Devon Charm to stop a nose bleed

Statue of Our Lady with Christ child, Buckfast Abbey, Devon

"Say nine times with great faith these words :

Blood abide in this vein as Christ abideth in the church, and hide in thee as Christ hideth from himself.

The bleeding will presently cease."

Hewett 1900

The Glastonbury Thorn

Glastonbury Thorn - By Tom Ordelman [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)], from Wikimedia Commons

"But we are at the foot of an eminence called Weary-all-hill, and we pause, and in our mind's eye see the Eastern traveller, weary and worn, who slowly mounts it, followed by a few monks. It is Joseph of Arimathea, sent from Gaul by Philip to carry the tidings of salvation to Albion, and if possible to overthrow the horrid Druidical religion. 

We see him strike his staff into the ground and hear him say, "Here will I build a temple for the worship of Christ, my Lord." And the staff bursts into white blossoms, and behold the Thorn of Glastonbury. But the spot proved too small for the site of a church, and the missionaries moved forward and built their lowly temple, of wattles and wreathed twigs, in mystic Avalon.

There is still a Chapel of St. Joseph. Did the holy Jew really bring the Gospel to Britain? It does not seem impossible, when we remember how far the Apostles travelled and preached; and of one fact there is no doubt: it was at Glastonbury that the tidings of salvation first reached the ears of the British people. In the most ancient charters of the monastery are these significant words applied to the abbey, "the fountain and origin of all religion in the realm of Britain.""

Valentine (undated)

Map - Wearyall Hill

The Olive, The Crown, The King and The Church - part 2

Bath Abbey or Cathedral - Some rights reserved by alkruse24

"...He interpreted this dream as calling on him to restore the Church, for Olive answered to his Christian name, Oliver, and King to his family name. Most certain it is," Harrington continues, "he was so transported with his dream for the time, that he presently set in hand with the church (the ruins whereof I rue to behold even in writing these lines), and at the west end thereof he caused a representation to be graved of this his vision of the Trinity, the angels, and the ladder; and on the north side the olive and crown, with certain French words, which I could not read, but in English is the verse taken out of the Book of Judges, chap. ix. :-

'Trees going to choose their king,
Said, Be to us the Olive King.'"

The window to which Harrington refers is, at the present day, one of the glories of the cathedral; it represents the dream which led to the re-erection of the building. 

But Bishop King died and left his work unfinished, and the Reformation arrested all architectural ecclesiastic work, and in Harrington's time the church, which had become dilapidated, lay in a ruinous state."

Valentine (undated)

Map - Bath Abbey

The Traceys and Thomas a Becket

"Bovey Tracey was, says Risdon, the "ancient inheritance of the Traceys, Barons of Barnstaple". They have also historical notoriety for the murder of St. Thomas a Becket ; And the ill-luck of the family has ever since been proverbial :-

All the Traceys

Have the wind in their faces.

The fine old church which stands at the top of the town is dedicated to the saint, and is said to have been founded by William de Tracey in expiation of the murder.

Like most Devon churches the present building belongs to the fifteenth century.  The richly carved and painted screen should be noticed, Devonshire churches being as famous for their screens, as those of Somerset are for towers. The figures on the panels are probably intended to represent, alternatively, and apostle and a prophet, as are those on the neighboring parish of Chudliegh ; but they appear unfinished.

However, Bovey folk will tell you that they represent St. Thomas and his murderers! as the panels have upon them a bishop, a king, and two other people, whom we may suppose are William de Tracey and Reginald Fitzurse."

Creswell, 1921

 

Map - Bovey Tracey

Cromlechs and Druid's stones - part 2

Dartmoor - through a weathered joint in a Tor - Watern Tor?

"...The result, however, of my own observations, made with much curiosity and considerable care, has been to convince me, that in by far the greatest number of instances the disintegration, though general around the line of a "bed-way" or horizontal joint, has gone on rapidly on the side exposed to the beat of the weather, while the opposite extremity has been but slightly worn; consequently, the stones have a tendency to be depressed on the sheltered side. With a little labour man could correct this natural defect, and with a little skill make a poised stone. We have incontrovertible evidence that certain poised stones have been regarded, through long periods of time, as of a sacred character. Whether these stones were used by the Druids, or merely that the ignorant people supposed them to have some peculiar virtue, I care not. The earliest inhabitants of Cornwall, probably Celts, ["A Celtic race, however, continues to occupy the primeval districts of Cornwall, and preserved, almost to our own day, a distinct dialect of the Celtic tongue."--Prehistoric Annals a Scotland, p. 195 DANIEL WILSON. See Appendix N, 'in, Celts.] were possessed with some idea that these stones were connected with the mysteries of existence; and from father to son, for centuries, notwithstanding the introduction of Christianity, these stones have maintained their sacred character. Therefore, may we not infer that the leaders of the people availed themselves of this feeling; and finding many rocks of a gigantic size, upon which nature had begun the work, they completed them, and used the mighty moving masses to impress with terror--the principle by which they ruled--the untaught, but poetically constituted, minds of the people. Dr Borlase has been laughed at for finding rock-basins, the works of the Druids, in every granitic mass. At the same time, those who laugh have failed to examine those rock-masses with unprejudiced care, and hence they have erred as wildly as did the Cornish antiquary, but in a contrary direction. Hundreds of depressions are being formed by the winds and rains upon the faces of the granite rocks. With these no Druid ever perplexed himself or his people. But there are numerous hollows to be found in large flat rocks which have unmistakably been formed, if not entirely, partly by the hands of man. The Sacrificing Rock, or Cam Brea, is a remarkable example. The larger hollows on the Men-rock, in Constantine, several basins in the Logan Rock group, and at Cam Boscawen, may be referred to as other examples. With these remarks, I proceed to notice a few of the most remarkable rock-masses with which tradition has associated some tale."

Kestor - Dartmoor, associated in the past with the Druids

Hunt 1903

Map - Carn Brea
Map - Constantine
Map - Cam [Carn?] Boscawen 

Morva or Morveth (Sea-daughters) part 2

"...Mr Blight, in his "Week at the Land's End," speaking of the church in the adjoining parish, Zennor, which still remains in nearly its primitive condition, whereas Morva church is a modern structure, says--"Some of the bench ends were carved; on one is a strange figure of a mermaid, which to many might seem out of character in a church." (Mr Blight gives a drawing of this bench end.) This is followed by a quotation bearing the initials R. S. H., which, it is presumed, are those of the Rev. R. S. Hawker, of Morwenstow: - "The fishermen who were the ancestors of the Church, came from the Galilean waters to haul for men. We, born to God at the font, are children of the water. Therefore, all the early symbolism of the Church was of and from the sea. The carvure of the early arches was taken from the sea and its creatures. Fish, dolphins, mermen, and mermaids abound in the early types, transferred to wood and stone."..." [cont...]

Hunt 1903

The Cross Tree of Chagford

[This photo is of the site of Chagfords Cross tree, now supplanted by a granite boulder installed at the millennium.  Though I have asked many people no one appears to know much about the origional tree, despight it being celebrated in a kneeler in the local church.  Many Devon and some Somerset and Dorset villages had Cross Trees, often situated just outside the church entrance. Most where elm, but Chagfords was an oak.  There is some confusion as to whether they are called cross trees because of being at a cross ways (the entrance to the church) or whether they had some religious connotation.  During the middle ages the church frequently had to petition people to stop worshiping under trees and by rocks and springs, albeit in a Christian way.  I have read somewhere about one cross tree being used for religious purposes as a hangover from Catholic times in England.

The only rumors I found to Chagfords Cross Tree was that it was once part of a giant circle of trees that surrounded (and predated!) the land where the church now stands, a druids grove none the less, with one tree standing in historic times in the square (never seen any evidence for this) and the last one being the that which felled in the 1970's, called the Cross Tree...  Very mysterious...]

Stoke and the Abbey founded because of shipwreck

'Between Hartland and Hartland Quay the village of Stoke St. Nectan is passed, with its pretty old church and churchyard; and the stately mansion of Hartland Abbey, a seat of the old family of Stucley, reposing amid luxuriant woods on the green and pleasant valley-slope. Of the ancient monastery - founded by the Countess Elgitha in grateful commemoration of the escape of her husband, Earl Godwin, from shipwreck - the present mansion embodies the Decorated arched cloister, built by Abbot John of Exeter.'

Hope Moncrieff 1895

Jahn Tregeagle the Steward - part 2

'..."And he rent for the man, and axed 'n for az rent: and the man said he'd apaid az rent: and the lord said he hadn't, there warn't no cross to az name in the books, and he tould 'n that he 'd have the law for 'ii if he didn't pay.

"And the man, he didn't know what to do: and he went yore to the minister of Simonward; [St Breward.] and the minister axed 'n if he'd a got faith: and the man, he hadn't got faith, and he was obliged for to come homewards again.

"And after that the 'Zaizes was coming naigh, and he was becoming afeerd, sure enough: and he went yore to the minister again, and tould'n he'd a got faith; the minister might do whatever a laiked.

"And the minister draed a ring out on the floor: and he caaled out dree times, Jahn Tergagle, Jahn Tergagle, Jahn Tergagle I and (I 've a heerd the ould men tell ut, sir) theess Jahn Tergagle stood before mun in the middle of the ring.

"And he went yore wi' mun to the Ezaizes, and gave ax evidence and tould how this man had a paid az rent; and the lord he was cast.

"And after that they was come back to their own house, theess Jahn Tergagle he gave mun a brave deal of trouble; he was knackin' about the place, and wouldn't laive mun alone at all...'

Hunt 1903

St. Margery Daw and the Piskies

'WE have no reliable information of the birth, parentage, or education of Margery Daw, but we have a nursery rhyme which clearly indicates that she must have been a sloven--perhaps an ancient picture of a literary lady, who was by her sad habit reduced to extreme necessity.

See saw, Margery Daw,

clearly indicates a lazy woman rocking herself either in deep thought, or for want of thought.

Sold her bed and lay on the straw;

this was stage the first of her degradation. 

She sold her straw and lay in the smut,

the second and final stage, which may well induce the poet to inquire--

Was not she a dirty slut?

Another version of Margery's story is more distinct as to her

See saw,
Margery Daw,
Sold her bed
And lay on the straw;
She sold her straw,
And lay upon hay,
So piskies came
And carried her away.

A friend, in writing to me on this dirty Cornish saint, is disposed to regard St Margery Daw as a very devout Roman Catholic, and to refer the version of her story which I have given first to the strong feeling shown by many Protestants against those pious women who rejected the finery of the world, and submitted for the sake of their souls to those privations which formed at one time the severe rule of conventual life. Margery and the fairies are supposed to have left England together at the time of the Reformation, but she has left her name to several Cornish mines.

Buccas or Knockers

'Buccas or knockers are believed to inhabit the rocks, caves, adits, and wells of Cornwall. In the parish of Towednack there was a well where those industrious small people might every day be heard busy at their labours--digging with pickaxe and shovel. I said, every day. No; on Christmas-day--on the Jews' Sabbath--on Easter-day--and on All-Saints' day -- no work was done. Why our little friends held those days in reverence has never been told me, Any one, by placing his ear on the ground at the mouth of this well, could distinctly hear the little people at work.'

Hunt 1903

Exeter - St. Sidwell's / St Sativola's Well

'On the spot where St. Sidwella is reputed to have been martyred is the well.dedicated in her honour; it is situated on the left-hand of the Exeter side of the tunnel leaving the city, at a place called Lion's Holt. St. Sidwella, virgin martyr 740, was buried near St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter. William of Worcester speaks of her thus : "Sancta Satwola virgo canonizata ultra portam orientalem." She is commemorated on December 18. A line spring near the church supplied the ancient well bearing her name, by which, tradition has it, she lived the life of a recluse. In the east window of Exeter Cathedral she is represented with a scythe in her hand, and a well behind her, probably but a rebus on her name Sithewella ; she also figures on one of the columns in the cathedral, carrying her head in her hands (Col. Aug. Ch., 287). Bishop Grandison, in his Legenda Sanctorum, states that St. Sidwella was the eldest of four devout sisters, daughters of Henna, a noble Briton residing in Exeter. On his death, her cruel and covetous stepmother, envious of the fortune of St. Sidwella, who inherited considerable property in the eastern suburbs of the city, engaged one of her servants, a reaper or mower, to become her assassin, which he did, whilst she was occupied in her devotions, near the well in Hedeweil Mede, at a little distance from the
parish church which still bears her name. The locality of the spring agrees very well with this, as it is situated in what is now called Well Lane. Some time hence people may wonder why this street is so called, as the well is not now to be seen ; it has been destroyed, and the site is occupied by a house which has been built over it. The well, however, is distinctly marked on. Rogers' map of Exeter, dated 1744, as "Sidwell's Well"—Trans. and Reports Dev. Ass., xii. 449.'

Hope 1893

North Molton - Holy Well Revel

'At daybreak on Ascension morning (1882), two men, and a woman carrying a child, were seen hurrying towards the celebrated well at North Molton, each trying to outrun the others, so as to be the first to bathe, and to be cured of some ailment. Later in the day merry groups of children and picnic parties enlivened the glen in which the well is situated. An old chapel, with a cemetery attached, is said to have formerly occupied the ground surrounding the far-famed spring. Every year pilgrims full of faith in the miraculous power of the water visit the spot for bathing, and jars
of the water are carried by some of them to their homes ; indeed, believers prize this water, which they carry back with them, as much as ever did any pilgrims of old value the leaden bottle of liquid obtained from Beckett's tomb at Canterbury.—Folk-lore Record, v., 160.

The North Devonshire Herald, May 25,1884, records a pilgrimage having just been made to the well on the morning of Ascension Day.'

Hope 1893

Morwenstow - Well of St John in the wWlderness

'The following is recorded in the endowment deed, dated 1296, regarding this well on the eastern boundary of Morwenstow Glebe. It is preserved in Bishop Brantingham's Register : " The church land is said to extend eastward ad queridum fonlem Johannis. Water wherewithal to fill the font for baptism is always drawn from this well by the sacristan, in pitchers set apart for this purpose. It stands midway down the cliff on the present glebe ; around it on either hand are rugged and sea-worn rocks, before it the wide sea." This hallowed spot has been made by Mr. Hawker the subject of the following lines :

Mere dwelt in times long past, so legends tell,
Holy Morwenna, guardian of this well;
Here on the foreheads of our fathers pour'd
From this lone spring the laver of the Lord !
If, traveller, (liy happy spirit know
That awful font whence living waters flow,
Then hither come to draw—thy feet h.'tve found
Amid these rocks a place of holy ground !
Then sigh one blessing I breathe a voice of praise
O'er the fond labour of departed days !
Tell the glad waters of their former fame,
And teach the joyful winds Morwenna's name.

Hope 1893

[I have been here, me and my future wife tied clouties - or in our case worn out friendship bracelets to the branches and made wishes - a different tradition, but felt like we aught to make some sort of an offering. The etching may be correct - except in scale - but the description seemed wrong unless the sea has moved a bit. It might have been that the trees hid the sea, but we didn't seem that close to it. It now appears to be almost in someones garden.]

St James' Church, Exeter

'St James's Recently re-erected in the Early English style, has a pulpit of Spanish carved oak, formally in the cathedral, and said to have been captured in a Spanish galleon.'

Hope Moncrieff 1895

Exeter Cathedral and the Gunpowder Plot

'In the south tower hang eleven bells; the tenor, weighing 7522lbs., and a gift of Bishop Grandisson, was cracked when ringing an exuberant peal on the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot.'

Hope Moncrieff 1895

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

Nursing a Fairie - part 1

'A THRIFTY housewife lived on one of the hills between Zennor Church-town and St Ives. One night a gentleman came to her cottage, and told her he had marked her cleanliness and her care that he had a child whom he desired to have brought up with much tenderness, and he had fixed on her. She should be very handsomely rewarded for her trouble, and he showed her a considerable quantity of golden coin. Well, she agreed, and away she went with the gentleman to fetch this child. When they came to the side of Zennor hill, the gentleman told the woman he must bindfold her, and she, good, easy soul, having heard of such things, fancied this was some rich man's child, and that the residence of its mother was not to be known, so she gave herself great credit for cunning in quietly submitting. They walked on some considerable distance. When they stopped the handkerchief was taken from her eyes, and she found herself in a magnificent room, with a table spread with the most expensive luxuries, in the way of game, fruits, and wines. She was told to eat, and she did so with some awkwardness, and not a little trembling. She was surprised that so large a feast should have been spread for so small a party,--only herself and the master. At last, having enjoyed luxuries such as she never tasted before or since, a silver bell was rung, and a troop of servants came in, bearing a cot covered with satin, in which was sleeping the most beautiful babe that human eyes ever gazed on. She was told this child was to be committed to her charge; she should not want for anything; but she was to obey certain laws. She was not to teach the child the Lord's Prayer; she was not to wash it after sundown she was to bathe it every morning in water, which she would find in a white ewer placed in the child's room this was not to be touched by any one but herself, and she was to be careful not to wash her own face in this water. - In all other respects she was to treat the child as one of her own children. The woman was blinded again, and the child having been placed in her arms, away she trudged, guided by the mysterious father...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

The Small People

Of the Small People I have heard two accounts. Indeed, it is by no means clear that the tradition of their origin does not apply to the whole five branches of this ancient family. The Small People are believed by some to be the spirits of the people who inhabited Cornwall many thousands of years ago--long, long before the birth of Christ. That they were not good enough to inherit the joys of heaven, but hat they were too good to be condemned to eternal fires. They were said to be "poor innocents" (this phrase is now applied to silly children). When they first came into this land, they were much larger than they are now, but ever since the birth of Christ they have been getting smaller and smaller. Eventually they will turn into muryans (ants), and at last be lost from the face of the earth. These Small People are exceedingly playful amongst themselves, but they are usually demure when they know that any human eye sees them. They commonly aid those people to whom they take a fancy, and, frequently, they have been known to perform the most friendly acts towards men and women. The above notion corresponds with the popular belief in Ireland, which is, "that the fairies are a portion of the fallen angels, who, being less guilty than the rest, were not driven to hell, but were suffered to dwell on earth." [d] In Cornwall, as in Wales, another popular creed is, that the- fairies are Druids becoming--because they will not give up their idolatries--smaller and smaller. These Small People in many things closely resemble the Elves of Scandinavia.'

Hunt 1903

The giant Bolster, part 3

[cont.] '...Be this as it may, the giant Bolster became deeply in love with St Agnes, who is reputed to have been singularly beautiful, and a pattern woman of virtue. The giant allowed the lady no repose. He followed her incessantly, proclaiming his love, and filling the air with the tempests of his sighs and groans. St Agnes lectured Bolster in vain on the impropriety of his conduct, he being already a married man. This availed not; her prayers to him to relieve her from his importunities were also in vain. The persecuted lady, finding there was no release for her, while this monster existed, resolved to be rid of him at any cost, and eventually succeeded by the following stratagem:-- Agnes appeared at length to be persuaded of the intensity of the giant's love, but she told him she required yet one small proof more. There exists at Chapel Porth a hole in the cliff at the termination of the valley. If Bolster would fill this hole with his blood the lady would no longer look coldly on him. This huge bestrider-of-the-hills thought that it was an easy thing which was required of him, and felt that he could fill many such holes and be none the weaker for the loss of blood. Consequently, stretching his great arm across the hole, he plunged a knife into a vein, and a torrent of gore issued forth. Roaring and seething the blood fell to the bottom, and the giant expected in a few minutes to see the test of his devotion made evident, in the filling of the hole. It required much more blood than Bolster had supposed; still it must in a short time be filled, so he bled on. Hour after hour the blood flowed from the vein, yet the hole was not filled. Eventually the giant fainted from exhaustion. The strength of life within his mighty frame enabled him to rally, yet he had no power to lift himself from the ground, and he was unable to stanch the wound which he had made. Thus it was, that after many throes, the giant Bolster died !

The cunning saint, in proposing this task to Bolster, was well aware that the hole opened at the bottom into the sea, and that as rapidly as the blood flowed into the hole it ran from it, and did

"The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red."

Thus the lady got rid of her hated lover; Mrs Bolster was released, and the district freed from the presence of a tyrant. The hole at Chapel Porth still retains the evidences of the truth of this tradition, in the red stain which marks the track down which flowed the giant's blood.

There is another tradition, in some respects resembling this one, respecting a giant who dwelt at Goran, on the south Coast....'

Hunt 1903