'...Penzance Market was in those days entirely in the street; even the old market-house had not yet an existence. Nancy walked about doing a little business and a great deal of gossiping; when amongst the standings in Market-Jew Street, whom should Nancy see but Tom Trayer, picking off the standings, shoes, stockings, hanks of yarn, and pewter spoons--indeed, some of all the sorts of things which were for sale. Nancy walked up to him, and, taking him by the arm, said, "Tom! ar'then't ashamed to be here carrying on such a game? However thee canst have the impudence, I can't think, to be picking the things from the standings and putting them in thy pocket in broad daylight, and the people all around thee." Tom looked very much surprised when Nancy spoke to him. At last he said, "Is that you, Nancy?--which eye can you see me upon?" Nancy shut her left eye, this made no difference; she then shut her right eye, and, greatly to her surprise, she saw all the people, but she no longer saw Tom. She opened her right eye, and there was Tom as before. She winked, and winked, and was surprised, you may be sure, to find that she could not see Tom with either eye. "Now, Nancy," said Tom, "right or left." "Well," said Nancy, "'tis strange; but there is something wrong with my left eye."...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

Fairy Ointment - part 2

'...Indeed, some ill-natured people--and there are always such to be found in any nook or corner--said Nancy often took her master home a choice bottle of Cogniac; even a case of "Hollands" now and then; and, especially when there was to be a particularly "great run," there were some beautiful silk handkerchiefs to be seen at the Squire's. But this is beyond our story. When Nancy went into Jenny's cottage, Tom was there, and right busy was she in preparing some ointment, and touching her husband's eyes with it: this Jenny tried to hide in the mouth of the oven at the side of the chimney. Tom got up and said he must be off, and left the two women together. After a few idle compliments, Jenny said that Nancy must have something to drink before she started for Penzance, and she went to the sence for the bottles. Nancy, ever curious, seized the moment, dipped her finger into the pot of green ointment, and, thinking it was good for the eyes, she just touched her right eye with it before Jenny returned. They then took a horn or two together, and being thus spliced, Nancy started for Penzance...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

Fairy Ointment - part 1

'MANY years since, there lived as housekeeper with a celebrated squire, whose name is associated with the history of his native country, one Nancy Tregier. There were many peculiarities about Nancy; and she was, being a favourite with her master, allowed to do much as she pleased. She was in fact a petted, and, consequently, a spoiled servant. Nancy left Pendeen one Saturday afternoon to walk to Penzance, for the purpose of buying a pair of shoes. There was an old woman, Jenny Trayer, living in Pendeen Cove--who had the reputation of being a witch--or, as some people mildly put it, "who had strange dealings;" and with her Nancy desired, for sundry reasons best known to herself, to keep on the closest of terms. So on this Saturday, Nancy first called on the old woman to inquire if she wished to have anything brought home from Penzance. Tom, the husband of Nancy's friend, did no work; but now and then he would go to sea for an hour or two and fish. It is true everybody gave Jenny just what she asked for her fish, out of pure fear. Sometimes they had a "venture" with the smugglers, who, in those days, carried on a roaring trade in Pendeen Cove. The old Squire was a justice; but he winked very hard, and didn't know anything about the smugglers...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

Betty Stoggs and Jan the Monster - part 2

'...The old people used to say--they wouldn't put the poor innocent chield to work to Bal, for fear the great rough heathens from Lelant might overcome her; so they kept her at home, and the old man would brag how his Betty could cut furze and turf. Instead of staying at home in the evenings, Betty was always racing round the lanes to class-meetings; for she had been a "professor ever since' she was a chield." Betty was an only child, and the old people had saved a little money, and they hoped some one "above the common" would marry her. In Higher Side there lived a man called Jan the Mounster (monster), and, tempted by the bit of money, he resolved to lay himself out to catch Betty. Jan became a converted character--he met in the same class with Betty, a expressed himself as being "so fond of the means of grace." Things went on in this way for some time, and it was found that Betty "had met with a misfortune." The old people were now in a great hurry to marry their daughter, and promised Jan money enough. to buy a set of cheene (china), and lots of beautiful clome (earthenware); but Mounster required more than this, and fought off. He left the "people," that he mightn't be read out. He said he was heartily sick of the lot, told strange stories about their doings, and became as bad a character as ever. Time advanced, and Betty 's mother--who was herself a wretchedly dirty woman, and, as people said, too fond of the "drop of drink "-- saw that she must lose no chance of making her daughter an honest woman. So she went to Penzance and bought a new bed--a real four-poster--a new dresser, painted bright lead and liver colour--an eight-day clock, in a painted mahogany case--a mass of beautiful clome--and a glass milk-cup. When all these things were ranged in cottage, Jan was well enough pleased with them, and hung his "great turnip of a watch" up in the middle of the dresser, to see how it would look. When he had satisfied himself he told the old woman he would marry Betty out of hand, if she would give them their great pretty, bright, warming-pan to hang opposite the door. This was soon settled, and Jan the Mounster and Betty Stogs were married...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

Changelings

'A CORRESPONDENT, to whom I am much indebted for many curious examples of the folk-lore of the people in the -remote districts to the west of Penzance, says, in reference to some stories of fairy changelings--"I never knew but one child that had been kept by the Spriggans more than three days. It was always complaining, sickly, and weakly, and had the very face of a changeling."

It has been my fortune, some thirty or forty years since, to have seen several children of whom it had been whispered amongst the peasantry that they were changelings. In every case they have been sad examples of the influence of mesenteric disease--the countenance much altered -- their eyes glassy and sunk in their sockets--the nose sharpened--the cheeks of a marble whiteness, unless when they were flushed with hectic fever--the lips sometimes swollen and of a deep,- red colour, and small ulcers not unfrequently at the angles of the mouth. The wasted frame, with sometimes strumous swellings, and the unnatural abdominal enlargement which accompanies disease of mesenteric glands, gives a very sad, and often a most unnatural appearance to the sufferer. The intense ignorance which existed in many of the districts visited by me, at the period named, has been almost dispelled by the civilising influences of Wesleyanism. Consequently, when ascrofulous child is found in a family, we no longer hear of its being a changeling; but, within a very recent period, I have heard it said that such afflicted children had been "ill-wished."'

Hunt 1903