Some Old Songs of Devonshire

Me playing fiddle - if you wish to use my photos please attribute this blog, thanks!

[I am a little uncertian what to do here - Please say if you think I have got it wrong.

Sarah Hewett includes a few Devonian folksongs in the end of her book.  I am uncertian whether to include them here. As this blog is mostly about the folklore of places, and most of the songs do not mention the place they are about I feel I should leave them out. Also including folk-songs takes us into huge territory, as a glance around the collections of EFDSS website will show. Most are not that unique to the place they where connected.

However, just because folklore appears in song form dosent meen it is not folklore!

It is a hard call to make for someone who has spent his life enraptured in the musical arms of folkmusic.

I think on this occasion, unless the song contains a reffrence to a specific West Country place I will simply list the song titles, and leave it at that. 

I am so slow at creating these posts I feel it would take to much time to include folksongs. Perhaps when I am in my 90's, and most of the folklore that is not in copyright is up here I will start on songs as well.

So here are the songs I am not detailing from Hewett 1900 - 

A SONG WRITEN ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY 1844

YOUNG ROGER OF THE VALLEY.

THE OLD MAN'S SONG.

DADDY FOX.

WHERE ARE YOU GOING, FAIR MAID ?

THE OLD MAN WHO LIVED IN A WOOD.

RAISING THE ANCHOR.

THE DEAR LITTLE LETTER.

CHILDREN'S SONG FOR ALL SOULS' DAY.

THE KNIGHT KILLED THE SQUIRE.

THE DEVIL AND THE TAILOR.

THE STAR IN THE CANDLE.

A ROBIN TAPPING AT THE WINDOW PANE.

The following songs do reference a place, so I will include them -

PURTY JANE.

THE TRUE LOVERS.

JAN POOK.

BARBARA ALLEN.

THE WEST COUNTRY MAN.

BARNSTAPLE FAIR.]

Devon charm to discover the initials of your future husband

Saints Jude and Simeon and the magicians - from Alciato's Book of Emblems, 14th century

 

"On October 28th, the day dedicated to Saints Simeon and Jude, is the most propitious on which to use the following incantation for the discovery of the future one's initials. Take a fine round apple, peel it in one whole length. Take the paring in the right hand, stand in the centre of a large room, and while waving the paring gently round your head repeat :

St. Simeon and St. Jude on you I intrude,
By this paring I hold to discover.
Without delay, tell me I pray,
The first letters of my own true lover.

Then drop the paring over the left shoulder and it will form the initial of your future husband's name; if it break up into small pieces you will die an old maid."

Hewett 1900

Lucky in Devon - 18

No star here! Some rights reserved by Velo Steve

It is lucky

"To see a star on the wick of a candle.

" There's a star in the candle to-night,
One bright little spot shining clear,
To make our heavy hearts light,
By shewing that a letter is near.""

Hewett 1900

Devon Dreams O - R

"The following few examples shew " the stuff which dreams are made of."

Oats. 
Are lucky omens of success.

Onions.
If you dream you are eating them you will find much money.

Pall. 
One over a coffin is prophetic of a wedding dress.

Parcel.
If you carry one you should receive a foreign letter.

Quarrels.
If you dream of them it is a sign that you will soon be very profitably engaged in a business matter.

Rain.
Is an omen of misfortune.

Rats. 
Prophesy enemies near at hand.

Hewett 1900

Letters that cross in the post... AND DEATH! (in Devon)

The Pillar of Doom.... By Green Lane (Own work) [GFDL (http://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

"If letters cross in the post it is a sign of death."

Hewett 1900

Recipe for making a Dumb Cake

This fireplace is from Dolgoch Youth Hostel in Wales, not Devon!  - If you want to use my images, please do, but I would appreciate it if you attributed this blog

"IN the preparation of a dumb cake, if perfection be desired, it is imperative to observe strict: silence, and to follow these instructions closely.

Let any number of unmarried ladies each take a handful of wheaten flour, and place it on a sheet of white paper, then sprinkle it with as much salt as can be held between the finger and thumb ; then, one must put as much clear spring-water as will make it into dough, which being done, each of the party must roll it up, and spread it thin and broad, and each maid must, at some distance apart, make the first letters of their Christian and surname with a large new pin, towards the end of the cake ; if more christian-names than one, the first letter of each one must be made. Then set the cake before the fire, and each girl must sit down in a chair, as far from the fire as the room will admit, not speaking a word all the time. This must be done between eleven and twelve o'clock at night. Each person in rotation must turn the cake once, and five minutes after midnight the husband of her who is to be wed first will appear and lay his hand upon that part of the cake bearing her initials. From the Norwood Gipsy Fortune-teller.

If the cake be eaten, strict silence must be observed from the moment a slice is cut. The person walks backwards from the room, up the stairs, and after undressing goes into bed, still backwards. Stumbling and giggling are inadmissible. It is presumed that happy dreams of " the loved one" will occupy the hours of slumber."

Hewett 1900

[This recipe seems to be taken from a publication talking about London, but as "Dumb Cake" is used in one of the previous post I thought it was worth posting. The last paragraph could well be referring to a Devon practice - the area covered by Hewetts book.]

Hewett's Haloween - Part 7 - Water letters love-charm

Zephyris at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons

"Next came Tom to try his hap with a pair of scissors. Tom in silence separated the capital letters, each falling into the basin of water without being touched by the hand. When all were free they were stirred and left to settle. The initials of the future one, were supposed to float on the water. Alas ! poor Tom ! in his case fifteen letters presented themselves. Here again was food for fun and conjecture. Many suggestions were made. Tom, perhaps was going to be a Mormon, or perhaps he was going abroad and set up a harem, and all sorts of other absurd theories. Mary at last came to the rescue, " Oh, I know," said she, " take G and M out and there you have Gertrude Morley, then tack all the rest on to the end of the name, and there you have certain degrees won by Gertrude at the 'Varsity. Gertrude is a Newnham student. Last autumn in the long vacation there was a young woman of that strain dodging across the hills, and on one occasion when she saw our Tom cantering towards her, her bike became fractious instanter, and poor innocent Tom had to dismount, tie Highflyer to a gate-post and assist the distressed biker. Of course, Tom couldn't help himself and had to lead Highflyer up the hill and push the bike too." Alas poor Tom ! Then turning to her mother she explained that Tom was about to present her with a new daughter in the form of a Newnham girl so vastly clever, that she used up all the alphabet to shew how clever she was and the heaps of degrees she took, &c., &c. " I say, Tom, do you think Gertrude Morley, B.A., M.D., M.G.L.Q.R., will like taking my place in the house work, and be able to cry chuggie, chuggie, chuggie, every morning to the dear little piggy-wiggies ; perhaps though, instead of giving them barley-meal and milk, she'll sit them all in a row, in the bottom of the trough, and teach 'em Latin and Greek don't-cher-know ; eh, Tom dear ?""

Hewett 1900

Map - Haldon Hills 

Hewett's Haloween - Part 6 - Lead love-charm

A lead droplet - Some rights reserved by Menage a Moi http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearpark/3156914401/sizes/z/in/photostream/

"Then everybody insisted on Jack trying his luck, which he essayed to do by melting a few scraps of lead in the ladle and pouring it red hot into one of the basins of cold water. The letters formed, or the nearest approach to letters, at the bottom of the basin were supposed to be the initials of the future " She." The closest resemblance to letters which we could discover was an I, and an L. The question which now arose amid merry peals of laughter was to whom the initials I.L. could belong. Many names were mentioned and negatived as soon as suggested, Jack looking rather bashful, when from Jenny came the query " Does not I stand for Ida, and L for Lang ? Ida Lang is a very pretty name, and is owned by a very sweet girl." 

Jack gave Jenny a look which could easily be interpreted "I owe you one for that, Jenny" "

Oh ! oh ! Jack," replied Jenny, " we are hoping that Ida Lang will not be an unappropriated blessing. She shall have my white satin and all the orange blossoms." There was a good deal more of this sort of chaff, but no offence was taken by the good-natured Jack, and things swung along amicably."

Hewett 1900

Map - Haldon Hills  
Map - Bristol

[I have some friends of English and German-Jewish descent in Bristol who do a version of this on New Years Eve, reading the future year from the shape of the lead. 

The caption for the above photo (not mine!) reads - My Future In The Palm of My Hand I spent a lovely New Year's Eve with friends. Superlekker and keroleen73 introduced the rest of us to Bleigießen - the German New Year's Eve custom of telling fortunes by the shapes made by molten lead dropped into cold water. I can't recall what mine meant but I loved the shape.]