THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
f
Legends & Superstitions
OF THE
COUNTY OF DURHAM,
BY
WILLIAM BROCKIE,
Author of "-The Confessioiad, and oilier Poems;"
"A History of Shields;" etc., etc.
SUNDERLAND :
C. Williams, 129, Iliou Street, and i & 2, William STiiEiir.
1886.
G-R
CHAPTER I.
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT.
A belief in Avitchcraft has prevailed more or less in all
ages, in civilised as well as in savage countries ; and
even yet it is far from being extinct, or seeming to
border on extinction, in the most enlightened Christian
countries. It is held, indeed, to rest on orthodox Scrip-
tural authority, God himself having given this positive
command to his chosen people — "Thou shalt not suffer
a witch to live." — a command as little fettered 1)y con-
ditions or exceptions as that other better known but too
loosely observed one — " Thou shalt not kill." An
intelligent old lady of my acquaintance once told me
flatly, that if she were forced to give up her belief in
the existence of witches, she would consider that one of
the sure foundations of her faith was taken away. She
was a consistent Hyper-Calvinist of the Rev. Samuel
Turner's flock. But, as in the present little work I
mean to confine myself to the region l)etween the Tyne
and the Tees, formerly known as the Patrimony of St.
Cuthljert, and also as the County Palatine of Durham,
with perhaps an occasional random " start and ower-
lowp," as the Scotch lawyers sa}-, into the neighbour-
ing counties, I shall not enter at all into any polemical,
ontological, psychological, or other discussion on the
suliject, nor trench on the rich province of comparative
2 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
mythology, but keep within my prescribed narrow
bounds. With a mere passing allusion, therefore, to the
Witch of Endor, the Sorcerer Elymas, Simon Magus,
Joan of Arc, the Swedish Witches on Mount Blockula,
the New England Witches, the Scottish Witches, the
Witches of Birtley, and the Newcastle Witches (the two
latter being in Northuml)erland, and so beyond my
strict limit) I proceed, without more preamble, to deal
Avitli the witches belonging to this particular district ;
anil as it cannot matter much which of the redoubtable
^Id dames we take first, I shall commence with : —
THE WITCH OF EASINGTOX.
Mrs. Mary Shaw, who died aljout three years ago, at
the age of eighty -five, and Avho went to live at Easington
Avhen she Avas forty years old, was told by the elderly
people of that old village that, in their young days,
whenever the neighbouring gentry went out with the
harriers to hunt over any of the farms round about
Easington or Castle Eden, it alwaj's occurred that a hare
started up and carried the dogs off the right scent,
straight towards the former })lace, and somehow or other,
without any of the usual doublings and windings, always
managed to throw them out and get clear away. This
ha})pened so often that it was plain to be seen that there
was something uncanny about this crafty member of the
leporine genus. Somebody at length suggested that it
nuist certainly be a witch, for Avitches, according to
common credence, often take out-door exercise, in the form
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM.
.of such fleet creatures ; and it was noticed that a certaiu
cottage in the place used to he shut up on tlie days
when the sports were held, as if its solitary inmate, an
ill-natured wrinkled old hag, a regular Ettercop— had
gone ahroad somewhere. She usually worked, indeed,
in the fields, so that this need not have been wondered
at ] but her sour temper and ill habits had rendered her
hateful to all her neighbours, so it was noways unnatural
that suspicion should fall upon her to the purport that she
was a witch, and consequently the identical mysterious
hare. In order to test the truth of this, the master of the
hounds was advised to get a black bloodhound, which
must have been suckled at a Avoman's breast, and set it on
the uncanny creature's track next time it appeared, Avhen
he was assured that its capture would be certain. A
hound answering this description was accordingly got,
and next field day it led the hunt. The hare had never
been so closely followed up before. It made, as usual,
direct for Easington ; but instead of the hound being-
thrown off the scent, it kept up the pursuit until the old
Avoman's cottage door was reached. A little hole had
been cut in that door, for the hens to go in and out at.
The hare rushed forward to get through the hole, but
the black hound was too close behind to let it get in
unscathed. Just as it Avas darting through, he caught it
on the haunch, and tore away a bit of the flesh. The
huntsmen hurried up, and, finding the door fast l)arred,
they burst it open. On entering they saw one of the
strangest sights that ever human eye Avas set on. No
LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
hare was to be seen, nor any other living hrutc beast,
but tliere sat the witch, liathed in sweat and shivering
in agony, Avith the Itlood streaming from her on to the
lioor. The poor creature, we are told, confessed her
guilt, which indeed, she could not easily have denied
under the circumstances ; and she earnestly l)egged
pardon and asked to be forgiven. Her charm had been
])roken by the draAving of the blood, and her power was
lienceforth gone, even if she had wished to exercise it.
The gentlemen charitably took pity on her, and left her
there alone, to staunch her Avound as she best kneAv hoAv.
NeA'er after that Avere the Easington and Castle Eden
harriers throAvn off the legitimate scent by any sucli
diabolic means ; and never again Avcre the gentlemen of
the hvuit ])rivilcged — if I may use the phrase — to folloAV
their game in througli a miseraldc Avidow Avoman's-
])olted cottage door. Up to this time, Avhen the crops
of any of the neighl^ouring farmers failed, or Avhen any
mishap befel their cattle, the misfortune had ahvays been
set doA\'n to the Avitch-Avoman's discredit, although it was-
inipossil)lc to bring the charge home to her, as had been
done in the hare case. It Avas l)y field labour she earned
her poor daily pittance, but she had generally to Avork
quite alone, for none of the other field Avorkers Avould gO'
near her if they could help it. In seed time^ turnip time,
weeding time, hay time, harvest time, and all through
the year, she Avas generally left to n^ork in a place by
herself ; yet scarcely a day elapsed in Avhich she did not
give somebody ofience Avith her vile randy tongue, Avliile
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAJI.
;anyone who was rash enough to offend her — and not
many did so willingly — were certain before long to
repent what they had done. In short, like Nanny in
Burns's Tarn 0' Shanter, she was a woman . who Avas
admirably endowed with all those unamiable qualities of
the virago that are best calculated to "keep a country
side in fear." She Avas a tall, lank, ])ony Avonian, Avitha
masculine cast of features. She li\-ed in the A^llage for a
fcAY years after the great mishap befel her, shunned and
detested more than CA'er. She ncA'er Avent to church or
chapel, or performed any religious duty ; yet Avheu she
died she was laid in consecrated ground in Easington
churchyard, Avithin the shadoAV of the lofty parish church,
Avhich, being situated on an eminence, serves as a sea-
mark for passing mariners. But, strange to tell, after
it Avas fondly hoped that she had thus Ijecn laid at rest,
her " poAver of Avitchery," to use my informant's phrase,
Avas still sometimes seen, in the shape of Avliite sheei),
rolling over and over on the top of the churchyard Avail.
This sight Avas actually Avitnessed by Mrs. ShaAv herself,
one night when she was going doAvn past the miller's
house to her OAvn home at the Hall Walks. The cottage
Avhere the Avitch lived was situated in the Square, on the
right hand side in going doAvn from the church toAvards
the sea, Avhich is aljout tAvo miles off. The door through
Avhich she darted to escape from the black hound Avas a
great clumsy old-fashioned one.
A WITCH-HARE AT SEDGEFTELD.
A similar incident is said to have happened at the
6 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
small market town of Sedgefield, about seventy years
ago. A party out coursing hares raised one in a field
near that place, towards whicii they were astonished to
.see that it ran direct. It made for a certain house, in the
bottom of the door of which there Avas, as in tlie last
case, a small cut, so as to admit the cat, or prol)abl}-
liens. Before it could reach it, however, one of the
dogs caught it by tlie leg, but could not keep its grip,
so that Bawtie got through. The hunters came up as
fast as they could, tried the door and finding that
it was fastened inside, burst it open, by shoving the
wooden bolt off. And when the}' had thus got in, there
was the old wife, the occupant of the cottage, all in a
broth of sweat, and puffing hard, with a broken leg.
LEDDY LISTER.
A retired farmer s Avife at Hcdworth, who went by
the name of Leddy Lister, was commonly held by the
people round about to l)e a witch. Nobody cared to
offend her ; neither did they care to be too kind with
her ; and if anything vrent wrong in the place it was
always put down to her hellish craft. It was said she
used to come out at niglit in different shapes, generally
as a very tall woman. Sometimes, too, she appeared as
a large sheet lying on the hedge, and when the folks
went forward to lift it, it would rise up and walk awa)-
before them, in the form of a white lad3\ Then it
would suddenly disappear. A young farmer was coming-
home one night, when the cry was raised "Leddy
OP THE COUNTY OF DURHA:M.
Lister's out !" He and some other youngsters, lads and
lasses, set off in pursuit at once. They traced her
through one or two fields, until they came to a stile,
where the two foremost stopped. Those behind im-
mediately cried out, " She is on the stile, standing close
behind you ! " The lads of course jumped off, turned
I'ound, and seeing her still in front, a little way off, led
the chase further on, till at last they were brought
almost close to Leddy Lister's house door. There the
apparition vanished. They knocked at the door, till
her " Leddyship '' herself came out. She was terribly
excited, and panting with rage, and swore she would
have them punished, for fastening such vile implications
upon her. The mob saw nothing for it but to disperse
for that night, but as not one of them believed a word
she had said, in denial of its having been her the}' had
seen, they determined they would continue to watch
her, which they accordingly did ; and she was afterwards
seen and followed rej^eatedly, but was ever, as before, lost
sight of at or near her own door. At length her husband,
it seems, got her persuaded not to walk any more after
nightfall. He had been too much annoyed by the mobs
coming to the door, and kicking up such horrid rows, to
be at all pleased with his wife's nocturnal perambulations.
One night only, she ventured out again, when the mob
traced her down to a neighbouring burn, and swore that
they would drown her. They actually caught hold of
her, shook her violently, dragged her home, and laid her
on the steps at the door, nearly killing her. That, says
LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
my informant, was her last "expert " from home. She
afterwards settled down quietly, because she could not
helj) herself, having l)een lamed through the ill treatment
she had got; and slic died a year or two afterwards, " to
the great comfort," I was tohl, " of all the good people
round about." My simple honest informant, I should
add, when out one evening, going from the house where
she lived to her mistress's mother's, met Leddy Lister
walking silently past, arrayed in her usual white garb.
She saluted her with " it's a fine night, Leddy Lister."
But the witch, as she Avas supposed to be, Avas not even so
polite as one Avould have expected of a vulgar ghost,
Avhich most assuredly Avould haA^e said something in
reply, after being civilly sj)oken to. The A'oung Avoman
chanced to meet Leddy Lister the next day, in broad
daylight, Avhen she said to her, " I met you last night
as I Avas crossing the Green, going to Grandmother's'
(that being the title her mistress's mother Avent by). "I
spoke to you, but you never ansAvered me, Avhich I
thought A^ery strange." " See me, no," replied her
Leddyship ; " You must not believe all you see, if you
think you saw me, for I Avas ncA'er out." I suspect, for
my part, that the poor Avoman must have been a sleep
Avalker, not a Avitch at all.
A AVITCII CAT,
Mr. John Bonner, farmer at Beggar-Bush, betAveen
Easington and Castle Eden, and close beside the re-
UGAvned Dene, was coming home one night in his cart,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 9
-when something rushed suddenly out of the hedge, leai)t
on to the cart behind him, and said, " Johnny Bonner,
Johnny ! when tliou gets hj'em, tell your cat Catherine
Curley's deed." Turning round to see who it was that
spoke, and seeing that it was a great big cat, he was
terrified out of his wits. The cat leapt off the cart and
he drove away furiously. When he reached home and
got into the house and had thrown himself down on a
seat, his wife saw he was in such a state, that she
■exclaimed in mortal fear "Johnny, what's the matter."
As soon as he could speak, her huslmnd gasped out "
Lass, sit down ! there's something awful happened te neet.
As I was coming h}'eni a cat lea])t on te me cart, and
says "Johnny Bonner, Johnny, when thou gans hyem,
tell your cat Catherine Curley's deed." No sooner had
the good man uttered these Avords, and his wife had not
had time to speak, when their own cat, a great favourite,
Avhich had been lying asleep on the ledge behind the
old-fashioned kitchen chinniey-piece, jumped up and ex-
claimed " Aw mun awa." She instantly ran out of the
house, and was seen no more. Mr. Bonner was suc-
ceeded in the farm by Mr. George Dobinson, the father
of the woman who told me the tale, Avhich she had often
lieai'd him tell.
ANOTHER WITCH CAT.
Mr. Hylton LongstafTe relates that a farmer of
Staindrop was one night crossing a bridge near that
place, when a cat jumped out, stood before him, and
10 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
looking him full in the face, said —
Johnny Recti, Johnny Reed !
Tell Madame Momfoot
That Mally Dixon's deed !
The farmer returned home, and in mickle wonder recited
this awful stanza, when up started their black cat, saying,
"Is she?" rushed out at the door, and disappeared for
ever. It was supposed she was a fairy in disguise, and
that she had run off to attend a sister's funeral ;
for in this part of the world, if not in all countries, fairies
do die, and green shady spots used to be pointed out by
the countr}'' folks as the cemeteries of the tiny people.
Halliwell, in his " Rhymes and Popular Stories," points
out tliat an analogous story is found in the popular
literature of Denmark. " Near a town called Lyng is
the hill of Brondhoe, inhabited by the trold-folk or imps.
Among those trolds was an old sickly devil, peevish, and
ill-tempered, because he was married to a young wife.
This unhappy trold often set the rest by the ears, sa
they nick-named him Knurre-Murre, or Rumble Grumble.
Now it came to pass that Knurre-Murre discovered that
his young wife Avas inclined to honour him with a supple-
mental pair of horns ; and the object of his jealousy, to
avoid his A'engeance, was compelled to Uy for his life
from the cavern, and take refuge, in shape of a tortoise-
shell cat, in the house of goodman Piatt, who harboured
him with much hospitality, let him lie on the great
wicker chair, and fed him twice a day with bread and
milk out of a red earthenware pipkin. One evening the
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 11
goodman came home, at a late hour, full of Avonder-
laent : — ' Good}- ,' exclaimed he to his Avife, ' as I was
passing by Brondhoe, there came out a trold, who spake
to me, saying,
Hor du, Plat,
Sag til din cat
At Knurre-Murrc er dod.
Hear thou, Piatt,
Say to th}- cat
That Knurre-Murre is dead.'
The tortoise-shell cat was lying on the great wicker chair^
and eating his supjier of bread and milk out of a red
earthenware pi})kin, when the goodman came in; but as
soon as the message had been dehvered, he jumped 1:)olt
upright upon his two hind legs, for all the world like a
Christian, and kicking the red earthenware pipkin and
the rest of the bread and milk before him, he whisked
through the cottage door, mewing, " What ! is Knurre-
Murre dead 1 then I may go home again ! "
TO COUNTERACT WITCHCRAFT.
A case occurred in old Dundas Street, Monkwear-
mouth, tAventy-four years ago, of a child believed to be
witched, so that it Avas shrivelled uj) to an " atomy."
The afflicted mother procured a black hen's heart, stuck
it full of pins and roasted it in the prescribed mode, and
Avhile the roasting Avas going on, the Avoman Avhom she
blamed came in and asked for the loan of a "Bit o'Tea,""
12 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
to make herself a cup, as she felt so bad. The loan was
granted, the spell Avas l)roken, and the child recovered.
THE witch's cradle.
Xo one ever saAv the AVitch's Cradle in Durham
Cathedral, l)ut many have heard it rocked. AVe have it
at second hand from one William Maughau, a native of
"NVolsingham, Avho, at the time when he told his ex-
perience was eighty years of age, but in full possession
oi his faculties and able to read without spectacles, that
*'■ he had heard it rock mony a time hissel. Mon}' a
time and mony a time agyen ! His fey ther, too, believed
it — never dooted it." William said the cathedral Avas
positively set down all in one night, like the Holy
House of Loretto. "Div a^v belicve't," he Avould say
when questioned on the point. " Yes sartainl}' ! " He
had travelled in his jjrime between Stanhope and
•" AVissenham," as he called it, with monej^ bags from
the bank containing thousands of pounds. " Neebody
ivver meddl't 'im," he answered, "they knaw'd better.
They saw he wur a l)rave lish man— a bad unto tackle."
BEWITCHED CHILDREN.
It is far from uncommon, in Sunderland, Shields,
Durham, Hartlepool, and other towns and villages, for
mothers whose children are not thriving to think them
bewitched. They then get a sheep or bullock's heart-
fi'om the butcher, stick it fidl of pins, and roast it before
• the fire. This breaks the charm, and the child afterwards
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAil. 1.5
thrives. A servant girl, Elizabeth Bell, told me her
grandfather once assisted at this ceremony, and while
the heart was being slowly consumed, the woman whom
the mother suspected of having bewitched her child
came in and asked them to give her a drink of water
for God's sake, as she felt as if her heart was on fire.
The child got rapidly better.
Ct. W., an old farmer, emigrated from Sedgefield to
Sunderland, and took up his residence in Dunning-street.
His daughter Hannah married a foreign sailor, to whom
she had a child. This child took ill and fell into a
" decline." One day an old woman who lived in the
neighbourhood came in, as an act of kindness, to assist
them in house-cleaning. The child happened to be very
restless that day, and kept crying without intennission.
The woman said she believed it was bewitched. Now
the old farmer, his wife Peggy, his daughter, and her
husband (a Portuguese), were all alike full of witchcraft.
So they at once concluded this Avas the case. And when
the old woman went out, after finishing her job of clean-
ing, and mending her gown which she had happened to
tear, they began eagerly to speculate who the witch
could be. A little patch of stuff, which their next door
neighbour had cut off when repairing her upper garment,
was found lying in the cradle. The conclusion instantlj-
liashed upon them that this was the fatal charm. So
the rag was burnt with certain mysterious ceremonies,
which my informant, an eye-witness, then a boy, cannot
now specify. But he remembers that they wished the}-
14 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
-could have got a black hen's heart to hurn along with
the stuff, which Avould infallibly have broken the spell.
Tlic supposed witch Avas never allowed to enter the
house, froju that day forward,
A young married woman at AVearmouth Colliery,
whose initials were A. J., had a child that had
been pining away till it Avas reduced to a skeleton. A
ncigh1)ovu' came in one day and advised her to consult
,a gj'psy woman then in the neighl)ourhood. The gyiisy
said the child had been bewitched l)y a female relative
to whom the mother had given some sort of offence ; and
Mrs. J. was advised to get a black hen, cut it open alive,
pull out its heart, stick it full of pins, and burn it in the
fire, at twelve o'clock at night precisely. " Then," said
the sybil, " the witch Avill not be able to rest, liut will
come in, and ask for the loan of something, and your
husband must be ready with a stick wherewith to fell her,
that is, knock her down, Avhich if he does, the spell Avill
be broken and your child will recover." Meanwhile the
mischief-making neighbour Avent away and told the
supposed Avitch, AA'^hose name Avas D.K., Avhat fate Avas
impending OA'er her if she Avent to visit her relatives
across the way. She therefore took care not to go.
.She had had a quarrel with the mother sometime before,
and though nearly related, they Avere not on speaking-
terms, Mr. and Mrs. J. sat up tliat night, till long past
the witching hour, the husband holding the rolling pin
in his hand ; but no Avitch made her appearance. The
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 15
spell was not broken, therefore, and the child died.
This took place about ten years ago, say 1875.
A poor woman, the Avife of a pitman, was brought
some years ago (say fifteen) before tlie city of Durham
bench of magistrates on the charge of stealing a fowl.
She made no attempt to deny the fact ; indeed, she had
previously admitted it to the policeman who ap})rehended
her, saying that she had committed the theft for the
purpose of working out a charm which was to restore
her sick child to health. The child, it appeared, had
long been ailing, and was now fiist pining away, when
its mother, full of uneasiness about it, consulted a witch
Avho lived near. The witch solemnly charged her to
steal a hen, take out the heart, stick it full of pins, and
roast it at midnight over a slow fire, first closing up every
communication with the open air. If this Avere only done,
the hag promised that as the heart was gradually con-
sumed, health would return to the suflPering child. The
magistrates, considering the delusion under Avhich she
had acted, dismissed the case.
THE BEWITCHED FARMER'S WIFE OF EDMUNDBYERS.
The following marvellous stor}', illustrative of the
prevalent belief in Avitchcraft in this part of the country
tAvo hundred years ago, is told in a curious pamphlet
printed in 1641, under the folio Aving title : —
" Most fearefull and strange neAves from the Bishopp-
ricke of Durham; being a true relation of one ]\Iargaret
Hooper, of Edenbyers, neere the Kivcr DarAvent in the
16 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
said Bishoppricke, &c., &c. London : Printed for John-
Thomas.
Upon the 15 day of Xovcniber now last past, 1641,
there is a yeo-man of good and honest reputation,
dwelling in the Towne fif Edenliyres, upon Darwent
AVater in the Bishopjiricke of Durhiini, avIiosc name is
(Stephen Hooper, a man of good wealth and also wcl-
Ijcloved of his neighl)onrs, who l)eing sicke, and lying in
a weake estate, sent his wife, whose name was Margaret
Hooper, to a farm which hee had in a village called Hans-
tonueth [Hunstonworth], some 3 miles, oft', at whose
comming thither, it seemed all things were not according
to her mindc. Thus continuing there one day and some-
thing more shee returned home to her husband, partly
agreeved at such things as she thought her husband might
refonne ; if Ood lent him life. Now when she was come
home to Edenbyres she found her husband recoA'cred to an
indifferent health, to whom slice began to use very much
idle talke, as weel concerning the same farm, as also
concerning an old groat, Avhich her sonne, l)eing a little
boy, had found about a week before. Thus she continued
as she had been one bewitched, or haunted with an
evil spirit, until the Wednesday at night foUoAving,
Avhich night she tooke her rest, some Indifferently until
the morning, at which time she began Avith much vaine
speech to disquiet her husl)and, and to use much idle
talkc, but her husband seeing her in such a mind, and
finding that she Avas, as it were desperate, he persAA'^aded
her to cal upon God, and that being the creature of God,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM.
she should not forget to cal upon her Creator in the day
of truble, wherefore he councelled her to pray Avith him,
and to say the Lord's Prayer after him, which shee partly
did, but the devil, who always doth build the Chapell,
so much as he may to vex God's Church, began to with-
draw her from prayer, and to put her in minde to cal in a
most fearful kind for the groat, which her soniie had
lately found, as also for her weding-ring, desiring to see
them with all speed. Her husband made no great haste
thereunto, but continued in prayer that it would please
God to send her a more quiet spirit, and to strengthen
her that faith might speedily vanquish such vanitie in
her, but the more he prayed and perswaded her to prayer,
the more shee seemed to be as it were troubled with
some evil spirit, calling for the old groat, which her hus-
band neglected to show her, whereat she began Avith a ver}'
Sterne and staring countenance to looke on her husband
in most Avonderfull sort, that he Avas sore affrighted.
Then he called for her sister, for that he Avas not able
to keepe her in the 1 >ed, Avhich Avhen her sister and others
Avere come into the cliamlier the}' kept her doAvn violently
in her bed, and forth Avitli shee Avas so sore tormented
that shee foamed at the mouth, and Avas shaken Avith
such forse that the bed and the chamber did shake and
move in most strange sort, her husband continued pray-
ing for her deliverance, so that Avithin one halfe houre
after her shaking Avas jjast, shee began to tell them shee
had beene in the ToAverne to beat away the bcare Avhich
f olloAved her into the yard, Avhen she came from Hunsten-
B
18 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
worth, which to her thinking had no head. Then her
husband and frinds wished her to leave those vaine
imaginations, perswading her that it was verya Idle for
want of rest ; wherefore her husband and fi-inds
exhorted her to say the Lord's Praj'er with them,
which shee did, and after tooke some rest, and thus
she continued until the Satterday following, in which
time she continued raging, as it Avere distract of her
memory, which came by fits, to the great grief of her
husband, frinds, and neighbours, yet upon the Satter-
<lay there was some hopes of her recovery, for that
she took some reasonable rest, to the comfort of her
husband and frinds, and upon the Sunday she seemed to
be very patient and comfortable until midnight, at which
time the candle set Ijurning in the same chamber,
was l)urned. She then suddenly awaking called to
her husband, and crying out, saying, that she did
see a strange thing like unto a snale carrying fire in a
most wonderfull sort, whereat her husband was amazed,
and seeing the candle was cleene burnt out, called to his
Brothers and Sisters that Avere in the house, with other
of their frinds, Avatching and sitting up to comfort her,
if her extreme fit should any way molest her, who hear-
ing him call, come in, and brought a candle lighted, and
set it ui)on the table, which stood necre Avhere the Avonian
lay. She began to Avax very fearfull, saying to her
husband and the rest — Doe you not see the Devill 1
"Whereat they desired her to remember God, and to call
for grace that her faith might onely be fixed upon him,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 19
to the vanquishing the Devil and his assauhs. Hell !
(quoth she) if you see nothing now you shall see some-
thing by and by, and forthwith they heard a great noise
in the streets, as if it had been the comming of f oure or
live carts, and presently they in the chamber cried out
saying — Lord helpe us ! what manner of thing is this that
Cometh here ? Then her husliand looking up in his
bed espied a thing comming to the bed, much like a
beare, but it had no head nor taile, halfe a yard in
height, and halfe a yard in length ; her husband seeing
it come to the bed rose up, and tookc a joynt stoole, and
strooke at the same thing. The stroke sounded as
though he had strucken upon a feather bed ; then it
came to the woman, and strooke her three times upon the
feet, and tooke her out of the bed, and so rouled her to
and fro in the chamber, and under the bed. The people
then present, to the number of seaven persons were so
greatly amazed at this horrible sight that they knew not
Avhat to doe, yet they called still upon God for his assis-
tance, but the candle was so dimmed that they could
scarcely see one another. At the last this Monster, which
wee suppose to be the Devill, so rouled her in a round
compasse, like an hoope, through the other chambers,
downe an high pair of staires into the hall, where he kept
her the space of a quarter of an houre. Her husband and
they in the chamber above durst not come downe to her,
but remained in prayer, weeping at the top of the stairs
head, greivously lamenting to see her so carried away.
There was such an horrible stinke into the Hall, and
20 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
sucli fiery flames, that they Avere glad to stop their noses
with cloathes and naplcines. Then the Avoman cried out
calling to her hushand, — Now he is gone ! Then quoth
he, in tlie Name of Ood come up to mc ; and so even upon
the suddaine she was come up so quickly, that they greath
marvcilled at it. Then they brought her to l)ed,
and continued in prayer about her. Tlie candle could
not burn clear, but Avas very dimmc, and suddenly the
woman was got out of the bed, and the Avindow at the-
l)ed's head opened. Whether the AA'oman unpin'd the-
AvindoAV, or hoAV it come to passe, they kneAV not, but it
Avas opened; and the Avoman's leggs after a miraculous
manner thrust out of the AvindoAv. The people of the
chaml)er heard a thing knock at her feet as if had becne
upon a tul)li, and they saAV a great fire, as it seemed ta
them at her feet, the stinke thereof Avas horrible !" —
After describing the solemn manner in Avhich by
prayer they invoked the aid of the Almighty, the ac-
count concludes by saying : — " At last they espied a
thing like unto a little child, AA'ith a very bright
shining countenance, casting a great light in the
chamber, and the candle l)urned \'ery brightly, so that
they might see one another. Then they fell flat to the
ground, and prayed the Lord tliat he had so Avonderfully
assisted them, and so the child vanished aAvay. Then
the woman being in better feeling of her self e, Avas laid in
lier bed and asked f orgivenesse at God's hands, and of all
.shee had offended, acknoAvledging that it AA'as for her
sinnes that she Avas so sore tormented of the evill spirit,.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 21
.and God be thanked she hath beene ever since in some
I'easonable order, for there hath beene with her many
^odly learned men, from divers places of the countery.
These are the names of the witnesses that it is most
true : — Steven Hooper, lohn Hooper, lohn I ley, Alex-
jinder Eagleston, Anthony ^Yestgarth, Alis Eagleston."
It is said that the names of five of these six are to be
met with in registers and other writings in connection
with one or other of the above parishes about the period
when the tract was printed.
THE WISE MAN OF STOKESLEY.
The name of this personage, who was long the oracle
of South Durham, as well as of Cleveland, was Wright-
son. He flourished about eighty years ago ; and such
ascendancy did he obtain in the neighbourhood that he
was at "once resorted to in cases of sickness, distress, or
loss of projjerty, and this not b}^ the lower orders alone.
His private character is said to have been very bad ;
still his influence in Stokesley was so great that he was
constantl}' in request as godfather to the people's chil-
dren ; and on these occasions he used to attend church
in a scarlet coat, a long white waist-coat, a full-starched
shirt-frill, crimson knee-breeches, and white stockings.
He used always to say that he had no power or knowledge
beyond other men except when fasting, that he owed his
powers to his being the seventh son of a seventh daughter,
and that he Avas quite unable to transmit them to his
.own son. The following stories, if true, go towards
LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
proving the man to have been a natural clairvoyant. On
one occasion, when an old man at Dan])y, Avho used to-
tell the story, Avas 3'oung, a relation of his had a cow,
which fell ill of a disease which haffled the skill of every
cow-leech in the neighbourhood. The lad was therefore
mounted on a horse, and despatched to Stokesley to
consult the wise man. On opening the door — before he
had time to explain his message — the Avizard said, " I
knoAv what has brought you here ; You have come about
a cow ; and if I cannot tell you as much about the
creature as you (;an tell me, it is not likely that I can
help you." He then i)roceeded to describe the coav, her
color and appearance, her symptoms, — constant restless-
ness, and uneasy movements, and a peculiar sound she
uttered ; also her position in the cow house. " The
door opened," he said, " right upon her rump." The
wise man went on to specify the disease, and added
that nothing could save her. She died accordingl}',
and a post-mortem examination verified all that "And
Wrightson " had said. Another time, some pitmen were
working together at the Try-up Trough Pits, and left
clothes above, as usual, on descending to their work.
In the afternoon, when work was over, one of them
missed his shirt and could 7iot find it anywhere.
Borrowing one from a friend, the man started straight
from the pits to Stokesley to consult " Aud "Wrightson,"
taking with him a comrade whose christian name was
Elijah. They passed a place called AVest House, and
there Elijah deposited his overcoat, A\'hich was hot and
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 23
heavy, observing to his friend that they should be able to
trust the wise man in the mattei' of the shirt by seeing
"whether he knew where the coat was. Here, too, he fore-
stalled all enquiries by announcing to the men what they
had come about ; and turning to the comrade, addressed
him thus by his Christian name, " What hast 'ee deean wi
thy coat Ehjah ? I think thee'st lossit a' AVest House.
Think'st 'ee t' Avise man knaws aught about t' shart' ?"
As these were the very Avords the man had used, he was
struck dumb with astonishment. The Avizard then
described the shirt, saying it had been made by a left-
handed person, Avhich Avas true, and finally said its
OAvner Avould find it at home on his return. He added
a Avarning as to giving salt out of the house, a most
dangerous thing, and one Avhich the pitman's mother had
done that day. Eeturning home, they found the shirt
had been left there by a fellow Avorkman, Avho had
carried it away in mistake, and the house-mother had
been guilty of the "dangerous act" of giving salt aAvay.
The next Stokesley story is as folloAvs :— A miller named
W , lost a set of ncAv Aveights very mysteriously, and
all his searchings and enquiries ended in disappointment ;
he could make out nothing about them. So he applied
to the AAnse man. The Avizard, after consulting his books
announced that the Aveights should be restored ; at
present they were concealed in an " ass-midden."
Accordingly, in the course of a night or tAvo, the Aveights
appeared as mysteriously as they had vanished, being
placed at the miller's door, and "all clammed Avi' ass,"
24 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
which of course was satisfactory. Again, a young bull,
belonging to an inhabitant of the district, was attacked
by sickness, and in spite of all remedies was soon at what
appeared the point of death — too weak to stand, and
slung up by ropes to keep it from falling. The wise
man was sent for and in due time arrived at the house,
but declined to speak of tlie animal, saying, in his usual
way, that unless he could tell them all they could tell
him and a little more it was not likely he could be of
much use. At last he condescended to light his pipe,
and stroll out to the " beast house." After a little time
curiosity prompted one or two men who were standing
about to follow liim, and ai)proaching the byre, they
were surprised to see the bull apparently as well as ever,
standing without any aid from slings, and eating his
provender with a hearty appetite. The mode of cure
remained a secret. The last stor}- Ave have concerning
him suggests a notion that, consciously or unconsciously,
this worthy practised something like electro-biology.
Two men, one of them bearing the name of Bob Ben-
nison, and brother to a person living not long ago (perhaps
still) at Danby, Avere on their Avay to Stokeslcy fair,
Avhen one of them proposed to turn aside in order to
" see aud AVrightson an' hev a bit o' sport Avi' him." On
reaching thcAvise man's house he gave them an apparently
cordial welcome, seated them in front of the fire and
proceeded to mend it by heaping on fuel. Fiercer and
fiercer it blazed up, and AVrightson's guests, feehng
somcAvhat too Avarm, tried to edge their chairs backwards
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHA3r. 25
but their efforts were vain. They found themselre?
immoveably fixed in their seats, and the seats immove-
ably fixed in front of the fire, which all the time was
burning hotter and hotter. After giving the men such
a roasting as he deemed sufficient, the wizard at length
set them free, scornfully l)idding them go to the fair,
and there tell their friends " the sport they had had wi'
aud Wrightsou."
WILLIE DAWSON.
When the Wise Man of Stoke sley shuffled off this
mortal coil, one William Dawson, who rented a farm at
Quaker's Grove, near the same place, and who inherited
some of the wizard's books, took up the trade of sooth-
saying. Like his predecessor, he soon got in great repute
and was even consulted by persons of a respectable
jjosition in life. But his powers, such as they were,
failed to help him to fortune, or even to sustain him in
his original independence. For he gradually sank into
poverty, and ended his daj's in South Durham in very
reduced circumstances. Mr. Henderson, in his excellent
''Folk Lore of the Northern Counties" gives the following-
instances of his mode of treatment : — " A substantial
Yorkshire farmer, having sustained heavy and continued
losses among the stock, consulted this William Dawson,
and was instructed hy him how to find out whether
witchcraft was really the cause of the mischief. The
farmer was to take six knots of bottree (bore-tree or
elder) wood, and placing them in orderly arrangement
26 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
])eneath a new ashen l)owl or platter, was so to leave
tliem. If, on looking at them some little time after-
wards, they were found all in confusion, " all squandered
about," as he phrased it, there coidd be no doubt the
lieasts were perishing from the effects of -witchcraft.
This was done, and on inspection the knots were found
in utter confusion. So the farmer was directed to take
the heart of one of the dead beasts, and stick in it nine
new nails, nine new pins, and as many new needles.
The heart thus prepared was to be burnt on a fire made
and fed with witch-wood (rowan tree), a little before
midnight, at which hour a certain verse of the Bible was
to be read over the flames and the spell would be broken.
All was made ready and the doors of the farm-house
secured with bolts and bars, to say nothing of chairs and
tables heaped against them for additional security. The
lieart lay on the mystic fire ; as midnight approached,
the operator touched it with the poker, and it burst
asunder into many pieces. Gathering them together
uj)on the hot embers, that they might be thoroughly
consumed, he read the appointed verse, and at the same
moment a rushing and clattering was heard dovm the
paved causey which led from the house to the turnpike
Cthe high-road) in front, as if a carriage and pair came
driven down it furiousl}'. Next began a terrible knock-
ing and hammering, first at the front door, then at the
back ; liut as the embers of the heart Avasted in the fire,
as the last spark disapj)eared, the noise ceased ; and from
that time no further harm befel the stock." On another
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 27
occasion the object AA^as " to restore to health a young^
man said to be beAvitched. A fire Avas made at midnight
as before, and the doors and AvindoAvs closed. Clippings
from eA'ery finger and toe nail of the patient, Avith hair
from each temple, and the croAvn of his head, AA^ere stuffed
into the throat of a pigeon AA'hich had preA'iously been
placed between the patient's feet, and there had died at
once, thus attesting the Avitchery from Avhich he Avas
sufiFering. The bird's bill Avas riA-etted Avith three pins,
and then the A\'ise man thrust a pin into its breast, to
reach the heart, CA^erybody else in the room in turn
foUoAving his example. An opening Avas then made in
the fire, and the pigeon dropped into it. The AAase man
began to read aloud Psalms from the Prayer Book, and
a loud scratching and Avhining began outside. All in
the house, said Mr. H.'s informant, AA'ere satisfied
that the young man's enemy had appeared outside,
perhaps in the form of a dog ; he alone attributed the
sounds to the Avizard's OAvn dog, AA'hich had not been
alloAved to enter the house. His scepticism, hoAvever,
annoyed the Avizard and his dupes so much that the lad
was fain to keep it to himself.
BLACK AVILLIE OF HARTLEPOOL.
The Rev. H. B. Tristram communicated to Mr
Henderson the folloAving case from the neighbourhood
of Greatham : — "In November of this year (1861) I
was sent for by a parishioner, the Avife of a small farmer,
who complained that she had been scandalised by her
28 LEGENDS AND SUrERSTITIONS
neighbours opposite, Avho accused her of witchcraft.
These neighbours had lost two horses during the
last year and therefore consulted ' Black Willie ' at
Hartlei)ool, who assured them that they had been be-
witched. Acting on his advice, they adopted the follow-
ing means for discovering the witch. Having procured
a pigeon and tied its wings, every aperture in the house
even to the key holes, was carefully stopped, and i)ins
were run into the pigeon whilst alive ])y each member
of the family, so as to pierce the poor bird's heart. The
pigeon was then roasted, and a watch kept at the window
during the operation, for the first ])erson who passed the
door would of course be the guilty party. The good
woman who appealed to me (Mr. Tristram), had the
misfortune to be the first passer-by and the family were
firmly convinced she had exercised ' the evil eye ' upon
the dead horses, though she was a comely matron, not
yet fifty years of age."
NANNIE SCOTT, THE SUNDERLAND WITCH,
In a communication to Mr. Henderson, the late Mr,
F. H. Johnson, of Fawcett Street, Sunderland, wrote as
follows respecting an old witch who flourished in Sun-
derland some half-century ago : — " We find in this
locality many relics of the Scandinavian superstitions,
varied and mixed up with modern customs and phrase-
ology. The old keelmen (once numbering some hun-
dreds) on the Wear were Ijrimful of superstitious stories
and legends, and their nightly rambles on shoi'e and
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 29
river, to seek their vessels and bring them in with the
tide, are very amusing, I remember, when a boy, a
witch who resided in a little hovel near us, in Sunder-
land, and with whom I Avas on most friendly terms,
much to the disgust of my nurse. She told fortunes by
the stars, practised the black art, and sold a compountl
of treacle, &c., called by us ' claggum.' Her hatred was
considered certain death ; and children once under her
protection were sure to be lucky in life. She had a
black cat and a black dog, both unmitigated savages and
thieA'es (the poor animals, being deemed familiars, were
pelted and })rosecuted into ferocit}), and few Avomen
Avere more coaxed and toadied than Avas Nannie Scott.
She prayed for fair Avinds for sailors' Avives ; she sold
loA-e-charms to bring together sulking SAveethearts ; and
she did all AA'ith an air of solemn strong-mindedness that
bore doAvn any approach to discredit. She lived to a
very great age, and died about twenty years ago.'
A AVITCH IN A GALE OF WIND.
An old Avitch named Mall}', Avho lived at Hylton^
wished particularl}' to come doAvn to Sunderland one
A'ery stormy da}', and asked a keelman named Jock to
take her doAvn in his keel. Jock replied that it Avas
impossible ; he durst not for his life ; did she not see all
the keels lying fast moored 1 Not a man would venture
to go down. "Don't be afraid," said she ; " There's no
danger, I tell you. Not a hair of your head Avill be
hurt. You miist take me doAvn. And run along full
30 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
sail. Don't take in a reef. Never fear ; you'll make
your passage." By dint of strong persuasion, Jock,
who was a lirave hardy fellow, consented to go. The
old woman got into the huddock at the stern of the keel,
and la}' there snug. The keel went on as if it flew,
.sometimes in the Avater, and sometimes out of it, the
wind blowing great guns. Jock swore afterwards that
he saw a black cat sitting on the top of the mast. He
had put on full sail, and not taken in a reef. They got
<lown safely,
A CHURN BEWITCHED.
A farmer's wife at Hylton, who had done something
to displease a neighbour who had the evil eye, one day
churned, and churned, and Ijetter churned, but could get
no butter. At length, about midnight, the malignant
hag rapi)ed at her door, came in, and asked what was the
matter. "We can get no butter," was the reply. Wh}-,
woman," rejoined the witch, " you have the churn too
far from the fire." The churn was shifted, and the
butter came in a " jiflFy."
MEETING WOMEN OR HARES.
If a pitman of the old school meets a woman on his
way to work, he will turn and go home for the day,
lieing sure that something would happen to him in the
])it if he were to go down the shaft. He would lie dis-
posed to do the same thing if he met a hare, which is,
however, now a very unlikely occurrence. We never
heard any reason given why the hare should be an un-
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 31
lucky beast, except that, in the mythical good old times
before the first Reform Bill was passed, witches used to
make a vile practice of taking this innocent-looking
shape, when abroad at nights on their mysterious
errands. If shot at, as they sometimes were, the lead
drops would glance off their hides without ever ruffling
the fur. There was no way of crippling them but In-
firing a piece of silver at them. One witch, in a village
I know, not far from St. Boswell's, frisking about in the
moonlight in an honest man's cabbage garden, was shot
at by him with a silver button, oif his right shirt sleeve,
and next morning blood drops were traced all the way
to her cottage door, and old Xanny was found inside
with her " chafts " tied up, she having, it seems, been
hit on the cheek. Had the case occurred two centuries
instead of fifty years ago, the alleged Avitch would un-
doubtedly have ended her days on a pile formed of tar
barrels.
WITCHES IN GATESHEAD.
Gateshead was a comparatively small place in the days
of the Great Rebellion and the Commonwealth, and
therefore the number of reputed witches in it could not
then be very great. But the local magistrates neverthe-
less found something to do, as well as their brethren
across the water, when these worthy men were l^urning
witches by the score, on the information of a noted
witch-finder from Scotland. For, under date, 1G49, the
following entry appears in Gateshead parish books : —
32 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
"Paid at Mrs. Watson's -when the justices sate to
examine the witches, 3s. 4(1.; for a grave for a witch,
6(1; for hurA-ing the witches, £1 .^)s,"
THE ADDER-STONE.
Tlie adder-stone, holy -stone, or holed-stone, is a stone
with a perforation in it, imagined to have been made
1iy the sting of an adder. Stones of this kind are hung
up in stables, over the horses' heads, to secure them
from being hag-ridden, or made use of during the night
by witches. Such beasts as sweat in their stalls are
supposed to 1)6 cured hy the application to them of such
a stone. Brockctt says he has also seen them suspended
from the tester of a bed, as well as placed behind the
door of a dwelling-house, attached to a key — to prevent
injury from the midnight hags of "air and broom.'
Hung up at the bed's head, they prevent the night-
mare, which is caused by some Avitch turning the
unlucky slee})er into a horse or mare, and scampering
along the sky on his or her back, to the appointed place
of infernal rendezvous. They must be self-bored stones,
that is, naturally holed ; otherwise they are thought to
have no efficacy. The mode of their formation is well
known to naturalists. They are formed in the bed of
a running stream, through one stone getting embedded
in another and grinding a hole through it.
THE VIRTUE OF THE MOUNTAIN ASH.
I may conclude this chapter with a short account of
a case which my friend ]\Ir. Henry Kerr, of Bacup,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 33
Lancashire, says fell under his own observation in
Sunderland, more than twenty years ago. The first
child of a young couple of my acquaintance, which had
been puny and ailing from birth, was supposed by its
mother to be bewitched. The child became worse, and
the credulous mother, despite every remonstrance,
insisted that the child had actually been bewitched by
her sister-in-law, between whom and the mother there
was bad blood at the time. In order to have the spell
removed, she consulted a certain "wise woman," re-
siding in the classic region of the Low sti-eet. The hag,
as it suited her purpose and brought grist to her mill,
encouraged the mother in the l^elief that her child was
bewitched. As a counter charm, she was told to pro-
cure a sprig of mountain ash, and stitch it inside the
clothing of the afflicted child. The mother followed the
directions of the sybil. A piece of mountain ash was
procured and placed according to directions. The
child, however, died, and was buried in tSunderland
churchyard. The credulous mother has long since gone
over to the majority, and to Mr. Kerr's certain knoAv-
ledge she died in the ineradicable belief that her child
had been bewitched to death by the arts of her sister-
in-law. Old superstitions, like old and cherished
customs, die hard, despite the much vaunted " march
of intellect,"
34 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER II.
NORTH COUNTRY BOGGLES.
Fetch the boggle bo ! — North Country Song.
There was a boggart in't. — Tennyson's Parmer.
Swith beggar boggle, haste thee away — Sir David Lindsay.
In Akenside's "Pleasures of Imagination," we read
how —
The Village matron, round the blazing hearth, by night,
Suspends the infant audience with her tales,
Breathing astonishment.
This old custom, "more honoured in tlic breach than
the observance," has been gradually wearing away for
the last four or five generations. Still, there are many
old crones, in all parts of the country, who are standard
authorities in ghost-lore ; and thougii the local sprites
by which most lonely places were haunted in the olden
time have all fled away before the light of science, there
are yet thousands of gallant fellows who are not superior
to panic terrors, such as these airy phantoms were wont
to inspire, and who would rather go a mile round about,
when they chance to be belated, than walk past an old
deserted churchyard, through a haunted Avood, or along
a bridge that has a Imd reputation, and where, though
their common sense tells them they will meet with no-
thing "uncanny," or "worse than themselves," an
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 35
irresistible feeling of " eeriness " makes them painfully-
sensitive, so that a black dog crossing their path looks
like a foul fiend, and an owl hooting in the wood calls
up the idea of some murder. The whole surface of the
terraqueous globe, so far as it has been inhal)ited and
■explored by man, is infested more or less by super-
natural beings, mostly confined to and identified witli
particular spots. The territory so long known as tlie
Patrimony of St. Cuthbert abounds as much as any
known region with these creatures of the imagination,
and I mean to collect in this chapter some of the best
authenticated accounts of the boggles, boggarts, or
bogeys that are either peculiar to the district or are local
representstives of that class of supernatural beings Avhich
is confined to no particular country, but found wherevei-
man exists; and as I am not aware they stand on any
" order of going," to use a Shakesperian phrase, I shall
take them just as they occur to me. First then
THE HEDLEY KOW.
The people in the neighbourhood of Hedley, on the
skirts of Blackburn Fell, west of Eavensworth, on the
road to Tanfield, were frequently annoyed, during the
last century, by the pranks of a boggle of this name.
He belonged to a class of goblins rather mischievous
than malignant. He did nobody any serious injurv,
but took delight in frightening them. To whomsoever
he appeared, he usually ended his frolics with a hoarse
laugh at their fear or astonishment after he had pla3-ed
36 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
them some sorry trick. To an old woman, for instance,
gathering sticks, like Goody Blake, by the hedgeside,
if not actually out of the hedge, he Avould sometimes ap-
pear as a fad or truss of straw, lying on the road. If,
as was natural, the beldame was tempted to take
possession of this fcul, in carrying it home her load
would become so heavy that she would be obliged to lay
it down. The straw would then appear as if quick, the
truss would rise ui)right, like the j)atriarch Joseph's
sheaf, and away it would shuffle before her along the
road, swinging first to one side and then to another.
Every now and then it would set up a hiugli, or give a
shout, in the manner of a rustic dancer when he kicks
his heels and snaps his fingers at the turn of the tune ;
and at last, with a sound like a rushing wind, it Avould
Avholly vanish from her sight. Two young men belong-
ing to Newlands, near Ebchester, a place now rendered
famous in connection Avith the self-styled Countess of
I)erwcntwater, went out one night about tlie beginning
of the present century, to meet their sweethearts. On
arriving at the apj)ointed place, they saw, as they sup-
posed, the tAvo girls Avalking at a short distance before
them. The girls continued to Avalk ouAvard for tAVO or
three miles, and the young men to folloAv, Avithout being
able to overtake them. They quickened their pace, but
^till the girls kept before them ; and at length, Avhen the
pair found themselves up to their knees in a mire, the
girls suddenly disappeared, Avith a most unfemininc
Ha, ha ! The young men now perceived that they had
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHASr. 37
been beguiletl l)y the Hedley Kow ; and after getting
clear of tlie bog, thcj ran homeward as fast as their legs
would carry them, while the boggle followed close at
their heels, hooting and laughing. In crossing the
Derwent, between Ebchester and Hamsterley Hall, the
one who took the lead fell down in the v/ater, and h\ti
companion^ who Avas not far behind, tumbled over him.
In their panic, one mistook the other for the Kow, and
loud were their cries of terror as they rolled over each
other in the stream. They, however, managed to get
out separately, and on reaching home, each told a pain-
ful tale of having been chased by the Hedley Kow, and
nearly drowned by him in the Derwent. A farmer of
the name of Forster, who lived near Hedley, went out
into the field very earl}' one morning, as he intended
driving into Newcastle, so as to l^e there as soon as the
shops were opened. In the dim twilight, he caught,
as he believed, his own grey horse, and brought it
home, and harnessed it with his own hands. But after
yoking the beast to the cart and getting up on the
shaft to drive away, the horse (which was not ti
horse at all, but the Kow), slipped away from the limmer.s
like a knotless thread, leaving the farmer dumlifounded,
und set up a great " nicker '"' as he Hung up his heels, and
scoured away "like mad" out of the farm yard. The
Kow was a perfect plague to the servant girls at fann
houses all roiuid the Fell. Sometimes he would call
them out of their beds by imitating the voice of their
lovers at the Avindow. At other times during their
38 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
absence he Avoukl overturn the kail-pot, open the milk-
house door, and invite the cat to lap the cream, let down
" steeks " in the stockings they had been knitting, or
put their spinning wheel out of order. Many a time,
taking the shape of a favourite cow, he would lead the-
milk maid a long chase round the field before he would
ullow himself to be caught, and after kicking and
" rowting " during the Avhole milking time, "as if the
deil was in Hawkie," he Avould at last upset the pail,
and, slipping clear of the tie, give a loud bellow and bolt
off tail on end, thus letting the girl know she had been
the sj)ort of the Kow. This trick of his Avas so common
that he seems to have got his name from it, though, for
distinction's sake, the C was hardened into K, It is
related that he very seldom visited the house of mourn-
ing — a clear evidence that, demon as he was, he was not
quite destitute of tender sympathetic feeling. But on
the occasion of a birth he was rarely absent, either to the
eye or to the ear. Indeed, his appearance at those times
was so common as scarcely to cause alarm. The man
who rode for the midwife was, however, often sadly
teased by him. He would appear, for instance, to the
horse, in a lonely place, and make him take the " reist,"^
or stand stock-still. Neither whip nor spur would then
force the animal past, though the rider saw nothing.
Horses see ghosts at times when men cannot see them —
a fact known to the learned world from a very early
date, and one of the commonest things in the times we
now write of was for a belated traveller to have to give
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 39
his beast its own way, it being impossible to get it to
ride over an invisible ghost, probably standing in the
middle of the road, at a narrow pass, with a drawn sword
in its hand, and a circumbendibus became therefore im-
perative. It frequently happened that the messenger
was allowed to make his way without let or hindrance
to the house where the midwife lived, to get her safely
mounted behind him on a well-girt pillion or "sodds,"
and to return so far with her unmolested. But as they
were crossing some stank, or fording some stream, the
" ill-willy " kow Avould come up and begin to play his
cantrips, causing the horse to kick and plunge in such a
way as to dismount his double load of messenger and
" howdy." Sometimes, when the farmer's wife, impatient
for the arrival of the latter, was groaning in great pain,
the Kow would come close to the door or window and
begin to mock her. The farmer would rush out with a
stick to drive the vile creature away, when the weapon
would be clicked out of his hand before he was aware,
and lustily applied to his own shoulders. At other times,
after chasing the boggle round the farmyard, he would
tumble over one of his own calves, and the Kow Avould
be off before he could regain his feet. One of the most
ridiculous tales connected with this mischievous sprite is
told by Mr Oliver in his " Kambles in Northumberland."
"A farmer riding homeward late one night observed
as he approached a lonely part of the road where the
Kow iised to play many of his tricks, a person also on
horseback a short distance before him. Wishing to have
company in a part of the road where he did not like to
40 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
be alone at night, he quickened the pace of his horse.
The person whom he wished to overtake, hearing the
tramp of tlie horse rapidly advancing and fearing that he
was followed by someone with an evil intention, put spurs
to his steed and set oif at gallop, an example which was
immediately followed l)}' the horseman behind. At this
rate they continued whipping and spurring as if they rode
for life or death, for nearly two miles, the man who was
behind calling out with all his might ' Stop ! Stop ' The
person -wiio tied, finding that his pursuer was gaining
upon him and hearing the continued cry the Avords of
which he could not make out, began to think that he was
pursued by something unearthlj-, as no one who had a
design to rob him would he likidy to make such a noise.
Determined no longer to tiy from his pursuer, he pulled
up his horse and thus adjured the supposed evil spirit,
'In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, who art thou ? ' Instead of an evil spirit, a
terrified neighbour at once answered the question and
repeated it, ' I'se Jemmy Brown o' the High Field.
Whe's thou ? ' "
It is almost needless to say that, since the introduction
of total abstinence societies into the regions watered by
the Team and Uerwent, the appearances of the Hedley
Kow have been much fewer and further between.
THE PICKLED PARSON.
The Rev. John Garnage, A.M., rector of Sedgefield,
died in the second week of December 1747, about a week
before the tithes Ijecame due ; and it is said that his
widow, who was a woman with all her wits about lier,
resorted to the l)old expedient of laying his body in salt,
and keei)ing it in a private room, till after the 20th of
the month, the day on which the tithe-farmers came to
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 41
pay their rents. Her scheme succeeded. She receive*!
the emohiments of the liA'ing for that year, which -woukl
otherwise have gone into tlie Bishop of Durham's hands,
as patron. And after she had got tlie money safe, she
made pubhc the fact of her husband's decease. This
clever piece of trickery does not seem to have been
pleasing, however, to the ghost of the departed, who
was doubtless an honourable as well as a reverend man,
and therefore, the parsonage for many years became a
haunted house. "The Pickled Parson," as he was ir-
reverently termed, infested the neighbourhood for the
better part of half a century, " making night hideous."
At length on the morning of the year 1792, a fire broke
out in one of the lodging-rooms of the rectory-house,
and before it could be extinguished the greater part of
the building was destroyed. From that day and hour
the apparition was never more seen,
THE GHOSTLY BRIDAL OF FEATHERSTONHALGH.
Featherston Castle, long the seat of the ancient family
of the Featherstonhalirhs or Featherstonhaughs, stands
about two and a half miles south-west from Haltwhistle,
in a little sequestered haugh on the south side of the
Tyne, fronting the narrow vale of Hartley Burn, through
Avhich are seen the high and heathy summits of Tindale
and Byers Fells. Hodgson tells us it has its name from
the stone in the bed of the river at Hartley Burn Foot,
being stratified featherwise. It belongs to the car-
boniferous limestone. Probabl}^ all our readers have
42 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
heard of the deceptions practised hy Surtees, the
historian, on the too credulous antiquarian enthusiasm
of Sir Walter Scott, with his wholly factitious " Raid of
Featherstonhaugh ". But there is a legend of a different
sort connected Avith the old Northumbrian peel It is
that of a ghostly bridal. Abigail Featherstonhalgh, [it
seems, was a great beauty, who had bestowed her heart
on a youth of slender fortune. The old baron set his
face against such a mean match for his only daughter,
and sought out for her to be her husband, a man of high
degree and competent wealth, but of no great personal
or other attractions. Her true love being "banished
from castle and hall," as the ballad runs, the wedding
took place at the baron's behest, and as soon as the
ceremony was over, the marriage party, including
The bride and bride's ladies, and bridegroom all gay,
With numerous lords, —
sallied forth on horseback from the castle, to peram-
bulate its "far- spreading lands" by the Brooms, and the
Eamshaws, and over Conewood Row, till the banqueting
hour should summon them home. Evening and night
came, but the party had not come back. The minstrels
were Avaiting the signal to strike up ; and the menials
were vexed to think the viands Avould be spoiled ; and
the baron himself, pacing the hall with undefinable mis-
givings, despatched one messenger after another to see
what had become of the truants and hasten them in to
dinner. The castle's deep bell " tolled out midnight's
slow tone," but the dreary sound did not bring home
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 45
the perambulators. The morning breeze at length arose^
and " here they are at last ! " The trampling of horses-
was heard. It grew nearer and more near. The party
came in sight. They entered the avenue. They crossed
the moat. They passed through the gateway. They
moved into the hall through the wide door at its nether
end.
First came the bridegroom, and then came the bride,
Then followed the rest, taking seats on each side.
!But never a word broke the silence ; and when the
baron, the menials, and the minstrels looked into the
faces of the wedded pair and the Avedding guests, they
saw that the fresh ruddy gore streamed on the cheeks of
all of them. The baron fainted, as well he might. The
eyes of the minstrels seemed changed into stone. The
servants shrunk back in horror. A strong rushing wind
swept the hall, and when Sir Albany and his people
came to their senses the company had departed. Search
was of course made on the skirts of Conewood Row, and
the dead bodies of bride and bridegroom, bridesmen and
bridesmaids, lords and ladies and all, Avere found in a
secluded dell called Penkyn Cleugli, lying just as they
had been slaughtered. Who were the murderers was-
never known, but Avho Avas the leader of them Avas-
shrewdly guessed. What became of the banished lover
we cannot tell, but some say he committed suicide. At
all events, the legend has it that —
Still from the rocks at Penkvn Cleugh
The blood of the murdered flows anew ;
4i LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
And that of the murderer drops aloue
Into the pool 'neath the Raven's Stoue
Every year, as the time comes round, the bridal
throng may still be seen, by those who have eyes to
see such visions, wending their way to the old tower of
Featherstonhalgh.
THE DOBIE OF MORTHAM,
The romantic glen, or rather ravine, through which
the Greta finds a passage betAveen Rokeby and Mortham,
is supposed to have been haunted by a female spectre,
called the Dobie of Mortham. The cause assigned for
her appearance is a lady's having been whilom murdered
in the wood, in evidence of which her l^lood used to be
shown upon the stairs of the old tower at Mortham.
But whether she was slain by a jealous husband, or b}''
savage banditti, or by an uncle who coveted her estate,
or by a rejected lover, are points ripon which the tradi-
tions of Rokeby do not enable us to decide. Other
Dol)ies there are, located in sundry places ; Mr. Henderson
believes them to have l)ecn what a poor woman called
her husband's ghost, " mortal heavy spirits.'' Hence
the common Border phrases, " O ye stupid Dobie ! " or
" Hout, he's just a Dobie!" Sir Walter Scott speaks
of some families of the name, who carried in their ar-
morial l)earings a phantom or spectre passant. Brockett
holds that there were diflerent kinds of Do1)ies. " Some,"
says he, " attached to particular houses or farms, are
represented as good humoured in disposition, and (though
naturally lazy), in cases of trouble and difficulty are said
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 45
to make incredible exertions for the advantage of tlie
family, such as stacking all the hay, or housing the
whole crop of hay in one night." These, it is plain, are
of the same species with the Scottish Brownie. " Others,"
he goes on to say, " residing in low granges or barns, or
near antiquated towers or bridges, have a very different
character imputed to them. Among other pranks, the}^
Avill sometimes jump behind a horseman, and compress-
him so tightly that he either perishes before he can
reach his homo, or falls into some lingering and direful
calamity." These, it is equalh" plain, correspond to the
Brags and Kom's. The Dobic is, we are inclined to think
the Celtic Povach, the l)lack, mournful, or sorrowful
one.
THE rOWFvTE OR DUNTER.
The Powries, or Dunters, are sj^rites who inhabit forts,.
old castles, peel-towers, or dungeons ; and they constantly
make a noise there as of Ijeating flax, or bruising barley
in the hollow of a stone. If this sound is longer or
louder than usual, it portends a death or misfortune.
Popular tradition reports that the foundations of these
old Border Castles were bathed in human blood by their
builders the Picts ; no Avonder, then, that they were
haunted in some Avay or other. The bloody superstition,
that, in order to have a place of strength watched by a
guardian spirit, and so rendered inpregnable, the founda-
tion-stone, if not also the cope-stone, must be sanctified
by a human sacrifice, seems to have l)een a widely-spread
one. Thus, when Hiel the Bethelite re-built Jericho, in
4G LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
the (lays of Ahab, king of Israel, " he laid the foundations
thereof in Abirani, his first-born, and set up the gates
thereof in his youngest son Segub."
THE BIG HUNTSMAN.
During the episcopate of Sir Anthony Beck, bishop,
'Count palatine, patriarch, and king, who held the see of
Durham from 1283 to 1310, and was " the maist prowd
:and masterfull busshop in all England," one of the " lewd
persons " entertained at the prelate's court was one
Hugh de Pontchardon, who, for his many evil deeds an«l
manifold robberies, had been driven out of the court of
the King of England and had come to the North to seek
a little bread and to live by stealing. To this Hugh,
whom the lord-bishop employed to good purpose in the
war in Scotland, the lands of Thickley, since from him
■called Thickley Punchardon, al)0ut three and a half miles
south-east of Bishop Auckland, were granted on cornage
tenure. His ecclesiastico-military patron likewise made
him his chief huntsman. " Black Hugh," as he was
nicknamed, died before the bishop ; and some time after
his decease, when his eminence was chasing the wild
•deer in Galtres Forest, near the hill of Craike, in Bulmere
AVapentake, in North Yorkshire, granted to St. Cuthbert
with the surrounding territory for three miles, by Egfrid
King of Northumberland, suddenly Pontchardon galloped
past him, on a white horse, and looking on him, the
bishop asked him, " Hugh, what makest thou here ? "
Hugh answered never a \rord, but lifted up his cloak,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 47
and showed Sir Anthony his ribs " set iu bone, and
nothing more." None of the varlets, we are told, saw
Sir Hugh, but the bishop only, " And the said Hugh,"
adds the legend, "went his way, and Sir Anthony took
courage, and cheered the dogs ;" and shortly afterwards
he was made Patriarch of Jerusalem, and " he saw
nothing more." This Hugh is he, concludes our authorit}',
'* that the silly people of Claltres call the Big Huntsman
(le gros veneur). He was twice seen after that, by
simple folk, before the forest was felled, in the time of
Henry VH."
THE SHOTTON DOBBY AND CLOGGY OF STAIXDROP.
In the Ncuxasth Magaz'me for June, 1872, an account
was given of two local sprites, the Shotton "Dobby"
and " Old Cloggy" of Staindrop. The Avriter states that
he was indebted for his information to a ]\Irs. Brook,
then (and perhaps still) living at Oakland, a place nob
far from Darlington, Avhere she carried on the business
of dressmaking. Mrs. B. used to employ, it seems,
several young persons as apprentices and assistants ; and
on the 23rd of January, 18G8, she had occasion to send
one of them upstairs. The young lady had barely had
time to ascend the stairs when she was heard to shriek
aloud, and she presently returned to the workroom,
greatly agitated. She explained that when she had
reached the first landing she noticed a figure dressed in
white standing in the doorway of one of the rooms, and
which beckoned to her with its finger, Whetlier it were
48 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
the figure of a man or woman she could not say, "as it
had no cap on;" hut (inconsistently enough with her
terror of it) its face " was the most pleasing one she had
ever seen."
As there was certainly no person at the time in the
place who could have caused the girl's fright, it Avas
settled by them all to ha^-e Ijeen a wraith ; and the in-
terpretation of its appearance was anxiously looked for-
Avard too. This Avas afforded in a fcAV Aveeks afterwards,
Avhen neAvs arrived that one of Mrs. Brook's nephcAA's, a
very handsome young man, had died out in India on the
very day the apparition had appeared.
A short time aftevAvards, in the spring of the same
year, a brother of Mrs. Brook, Avho also had a son in
India, Avas at Avork upon tlie " night shift" of the colliery
to Avhich he Avas engineer, Avhen he suddenly beheld the
figure of his son standing quietl}^ at his side. He Avould
have addressed it, but his voice stuck to his jaAvs ; and
he could not speak for horror. And it sloAvly disap-
peared, partly vanishing, and partly sinking into the
rtoor. He afterAvards heard that his son, too, Avas dead.
A strange thing happened during the last illness of
another brother of Mrs. Brook, to Avhom it Avas related
by his Avifc, a good earnest Avoman Avhose stor}' could
be relied upon. It had been his custom to sit and smoke
his pipe at the l)oiler side of the kitchen fire. A door
opened opposite to this boiler from the kitchen into a
passage leading to the pantry. One day Avheu lie was
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 49
quite bedfast, upstairs, his wife, on coming along the
passage from the pantry, saw, on reaching this door,
that her husband was sitting in his accustomed place
smoking his pipe. She uttered an exclamation and ap-
pears to have looked round in her astonishment or in-
dignation at his imprudence, a gesture natural enough
to a woman under such a feeling ; and, on turning her
eyes again to the fireplace, she saw that there was no
one in the room. On coming back to the kitchen door
again shortly afterwards, the same thing occurred afresh
in precisely the same way. The ghost explanation of
such phenomena current among the people occurred to
her, and she rushed upstairs with a feeling that he must
be dying ; but she found him as well, at least, as he
had usually been just then. A few minutes afterwards,
on her again coming to the kitchen door, she saw her
husband a third time sitting as before. He died two
days afterwards.
Mrs. Brook herself appears to have been introduced
to the spirit world at an early age. Her father lived on
Cockfield Fell, near Shotton and Cockfield, the one a
hamlet and the other a village situate a few miles from
Staindrop. He was a man of A^ery social habits, and
when he had stayed too long with his cronies at the
village, he liked, for sufficient reasons, to have his children
come and bring him safely home across the fell, which
was a bit of moorland rendered dangerous by uncovered
peat holes and quarries. One night, when Mrs. Brook
D
50 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
was accompanying him home at a very late hour, a large
bird, "like a goose," ran along the moor lane before
them for a little while, and then flew awaj^, uttering
loud screams. Her father, no doubt by that time of the
night a very competent autliority on such matters, said
this Avas the " Shotton Dobby."
This was a local ghost wliich always appeared in the
form of some animal, running up and down a sort of
known gamut of metempsj'chosis of which the chief notes
were the figures of a bird, a cow, an ass, or a large dog.
Tlie circumstances under which tliis Protean dobby
formed a predilection for Cockfield are said to have l)een
the following. There had formerly lived a married
couple on the Cockfield Fell, near a froggy marsh whicli
tlie neighl:)0urs called in our north country tongue, the
*' Paddick Mire." The woman being on the point of
giving birth to a child, sent the husband along to Cock-
field for the customary assistance ; but, loitering at the
village inn, he put off the execution of his errand and
soon got obliviously drunk ; and, in the meantime, his
travailing wife, for want of aid, died. Since that time,
and on account, it is considered, of that sad occurrence,
this place has been constantly haunted by the " Shotton
Dobby," or, as the imme<liate neighbours also call it,
from the vicinity of the " Paddick Mire," the "Paddick
Ghaist." Appropriately enough, it is most often seen
when there is a death or a Ijirth in the village ; and
when a midwife of that place goes to a lying-in at mid-
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 51
night, a " something " invariably accompanies her. A
Mrs. Gough, a midwife who long lived at Cockfield, told
Mrs. Brook that she had many and many a time walked
to and from the scene of her labours accomjianied by
this obstetric apparition, and that she " thowt noAvt o 't,"
.and that he was good company.
AVhen quite a young woman, Mrs. Brook had on one
occasion to go and work at a public-house at Staindrop,
and, whilst sitting sewing in the parlour, the landlady
.asked her to go up to the long room and bring down
some onions she would find there. As Mrs. Brook tles-
■cended the stairs on her return with the onions, she was
first astonished and then horrified to hear an invisible
foot follow her from the room, step for step, as she hur-
ried before it, with the noise of a person wearing clogs
treading heavily on each stair. On reaching the room
below she nearly swooned ; but the landlady only replied
to her story of what had alarmed her with a contemp-
tuous and incredulous " howts ! " But, on entering an-
other house in the place that morning, some time after-
wards, she was asked Avhat made her look so white and
ill, and she gave in explanation an account of Iier
morning's fright. The person she Avas speaking to
instantly explained that she had heard " Old Cloggy."
The correspondent adds, as also interesting to psycho-
logists, that Mrs Brook, Avho told her stories with such
circumstantiality, and as he believes, in perfect good
faith, was a Avoman of tallish figure, of a sallow com-
52 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
plexion, and had large dark eyes, long straight hair, and!
an aquiline nose.
It appeared that some one formerly living in the house-
had had a son of unsound mind who had hanged himself
in the long room, and the unhappy man's ghost had ever
since haunted the place, being very frequently heard,.
and, after dusk, very often seen. When Mrs Brook, on
returning to the inn, recounted to the landlady what
had been told her concerning the noise on the stairs
that habitual dealer in spirits laughingly admitted it was-
true, but declared she had not wished to alarm Mrs.
Brook by telling her of it ; while, for her own part, she-
had heard " Old Cloggy " so often that she cared nothing
about it.
THE PICKTREE BRAG.
The Picktrec Brag was a mischievous goblin, the-
cxistence of which was once firmly believed in by many
of the inhabitants of the parish of Chester-le-Street.
Sir Cuthbert Sharp, in his " Bishopric Garland," gives a
long account of this singular being, verbatim from the
deposition of an old woman (M.A.) of respectable appear-
ance, of about ninety years of age, living near the spot,
and who, he says, Avas universally referred to as knowing
most about it. The worthy old dame said : — I never
.saw the " brag " very distinctly, but I frequently heard
it. It sometimes appeared like a calf with a white
handkerchief about its neck, and a bushy tail. It came
also like a galloway, but more often like a coach horse,.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 53
:and went trotting along the " lonin, afore folks, settiu
up a great nicker and a whinney every now and then ;"
and it came frequently like a " dickass," and it always
.stopped at the pond at the four "lonin ends and
nickered and whinnied." My brother once saw it like four
men holding up a white sheet. I was then sure that
.some near relation was going to die ; Avhich Avas true.
My husband once saw it in the image of a naked man
without a head. I knew a man of the name of Bewick,
that was so frightened, that he hanged himself " for fear
on't.'' Whenever the midwife was sent for, it always
•came up with her, in the shape of a " galloway."
It is now many years since the brag was last seen.
THE HUMBLEKNOWE BRAG.
Old Mrs. Ann Avery, who died about forty-five
years since, at the age of 75, used to tell Mr. William
Hurrell, my informant, that when she lived at " Hummel-
knowe," near Sedgefield, — a young married woman, —
she frequently, when sitting up waiting for her husband
coming home, heard strange noises outside the house at
midnight, as if all the horses and cattle about the place had
broken loose, and were running a-muck at each other. The
first time she heard this noise, she called up the servant
man and made him go out to see what all the stir was
About. But the lad soon came in to say there was
nothing either to hear or see. After a while Mrs. A
got quite accustomed to it, and expected to hear it every
night when she had to sit up ; but she never altogether
54 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
got over lier fears. Indeed, she said she was frightened
" most awful," It was sometimes as if the ver}' doors
and windows of the honse were being driven in. Mrs. A,
heheved in this strange stor}' as firmly as she did in any
incident of her life. No explanation of it, I need scarcely
say, could she give. The Brag, it may be worth Avhile to
add, is the Pan, Silenus, or Satyr of our aboriginal
British ancestors, in whose Celtic speech " brag " signifies
"a lie, a falsehood, an untruth," and "breugach" "a
deceitful female," the appropriateness of the name in the
case of the goblin being its ability to assume all sorts of
shapes and disguises, so as terrify and mock those who
encontered it.
THE HYLTON LANE BRAG.
In the palmy days of keeldom, when the road leading
from Sunderland to Hylton was commonl}' called th&
Keelmen's Lonnin, the men used, on their customary
walks at night u]) or down, to be encountered by a
supernatual being which sometimes took the form of a
dog, at other times that of a calf, at other times, again,
that of a galloway and occasionally that of a woman ;
and was Avont to accompany them all the Avay from
Lawson's farm, or High Ford, to a place called Glower-
owre'im, where they first came in sight of Sunderland.
It there disappeared. Many of the old stagers, whose
memory went Ijack as far as sixty or seventy years ago,
would affirm this to l)e a positive undeniable truth.
When a galloway, the Brag "nickered." Mr. Hurrell
or THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 55
tells me he knew an old man, named Tommy Rowntree,
who said he had heard it '' mony a time."
THE NICKY-NACK BRIDGE GOBLIN.
Many years ago, when there was no public-house either
in the village of Tudhoe or nearer that place than at
Sunderland bridge, a company of reapers had assembled
at a farmer's house to enjoy a " Mell supper." A good
supply of spirits and ale had been laid in, but either the
party was larger than had been expected, or they drank
more freely, for the supply was exhausted 1)efore the
reapers were satisfied ; so they agreed to contribute each
a small sum, and send one of the company for more.
The mission Avas entrusted to a poor fellow who was
defective in intellect, and when he had been absent
nearly three iiours, the distance being only about a mile
and a half, several began to be impatient for his return.
At length one of them swore, with a deep oath, he
would wrap a sheet round him and would meet him in
"Nicky-nack field," and frighten him. Accordingly he
procured a white sheet, drew it round him, and stalked
out to meet the poor man. His companions waited long
— hour followed hour, and yet neither the reaper nor
the messenger appeared ; at last when their patience was
exhausted, and morning began slowly to break, the latter
rushed in among them, pale and trembling. When they
asked him if he had seen anything, he said "yes, I saw
a white ghost which came and frightened me mucli,
but I saw a black one l)ehind it, so I cried, ' black ghost
56 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
catch white ghost,' and the white one looked about, and
perceiving the black one, screamed out amain, and
attempted to run away ; but blackey was too swift for
him, and after much struggling, he flew away with
whitey altogether !" When day dawned and the
peasants ventured forth to seek their companion, they
discovered in the "field of Nick3^-nack," a few fragments
of the sheet in which he had been wrajjped, but he
himself was neither then nor ever afterwards found.
THE CAU'D lad O' HYLTON.
Every ancient castle, tower, or manor-house has its
visionary inhabitants. " The cau'd lad of Hylton" seems
to belong to the class of " Brownie " or domestic spirit ;
and does not appear to have possessed any very distinc-
tive attributes. He was seldom seen, but Avas heard
nightly by the servants who slept in the great hall. If
the kitchen had been left in perfect order, the}' heard
him amusing himself by hurling the pewter in all
directions, and throwing everything into confusion. If,
on the contrary, the apartment had been left in disarray
(a practice which the servants found it both prudent and
convenient to adopt) the indefatigable go])lin arranged
everything with the nicest precision — and what was
" confusion worse confounded " the night before, was
"order" on the following morning. This poor esjrrit
follct, whose pranks appear to have been at all times
perfectly harmless, became wearisome to the servants,
and they determined to banish him from the castle. The
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 57
''cau'd lad" had an "inkling" of their intentions, and
was frequently heard to exclaim in the dead of the
night, in a melancholy strain, the following consolatory
stanzas : —
Wae's me, Wae'.s me,
The Acorn is not yet
Fallen from the Tree
That's to grow the wood
That's to make the cradle
That's to rock the bairn
That's to grow a man
That's to lay me !
However, the goblin reckoned without his host — for
the servants provided the usual means of banishment,
viz., a green cloak and a hood, which were laid before
the kitchen fire, and the domestics sat up watching wist-
fully the event, at a prudent distance. At the dead
hour of midnight the sprite glided gently in, stood by
the smouldering embers and surveyed the garments pro-
vided for him very attentively — then tried them on, and
appeared delighted with his appearance, frisking about
the room, and cutting sundry sumersets and gambadoes,
until at length, on hearing the first crow of the cock,
twitching his green mantle tightly around him, he dis-
appeared with the appropriate valediction of
Here's a cloak, and here's a hood.
The cau'd lad o'Hilton -will do no more good.
But long after this— although he never returned to
disarrange the pewter and set the house in order, yet
his voice was heard at the dead hour of midnight singing
in melancholy melody
58 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Here's a cloak, and here's a hood,
The cau'd lad o' Hilton will do no more good.
The genuine brownie is supposed to be an unembodiecl
spirit, but the " cau'd lad " has, with an admixture of
English superstition, been identified with the apparition
of an unfortunate domestic who was slain by one of the
barons of Hilton in a moment of passion or intemperance.
Certain it is that there Avas a room in the castle lony;
distinguished hy the name of the " cau'd lad's room,"
which was never occupied except the castle was over-
flowing with company, and within the last century,
many persons Avorthy of credence had heard at mid-
night the unearthly Availings of the " cau'd lad of
Hilton."
The ballad of " The Cau'd Lad of Hilton "—a quite
modern production — tells how the murdered lad, Roger
►Skelton, used to pace o' nights round the castle hall,
with his head literally in his hand, singing " soft and
low," the following prophetic words of dread :
Hilton's line dishonoured fall ;
Lay with the dust proud Hilton's walls.
Murder blots the household sword ;
Strip the lands from Hilton's lord, &c., &c.
THRUMMY CAP.
There is a sort of North-country Silenus called
Thrumniy-Cap, from the bonnet which he is said to Avear,
knitted Avith thrums or Aveaver's ends, of difterent
colours. He is described as "a queer-looking, little aAvd
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 59
man," and the scene of his exploits is commonly in the
vaults and cellars of old castles. Often when the hutler
or other domestic has gone down in the dead hour of
night, to fetch another bottle of wine, he or she has seen
Thrummy-Cap sitting astride of a cask, Avith a face as
radiant and as red as the north-Avest moon. At a place
called Redcleuch, on the south skirt of the Lammermuirs,
this bibulous old gentleman used to be known by the
name of Euindie, owing to his being clad from top to toe
in patchwork garments, made up of the ruinds, runds,
lists, or selvages, of the woollen cloth used by tailors.
He got the blame, Avhether deservedly or not, of emptying
the hospitable farmer's ale or Avhiskey casks much
sooner than they ought to have been emptied.
OLD HARROW-TOOTH.
This is a mysterious being, Avitch or hag, Avhich carries
off naughty children. She has long sharp iron teeth,
whence her name. "When a child is A^ery cross and
peevish, and nothing the mother or nurse can do, say or
sing, Avill prevent it from squalling, Old HarroAv-Tooth
will be heard saying from behind the door, or out of a
dark corner, " Oh, bring 'em to me, and I'll feed 'em
with sour milk and cinders ! "
THE BARGUEST OR BOGUEST.
The barguest is represented as a local spirit or demon,
haunting populous places, and Avont to hoAvl dreadfully at
midnight before any dii'e calamity. It has perhaps got
its name from the Danish baare, a bier, the carriage or
60 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
frame of wood used for carrying corpses to the grave,
and if so, it is the spirit of the bier. Glassensikes, near
Darlington, is haunted by a barguest, which assumes at
will the form of a headless man (who disappears in tlame),
a headless lady, a white cat, rabbit, or dog, or a black
dog. There is a barguest too, it is said, in a most un-
cannie-looking glen between Darlington and Houghton,
near Throstlenest.
HOB HEADLESS.
A sprite of a very malevolent disposition, named Hob
Headless, used formerly to infest the roads between
Hurworth and Neasham ; but had it not in his power to
cross the Kent, a little stream flowing into the Tees at
the latter place, being subject, we may suppose, to the
same law which once prevailed in the supernatural world
in Scotland, whereby, under some mysterious penalty,
even the witches durst not, in their nocturnal raids,
cross a running stream. Hob used to go as far as the
Millstone Bridge, on the Darlington road, l)ut never Avas
seen past that place. A man named Robert Bone,
usually called Bobby Byens, was the last person who
saw Hob Headless, who was exorcised many years ago,
and laid under a large stone, formerly on the road side.
There he was to remain for ninety-nine years and a day ;
and should any luckless person happen to sit down on
that stone, it was verily believed that he Avould be un-
al)le to quit it for ever. But when Mr. Anthony Moss,
of West Middleton, built his garden house near that
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 61
place, the stone was smashed up by the mason's labourer,
and part of it was used as a foundation stone. There is,
or was, another Hob at Coniscliffe, on the other side of
Darlington ; but no particulars regarding him have Ijeeii
learned.
HOBHOLE HOB.
A sprite of a rather benign character, who likewise
bears the homely name of Hoi), resides in Hobhole, a
natural cavern in Eunswick Bay, on the coast of Cleve-
land. His dAvelHng-place is not within our district, but
his reputation has reached South Durham. He is sup-
posed to cure the whooping-cough, so parents have long
been in the habit of taking their children, when suffer-
ing from that complaint, into the goblin's cave, even
from great distances. When there they invoke him in
a low voice : —
Hobhole Hob !
Ma bairn's gettin' kink-cough,
Tyek't off ! tyek't off !
PEG POWLER.
The river Tees has its sprite, called Peg Powler, whose
delight it is to lure too venturesome bathers into her
subaqueous haunts, and then drag them to the bottom
and drown them. Children are still warned from plaj--
ing on the banks of the river, especially on Sundays, by
threats that Peg Powler will catch hold of them and
carry them ofl'. Peg has long green tresses, hanging
doAvn over her shoulders, but what her costume is we
C2 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
are not told. The foam or froth, whicli is often seen
floating in hxrge masses, on the surface of deep eddjang
pools in the higher portion of the river, is called " Peg
Powler's suds "; the finer less sponge-like froth is called
4(pgg. Povvler's cream." A goblin or sprite of the same
•evil character is said to haunt the river Skerne.
OOBLIN COACHES.
Mr. Cleorge Gamshy, a native of Sunderland, and a
most intelligent old man, tells me that in his grand-
mother's time a tremendous fearful noise was one nit^ht
lieard in Silver-street, then a more fashionable place
than it now is. Some described it as made by a horse
with a lame foot and a chain attached to it, but exagger-
ated twenty times, for the Avhole street was shaken, as
it might have been by an earthquake, Others, who got
up and looked out, thought it was like a stage-coach,
drawn by six horses. Tliere was " a lot of men " on the
top. The coach, the horses, and the men were all black.
♦Strange to say, however, it could not be settled whether
they were going up or down the street. The old lady
who told the tale to her j^oung grandson said there was
a great deal of wickedness in the place at that time —
a vast of smuggling from foreign. Besides most of the
wives were always quarrelling Avith their goodmcn, and
•one of them went so far that she had a knife laid under
her pillow at night to cut her husband's throat. " But
now," the good honest Avoman went on to say, " ye
•dinnet see or hear these things se offen now, because
the scriptures is mair lyeukit into."
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 63
It is recorded in Rees's Diaiy, quoted by ]\Ir, Hender-
son, that the death of one John Borrow, of Durham,
was presaged by a vision of a coach drawn b}^ six bhick
swine, and driven by a black driver. "Night after night,
too," says Mr. H., "when it is suificiently dark, the head-
less coach whirls along the rough approach to Langley
Hall, near Durham, drawn by black and fiery steeds."
The vehicle has its name from both driver and team
being without their heads. Its pace is rapid but noise-
less. I have often heard old crones speak of hearses
and mourning coaches having been seen, drawn by
headless horses, and driven by headless drivers, towards
some country churchj-ard, rapidly, 1)ut Avithout noise.
After every such fearful vision, the death of some dis-
tinguished person is sure to happen. I knew one young
gentleman farmer, by no means poor in intellect or low
in intelligence, who maintained to me that he once met
a procession of this kind at a lonely part of a little fre-
quented road, and had great difficulty in getting past it,
as his horse was fully more frightened than himself, and
required a deal of whipping and spurring to make it go
forward. He almost grazed his right leg on the wheel
of the hearse (for such it seemed to be) the road being
very narrow, and he saw to his amazement that the
horses and drivers were without heads, and that more-
over the horses were yoked to the wrong end of the
vehicle.
G4: LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER III.
GHOSTS.
ANNE walker's GHOST.
In the Rev. John Webster's "Display of "Witchcraft,"
which Dr. Henry More calls " a weak and impertinent
piece," displaying only " the marvellous Aveakness and
gullibilitie" of its author, who would not believe either
the inspired word of God nor the testimony of in-
numerable life witnesses, as to the existence and power
of witches and wizards, but denied that there Avere any
such, a story is told of a strange occurrence at Ghester-
le-Street, in the County Palatine, about the year of our
Lord 1632, It relates to a young woman named Anne
Walker, who was seduced by her master, and afterAvards
on his instigation murdered by a pitman, named Mark
Sharp. Shortly afterwards her ghost appeared to a
miller named James Graham, when he was one night
alone in the mill, and told him he must 1)e the man to
reveal the secret, which if he refused to do, she would
continually pursue and haunt him. In the morning he
Avent to a magistrate and made the matter knoAvn ; and
diligent search being made, the body Avas found in a
coal pit, Avith five Avounds in the head, and the pick,
and shoes and stockings yet Ijloody, in every circum-
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 65
stance as the apparition had related to the miller;
■whereupon Walker and Mark Sharp Avere both appre-
hended, but would confess nothing. At the Assizes
following, they were arraigned, found guilty, condemned
and executed, but I could never learn they confessed
the fact.
SOUTH SHIELDS GHOSTS.
All the old houses in Soutli Shields used to be
haunted — at least man}- of its denizens firmly believed
that they were. Thus, the Old Hall, in West Holborn,
formerly the residence of a wealthy shipowner, but now let
out in tenements, and partly occupied as a public-house,
used to be a noted rendezvous of evil spirits. A lady,
whom I knew intimately, lived in it for some time, and
she and all her family used to see and hear strange
things in it. Dreadful deeds must have been perpe-
trated, some time or other, in its spacious and once
splendid but now ghostly rooms. On one of the grand
mantelpieces, she used to tell me, were the marks of two
bloody fingers and a thuml», which no chemical art
known to her mother, Avho was a notable housewife, and
up to all points of domestic economy, could efface.
Scrubbing and scouring had no effect, and even through
successive coats of paint the marks reappeared. The
linger marks were doubtless those of some female victim
of lawless depravity, for the shade of her who impressed
them was sometimes seen. One night, Mrs. Cassills
6Q LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
could not sleep, so she sat u}) in l»cd reading. About
midnight, she saw, to her astonishment, a tall handsome
lady, dressed in Avhite, with a scarlet waistljand, glide
across the room, from the door of an apartment which
was always shut up, towards one of the windows on the
opposite side, whereat slic disaitpcared. She made no
sign whatever, nor intimated any wish to disclose her
secret. Moreover, my informant once saw what she
fancied to he tlie apparition of a soldier, standing on the
landing-i)lace at the head of the stairs, and others of the
family at different times saw him likewise. There was
one apartment in the house, whicli no soul ever entered,
barring, of course, disembodied souls, for of such it was
ileemed the favourite haunt. Xo earthly tenant would
have it for nothing, let alone pay rent for it ; so it remained
shut up from year's end to yeai-'s end. "What was in it
beside the ghosts nol)0(ly knew or dared to investigate,
for even to peep into it througli the key-hole would have
needed moi-e courage than most })eo])le possess, even if the
spiders had not stretched their webs across it. Strange
no'ses were heard in the room occasionally, as if the
ghosts were kicking uj) a racket amongst themselves.
This usuall}' liappened when the wind was in a certain
point. Tlie elements had free entrance, for not a pane
of glass was left in the window : l»ut the door was nailed
up fast and tlie window so situated that it would have
been ditlicult to get a glimpse tlu'ougli into the interior — ■
indeed impossible Avithout a ladder. Perhaps a hidden
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 07
treasure lay under the floor, with the mouldering bones
•of murdered men. Another house, in Thrift Street,
South Shields, also occupied as an Inn, had a reputation
aio whit better. A servant girl, going one evening down
to the cellar in the dark, was surprised to see an '• ancient
ladye " there, who spoke to her, contrar}^ to the
•established etiquette in such cases (Imt there are
differences, doubtless among ghosts, as among spirits
incarnate, as regards stifthess), and made her promise, to
come back without a candle at the same hour next nii^ht,
when she would " hear of something to her advantage,"
xis Joseph Ady used to write. She went accordingly,
but took a candle with her, although the courtesy she
Iiad met Avitli from the ghost might have taught her
l)etter. The old lady again appeared, and informed her
that if she had not brought a light she would have told
her "such a tale." As it was, she would give her
something for keeping her appointment. So she bade
her put her hand into a certain crevice, which she did,
and there she found the title-deeds of the house and a
purse of money. AVhat liecame of the title-deeds my
informant did not know, but the girl wisely kept the
purse to herself, and immediately leaving oft' service was
" a grand lady " ever afterwards.
THE CRADLE WELL GHOST.
On St. Thomas's Eve (20th December), the ghost of a
•murdered woman long used to alarm the carriers and
wagoners, and their fare of country folks, leaving the
C8 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
City of Durham, in tlie lane between the Cradle Well'
and Neville's Cross, on the road to Brancepeth. With
licr cliild dangling at her side, she used to join particular
parties, enter the vcliicles, and there seat herself. The
other passengers never had the courage to address her,
which, if they had done, tlie spell would have heen
l)roken. She always disappeared at a certain part of
the road, which must have been the limit of her hapless^
pilgrimage.
THE FLASS WELL GHOST.
In the same neighbourhood there was another goblin,
if, indeed, it was not the same. It was the ghost of
Jane EamshaAV, an unfortunate Avoman of the City of
Durham, Avho was decoyed from her house at night and
murdered, about the year 1789. This horrid deed caused
a great sensation, and several persons Avere examined
before the magistrates, but the perpetrator of it was never
brought to justice. There was a rumour, Sykes says, that
a soldier, on his death-bed on the Continent, confessed
that he was the murderer ; l)ut if he really was so, his
confession did not cause the poor unavenged ghost to
cease to Avalk, for it continued to do so down to a com-
paratively recent period. The place where "Jeannie"
used to make her a})pearance was at the Flass Well, on
the North Road, not far from where Durham Infirmary
)iow stands ; and she would frequently tlit about the
neighbouring fields, or along the road leading to
r>rancc})eth, called the Pcth, at the foot of the Red Hills,,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM, G9
not far from where tlie Brawn a])pearc<l. In her time,
that is to saj", before railways became rife, this road was
very much frequented, particularly on market niglits, and
there were few of the pitmen indeed who had not seen
"Jeannie." The Flass Well, it may be incidentally stated,
furnished very fine water. The old women preferred
^oing to it long after the Durham Water Works had been
constructed ; for they could not bear the idea of using
the Avater of the river Wear for cooking purposes, far
less for drinking, though it was professed to be purified.
The well is now, I believe, enclosed in the grounds
attached to one of the villas on the North Road. There
are a good many " Flasses " in South and North Britain,
the word " fiass " signifying a shallow marshy pond, as
"flat" or " Hatt " does in some districts. At the Flass,
in Berwickshire, the ghost of a poor seduced and forsaken
girl, Avhose "death was doubtful," like that of Hamlet's
Ophelia, was said in our younger days to be in the
habit of walking o'nights, but " never did any harm to
anyone." She was commonly known as Fanny o' the
Flass, and somebody made a ballad about her, com-
mencing thus : —
In <a' the skirts o' the Laiiiuiermuirs,
There wasua a bonnier lass,
A brawer, a brisker, or a blyther,
Thau Fanny o' the Flass.
THE CROOK HALL GHOST.
Crook Hall, near the north end of Frarawellgate-
street, Durham, has its ghost, called the White Lady,
LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
possibly one of the Billingham family, who once livctl:
in the place, afterwards the domicile of tAvo famous
local antiquaries, Christopher Mickleton and James
Ivaine, and now, I helieAC, of Mr. John S. Fowler, ale,
porter and sj)irit mercliant, and seedsman,
MADAME LAMBTON'S GHOST.
South Biddick Hall, on the north bank of the "Wear,
not far from Lambton Castle, has also had its ideal
tenant, one Madame Lambton, believed to have been
of the Delaval family, and tinctured with the clever
eccentricitj- of that race.
THE LAVEPJCK HALL GHOST.
There is a tradition that an old farmer was miu'dered,
many years ago, at Laverick Hall, near Scots House, on
the road from Sunderland to Newcastle, and that he
" came back," that is to say, used to haunt the place,
apparent!}' in the costume he wore when in this world.
An old Avoman, Avho was long a servant in the place,
told ni}' informant that she has often seen him, and so,
indeed, had evcryl)ody Avho lived there. She once saAv
him most distinctly pass in at one door and out at
another, in the apartment Avhere she happened to be all
alone. " AVas it not Mr. S ? " (her master) was the
natural question put to her. "No, no,'' replied she, " it
vas the apparition."'
THE MILK WHITE DOVE OF CORNEORTH.
A few fields to the south of Stol)-cross farm, near
Cornforth, stands a ruined dovecot, shaded b}" a fcAv
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM.
straggling trees, and haunted by a brood of wood
pigeons. Among these Hies a milk-white dove, with
three spots of crimson on its breast, being the spirit of
a poor girl who here " put herself down for love " — here,
the very spot of her appointment with her traitor lover,
— and who still hovers round the devoted spot, the scene
of her earthly joys and sorrows. The cruel deceiver
drowned himself some }cars afterwards in the Floatljeck,
the small stream on which stands the bishop's manor
mill, converted into a paper mill ; and being Iniried
where four roads meet, with a stake or stolj driven
through his body, he left the memory of the transaction
in the name of Stob Cross. The old custom of burj-ing
the bodies of suicides in such places originated in the
idea that they were next in point of sanctity to conse-
crated ground, and that of driving a stake through the
corpse Avas to prevent the foul fiends from running awa}'
with it and turning it into a vampyre. An old farmer
assured Mr. Surtees that he had seen the ghost of the
injured fair one in the shape of a dove twenty times ;
and he added that her appearance Avas considered as a
harbinger of serene weathei' and a fruitful harvest.
LADY BARNARD'S GHOST.
In a letter to Sir Cuthbert Sliarpe, Mv. Surtees tells
the following story : — " Christopher, first Lord Barnard
(son of Sir Henry Yane), was persuaded by his wife into
ii most unreasonable jealousy and dislike of his eldest
.son, and intending to pull down Kaby, actually proceeded
72 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
to take the Iciul ott", when liis son stopped him l)y an
injunction in Chanceiy. (The case is in Vernon's
Reports). This old jade after her death used to drive
about in tlie air, in a l>lack coacli and six ; sometimes
she takes ground and drives slowly up the lawn t<»
Alice's well, and still more frequently walks the l)attle-
ments of Rab}-, with a pair of brass knitting needles,
and is called Old Hell Cat." Lady Barnard, whose
Christian name was Elizabeth, was the eldest daughter
of Gilbert Hollis, Earl of Clare, and sister and co-heir of
John, Duke of Newcastle. She died on the 27 th of
March, 1742.
A SUNDERLAND BUTCHER'S GHOST.
Between thirt}^ and forty j^ears ago, a drunken
butcher named B , whose shop Avas in Sunderland
High Street, in a house since rebuilt, died and was
buried. It was soon rumoured all over the town that his
ghost had been several times seen, in the upper part of his
domicile, making strange manoeuvres, and flinging its
arms about wild)}-, as had been the deceased's custom
when alive and figliting with some imaginary enemy in
his cups or labouring under delirium tremens. Thousands
of people gathered nightly in the streets, in front of the
house, to see the marvellous sight ; and there, of a truth,
what seemed to be B was plainly visible, figurini^
away like a Peter Waggy inside the bedroom window,
as shown by a dim gas light from ])eliind. Whether it
was a veritalde aj)i)arition or only some wicked wag
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM.
personating tlie poor man's sore troubled and restless
spirit, local wiseacres seem never to have fully deter-
mined, but many l^elievcd to the day of their death that
it was B 's ghost.
A LAMBTOX STREET LADY's GHOST.
The wife of a solicitor residing in Lambton-street,
Bishopwearmouth, man}- years ago, suddenly disappeared,
and it was whispered all over the town that she had
been murdered. She is said to have been a woman of
rather intemperate habits, and lier murderer is thought
to have been her own husband. With a view to dis-
cover what had become of her, bloodhounds Avere sent
for from some gentleman's place in the neighbourhood ;
but it was found that the scent had been lost, owing to
a cask of wine having been spilt on the floor, it was sup-
posed on purpose. Some one Avas said to have been
seen on the night Mrs. disappeared, carrying a
sack on his back, and going in the direction of Fenwick's
limekilns. Shortly afterwards, a sudden blaze of light
was observed rising from the kiln, into which something
had been pitched. Of course, it was understood to be
the poor Avoman's botly. Many years afterAvards, u
skeleton Avas found near tlie place, but it turned out to
be that of a male. Mrs. , as in duty liound,
" came ])ack," and Avas often seen by the servants. She
made the house so hot for its inmates that they could
not live in it. No servant, at least, Avould stay Avith
them. And so they Avere forced to shift to another house.
74 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
THE ELYET BRIDGE PIPER.
On the north side of Elvet Bridge, in the cit}- of
Durham, is a building, erected in 1632, and formerly
used as a house of correction, but which, after the erec-
tion of the new jail, was sold to Stephen Kcm1>le, the
famous comedian, and was subsequently the printing
and publishing office of the Durham Chronicle. This
building is said to have been haunted hy the restless
spirit of an old piper, who, as the story goes, was 1)rought
down by the river during a flood, and, on being recovered
from the water alive, became an inmate of the house of
correction, where lie died a few years after. The bag-
})ipes long continued to be heard at midnight, l>j' persons
crossing the bridge to or from Sadler-street. Mr.
Henderson tells us that the season for the api)earance of
ghosts is from St. Thomas' eve and daj' till Christmas
eve, when the approaching festival, of course, puts them
to flight. On one of these unluckj- dajs, which
happened to be also a Friday, one of the waits disap-
peared at the foot of Elvet Bridge, not to be seen again,
since which event the waits have never again played in
that city on Friday nights.
THE GLOWROWRAM GHOST.
In a green lane, called Petty Lane, at Cllowrowram
near Chester-le-Street, there used to be seen the ghost
of a Avoman. "When approached the figure would fall
clown and spread out like a sheet, or rather like a great
pack of white avooI. And when they Avent forAvard to
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM.
pick it up it would suddenly disappear. Both men and
horses used to l)e startled by it. The farmer at (llowr-
owram's horse once took fright when he Avas coming
home late, and when he got to the stal)le door, it was all
in a tremble, yet the farmer himself had seen nothing.
She often used to appear to the girls who went out at
night to milk the cows, when they would get terribl}'
frightened and spill the milk. But there was never a
<lrop to be seen on the ground the next morning. "When
the carters drove up the lane with coals, the carts Avould
be upset. At last while digging up the ground tc>
improve the road they came upon the skeleton of a
woman. The chost never walked after that.
76 LECEXDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER IV
THE BEYLDON HILL (4H0ST.
The Rev. John Weslc}', in his journal, gives a very
"Curious account of a series of apparitions, alleged to
have been seen by a young woman in .Sunderland,
named Elizabeth Hobson, from whom he got the whole
particulars. It would be doing injustice to the story
were I to give it in an}' other than the venerable man's
■own words, and as tlie narrative is a very long one and
has been so often rei)rinted, and that in a cheap form,
so as to have been read, I daresay, bj^ the bulk of my
readers, I shall here pretermit it, only observiug that
Miss Hobson had been a sight-seer from her youth up,
and that the particular visitation which she had from the
other world, and which took place at Beyldon or Building
Hill, near Sun<lerlatid, now included in the People's
Park, had for its ol>jcct to put the lady in possession of
ii certain piece of property, which had been wrongfully
withlield fi'om her.
Although the ghost was supposed to have been
effectually laid, Ijy means of fervent united prayer, after
the young vroman had got her rights, many of the
inhabitants of Sunderland and Bishopwearmouth con-
tinued to believe that it still walked ; and so an
OF THE f!OUNTY OF DURHAM.
intelligent middle-aged lady tells me that she remembers-
qiiite well how, when she Avas a young girl, the people
used to go out to the hill at midnight to see the ghost.
A gentleman named Haswell, the grandfather of Mr.
J. H. Brown, Borough Accountant, Avas one of the twelve-
who volunteered to accompany Elizabeth Hobson to the
solitary spot where her deceased relation was wont to
meet her, a curious hollow near the Xorth-west foot of
the hill, called the Punch Bowl, Avhere the children used,
within living memory, to go on an Easter Monday with
their pasch eggs and oranges and bottles with strings tied
round their necks, and amuse themselves l)y rolling them
down the slope and getting them back again. Mr.
Haswell, however, did not go the whole length, but
stopped at Mr. Davison's to pray, along with five others.
>Some of the Hol)Son family still reside in Sunderland.
Vulgar tradition has it tliat Mr. AVesle}' went out him-
self to Beyldon Hill, and laid the Ghost ; but this, it is
clear, was not the case. The venerable man Avas,
howcA'er, a firm believer in the reality of supernatural
apparitions. These are his own words : —
" Let us consider Avhat may be the employment of
unholy spirits from death to the resurrection. We can-
not doul)t but the moment they leave the body, they
find themselves surrounded by spirits of their own kind,
probably human as Avell as diabolical. "What poAver
(lod may permit these to exercise 0A"er them Ave do not
distinctly know. But it is not improbable he may
78 I.HCKNDS AM) SUrEKSTITIONS
suffer Satan to employ them as he does his own angels
in inflicting death or evils of various kinds on the men
that know not God. For this end they may raise storms
l)y sea or by land, they may shoot meteors through the
tiir, they may occasion earthquakes, and in numherlcss
Avajs afflict those wlioni they are suffered to destroy.
^^'llero they are not permitted to take away life, they
may inflict Aarious diseases, and many of which we may
ju<lge tohc natural, are undoubtedly diabolical. I believe
this is frc<|Uouth- tlie case with lunatics."
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 79
CHAPTER Y.
FAIRIES.
A gooil sized library would be required to contain all
tlie rich fair}" literature that the fertile human imagina-
tion has given birth to, since the da}' Avhen a certain
Pharaonic scril)e wrote on papyrus the first fairy tale,
for the edification of the 3'oung Egyptian crown prince,
.Scti i\Iamephta, tlie son of Pharaoh Rameses ^li-Amuu,
who ruled in Thel»es fourteen hundred years before
Christ, and at whose court Moses was educated. This
curious papyrus Avas unfolden by a learned German in
1863, and a literal translation of its contents was read
by him to a Bei'lin Audience, in the winter of that year —
thirty two centuries after it had been written. Fickle
fancy has no more pleasant region tlian Fairyland to
revel in, but I must not allow her to roam to a distance
in this volume. We must stay at home, and speak only
of our own County Palatine fairies.
FAIRY HILLS AND COVES,
There are several round green hills in this country,
which were formerly supposed to be inhabited under-
ground by the fairies. I have met with people Avho knew
this to be a fact, because sometimes on a fine still summer
80 LEGENDS AND Sft'ERSTITIONS
night, they have themselves lain doAvn on these green hills
with their ears close to the ground, and have heard piping,
fiddling, singing, and dancing going on, far down in the
interior. When questioned us to whether the sounds
might not rather come from some neighbouring village
or gipsy encampment, they would reply that that was
quite impossible. " No, it was the fairies ; everybody
knew it was ; hundreds had heard them ; there could be
no doubt it was the fairies." Indeed, almost every
circular mound nuist once have been thus inluil)ited, if
all tales be true. One such place is a remarkable tumulus
between Eppleton and Hetton, consisting entirely of field
stones gathered together. At the top of this mound is
a little hollow, called the fairies' cradle ; and there the
fairies formerly used to dance, to the music made on a
peculiarly sweet-toned pipe by a supernatural minstrel.
Eitson speaks of some fairy hills at Billingham, and
J\Ir. "NV. H. D. Longstafie tells us of a very famous one
at Middleton in-Teesdalo, called the Tower Hill, close to
Pountey's Lane (vulgo County Lane, originally Pont
Tees Lane.) A person informed Mr. Longstafte that his
grandmother frecpiently asserted that she had seen the
faiiies go from that hill to the Tees to wash themselves
and to wash their clothes also. Moreover she once found
a fairy, like unto a miniature girl, dressed in green, and
with brilliant red eyes, comi)Osedl3- sitting on a cheese-
like stone near her house. She took this strange creature
into her kitchen, and set it by the fire, and gave it some
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM, 81
bread and butter, with sugar on it, which it ate, but it
cried so bitterly that she was obliged to carry it back to
where she found it. She however kept the elfish stone,
and it may be in existence unto this day. The old
woman preserved it most religiously, not suffering it to
be touched, and always had it under the table in the
pantry, for what purpose is not stated. Ritson deduces
" Ferry Hill " from " Fairy Hill." At Hartlepool, there
are fairy coves. Near Marsden, in one of the limestone
caves with which that neighbourhood abounds, is " the
Fairies' Kettle," a circular hole in the rock about four
feet deei), filled Avith pellucid salt water, the sea covering
the place at spring tides, and occasionally having a few
little fishes in it, to swim about in a fairy-like fashion,
as in a large aquarium of Nature's own forming. One
of the prettiest sights I ever saw Avas a lithe young
mackerel, most elegantly mottled with green, blue, and
other colours, disporting itself in this secluded basin,
the bottom of which consists of clean Avhite sand, and
near it, at a few feet higher level, is a smaller basin
shaped like a baptismal font, and filled with delicious
fresh water from a spring that gushes from the rock, so
that it might very aptly be christened the Fairies' Font.
FAIRY BUTTER.
The fairies used to he heard patting their l)uttcr on
the slope of Pcnsher Hill, Avhen people Avere passing in
the dark. A man once heard one of them sa}', "Mend
that peel !" Next day, going past again, he found a broken
82 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
peel lying on the ground. So he took it up and mended
it. The day after that, Avhen going along the road with
a cart, he saw a \ncco of bread lying on a stone at the
root of the hedge, at the identical place, with nice-look-
ing fresh l)uttcr spread u})on it ; but he durst neither
eat it himself, nor give it to his horses. The conse-
quence Avas that before he got to the top of the " lonnin,"
both his horses fell doAvn dead. I may observe that
what is commonly known as fairy butter is a certain
fungous excrescence, sometimes found about the roots of
old trees. After great rains, and in a certain degree of
j)utrefaction, it is reduced to a consistency which, to-
gether with its colour, makes it not uidike l>utter, and
hence its name. AVhen met with in houses it is reckoned
lucky. 1 should consider it very much the o})posite,
CHANGELINGS.
The fairies were formerly mucli addicted to stealing
the most beautiful and witty children they came across,
and leaving in their places such brats of their own as
were either }n-odigiously ugly and stupid, mischievously
inclined, or of a peevish and fretful temper. These
elfish imps were termed changelings. Some will have it
that " the good peoi)le " could only exchange their
weakly, starveling, ill-conditioned elves for the more
robust otlspring of Christian parents before baptism,
and that they could not do so even then, if a candle was
always kept burning at night in the room Avhere the
infant lay.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHA5I. 83
BLSHOPTON FAIRY HILL.
Bishoptou is a pleasant village situated on an eminence
a few miles West North "West of Stockton. A little to the
•east of it are the foundations of a circular fortification
which was raised hy Koger Conyers, who made a power-
ful resistance there against the troops of William
Cumin, the Chancellor of the King of the Scots, when,
.supported by that monarch and the empress Matilda, he
usurped the See of Durham, in the middle of the twelfth
■century. A conical mound, sixty feet high, stands in
the centre of the fort and is surroimded by deep trenches.
It is known in the locality as the Fairy Hill. The story
goes, that the people were once carting away this hill,
.and had got it partly removed, when a mysterious voice
was heard which said " Is all well ? " " Yes" was the reply,
" then keep well when you are well," rejoined the voice,
" and leave the Fairy Hill alone." The admonition Avas
not attended to, however, and the work went on again.
In a short time the \vorkmen came upon a large black
oak chest ; it was so heaA'y that it took several men to
carry it to the nearest blacksmith's shop. Hoping to
find it full of gold and silver, they immediately got it
broken open, when, alas, it turned out to be full of nails.
The chest long remained, perhaps still remains, in the
blacksmith's shop, where the aunt of my informant, a
trustworthy woman, has often seen it.
84 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
FAIRY RINGS.
Wc arc most of us familiar witli those beautiful green
circles calleel fairy rings, fre(|uent]y visible in meado'ws^
and pastures. Some attribute them to the growth and
decay of a species of fungus, agaric, or mushroom,
spreading from a common centre, others think they are
caused by lightning ; but the vulgar opinion is, that they
are spots where the fairies have been dancing in a ring
by moonlight, and have trodden doAvn the grass with
their tiny feet, for they are diminutive creatures, about
the size of human children three or four j-ears old, or not
much larger than Lilii)utiuns. Sliakespearc calls them
" green sour riniilets," and intimates that tlie fairies
have formed them b}'' making " midnight mushrooms "
probably to form seats for the dancers after they haA^e
had their turn, and sit down to rest. There must be
something inscrutal)le about these rings, if it be true,
as I have heard affirmed, that a certain gentleman some-
where in West Durham, or Hexhamshire, one year dug
a trench six inches deep round a consj^icuous ring in
<me of his old grass fields, to pre^-ent the spread of the
fungus, nevertheless it re-api)eared next year, outside the
trench, as if no such severance had been made.
FAIRIES IN THE KITCHEN.
In the olden time it Avas not uncommon for the
kitchen Avench in a farm house to discover, Avlien she rose
Avith the sun or before it, that the floor had been clean
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAISI. 85
swept, and every article of furniture put into its proper
place, by some kind sleight-of-hand fairy, during the
night. These were the days when a great part of this
country-side was still in a state of nature — hogs
undrained, fields unfenced, leys unfilled — and the
inhabitants were almost as rude and untutored, in the
schoolmaster's sense, as Zulus or ]\Iaoris, Avhile the
servants as a rule were shamefullj^ hard worked. But
now the girls get no such supernatural nocturnal help,
but must do the needful Avork themselves, for —
Where the scythe cuts and the sock rives.
There are no more fairies or l:)uni-bee likes.
FAIRY MONEY.
Found treasure is supposed to have been laid up by
the fairies, and he who is so lucky as to light upon it,
will, if he is a wise man, say nothing about it ; because
the good people do not like their gifts to be made known,
any more than truly benevolent mortals do.
FAIRY PIPES.
Small tobacco pipes of an ancient and clumsy form,
frequently found in ploughed fields, are supposed to
have been manufactured and used l)y the fairies.
ELF SHOTS.
This is the name vulgarly given to the Hint arrow-
heads, made use of in war Ijy the ancient Britons. The
-common people imagine them to have loeen maliciously
86 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
shot at cattle by the fairies or elves. The approved
cure of the cramp or other disorder, thereby caused,
used to be to chafe the parts affected with a piece of
thick woollen cloth, or with an old stocking.
FAIRY CONCERTS.
The fairies usually took up their abode during the day
underground in the bosom of isolated round green hills,
I have met with people who knew this to be a fact,.
])ecausc sometimes on a fine still summer evening, when
they had lain down on these liills with their ear close to-
the ground, thej' were astonished to hear piping, fiddling,
singing, and dancing going on far down in the interior.
When questioned as to whether the sounds might not
rather come from some neighbouring village or gipsy
encampment, they \vould reply that that was quite im-
possible. " Xo " they replied, " it certainly Avas the
fairies ; everybody knew it was ; hundreds had heard
them ; there could he no doubt it was the fairies." In-
<Ieed almost every circular mound in the North must
once have been thus used, if all tales be true.
A LEGEND OF CLINT's CRAG.
The royal residence of the Queen of the Fairies in
Weardale Avas a Avild, romantic, little frequented place-
called Clint's Crags, on the south bank of Ireshope Burn,
al)out tAvo miles south Avest of the village of Ireshope.
The burn washes the foot of these rugged and pictur-
esque rocks which are crested on the highest battlements
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 87
with tufts of purple heath and bilberry shrubs, contrasting
with the grey-faced cliffs over which falls a mossy rill ;
and a few solitary and shapeless bushes dangle from the
crevices which are adorned by the common, the green
and the wall rue spleenworts and various species of fern.
At the foot of the limestone rocks there is a gloomy
cavern, in which the fairy cpieen and her elfin courtiers
resided ; and according to Mr. W. M. Egglestone, whose
description we take the liberty to borrow, " the royal
palace was decorated with stalactitical ornaments of
indescribable grandeur ; marble chandeliers of intricate
forms were pendent from the roof ; the furniture and
crockery ware were of stalagmitical formation ; and on
ever}' side of the fairies' abode were myriads of sparkling
gems of every hue." The Weardale fairies, we may feel
assured, were as capricious and tricksy as their green-
coated brethren and sisters everywhere else. Their
habit it was to borrow the goodwife's domestic utensils,
sometimes when she could very ill spare them ; and if
refused the loan of anything, they never failed to take
their revenge. Unless it was their ])leasurc to make
themselves visible, to serve their own private ends,
they Avere never seen, though often heard. There Avas
a singular virtue, however, in a four-leaved clover, to
give the possessor of it the power of seeing the fairies
at all times.
88 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
FOLK LOEE
CHAPTER VI.
HOLIDAYS AND HOLIDAY CUSTOMS.
HALLO\VEEN.
On All Hallow Even, the vigil of All Saints' Da}*, it
is customarjMvith young people to dip for apples floating
in water, or to catch at them when stuck on one end of
a hanging beam, at the other extremity of which is fixed
a lighted candle, and that with their mouths only, their
hands tied behind their liacks. I have often seen this
ludicrous sport indulged in, and moreover the burning
of nuts, which is an almost equally exciting game, though
not so trying to the jaws. The nuts are placed, two and
two, upon the topmost bar of the grate, — formerly on
the hearth, — and named respectively after a lad and a
lass. If they lie still and burn together, it prognosticates
a hopeful love and a happy marriage; but if, on the
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 89
•contrary, one or other, or both, bounce and fly asun-
<Ier, the sign is unpropitious. If both start off, it is a
case of mutual aversion ; if one lies still, it is a case of
love forsaken. "When nuts are not come-at-al)le peas will
•do.
ST. AGNES' FAST.
St. Agnes's Fast is thus observed throughout the
County of Durham. Two young girls, each desirous to
dream about their future husbands, must abstain through
the whole of St. Agnes's Eve (20th January) from eating'
drinking, or speaking, and must even avoid touching
their lips Avith their fingers. At night they are to make
together their " dumb cake," the ingredients of Aviiich
(flour, salt, water, &c.) must be supplied in equal propor-
tions by their friends. They must also take equal shares
in the baking and turning of the cake, and in drawing it
■out of the oven ; and after it has been divided into
two equal portions, each girl, taking her share, carries it
up stairs, walking backwards all the time, and finally
-eats it and jumps into lied. A damsel avIio duly fulfils
all these conditions, and has also kept her thoughts all
the day fixed on her ideal of a husband, may confidently
■expect to see her future partner in her dreams. There
is one way besides speaking in whicli the charm may be
broken, and that is by a kiss. And therefore when it is
known that a brace of girls are keeping St, Agnes's Fast,
it is not uncommon for a couple of young sparks to come
upon them unawares, and Ijreak their fast by a salute.
90 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
i^T. SWITHIN S DAY.
This day, the 15th of July, is ahnost universally
believed by country people to give a certain indication of
the state of the weather for the next forty days. For
thus runs the old rhyme —
" St. Swithin's daj'. if thou does rain,
For forty days it will remain ;
St. Swithin's Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain ne niair."
A NEW DRESS ON NEW YEAR'S DAY.
Every bodj^ should wear a new dress on New Year's
Day, and he should take care to have some " brass,"
including copper, silver, and gold money, in his pockets,
in order to be certain that they will never be quite empty
of cash throughout the year.
GOOD FRIDAY.
No Blacksmith with the least pretence to decency will
drive a nail on Good Friday ; a remembrance of the
awful purpose for Avhich hammer and nails were used on
the first Good Frida}' natural!}' holds them back.
chili)Er:\iass day.
On this day, the feast of the Hoi}- Innocents, which
keeps up the memory of the wicked Herod's murder of
the children at Bethlehem, it is very unlucky to begin
any work, whatsoever day of the week it falls on.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 91
OXEN ON CHRISTMAS DAY.
On Christmas Eve the oxen kneel in their stalls, and
utter low sounds resembling moans. In boyhood many a
one has been induced, as Brockett tells us he himself
more than once was, to attend on the occasion and
witness this curious and most suggestive phenomenon.
But I have never j-et met with any one who could
sincerely say he had seen and heard it. The oxen, of
course, do kneel when they lie down ; but they do not
moan at the same time.
FRIDAY.
A Sunderland lady was lately heard to say : " I am
not superstitious ; but I would not for the world begin
any business on that day ; it is ur.luckj\" This is a
very wide spread notion — Friday, the day on which Christ
was crucified, being regarded all over Christendom as a
day of ill omen. No unsophisticated people would choose
to be married on Friday, for, if they were, they could
not hope to enjoy much domestic peace.
FRUMETY ON C'TIRISTMAS EVE.
The orthodox old fashioned supper on Christmas Eve
consists of frunient}', fruniety, or furmetj', a })reparation
of wheat well soaked and 1)oiled in milk, with currants,
cinnamon, and other spices, and sugar. It is the Latin
fruiii,entum, corn.
92 LEGENDS AND SUrERSTITIONS
THE SUN DANCING.
At its rising on Easter morning-, the sun dances foi-
joy, in honour of the resurrection of Christ. Those who
wish to see him do so, rise early tluit da}', and go into
tlie open fiehls, or on to a height overlooking the sea,
where they can Avitness the phenomenon best.
EASTER MONDAY AND TUESDAY FROLICS.
On Easter JMonday the boys have a right to loy hold
of the girls, and pull off their shoes ; and on Easter
Tuesday, the girls ma}- take their revenge, by jjulling
off the boy's caps. In the City of Durham, says Brand,
" on the one day the men take off the women's shoes, or
rather buckles, which are only to be redeemed by a
present ; on another day the women make reprisals,
taking off the men's in like manner." A j'oung lady
tells me she has seen men taken to the police station
in Sunderland on Easter Sunday, for using their pre-
sumed privilege on that sacred day, and pulling off the
women's boots. Fishwomen and others have been known
to go about the street the whole day, waylaying Avell-
known characters, and levying contributions upon them.
One gentleman in Sunderland has been forced to pay as
mueli as nine shillings in one day. The late Peggy
Potts used to be famous at this game.
SANTA CRUZ.
On Christmas Eve, each child hangs up one of its
stockings in a place where it can be easily reached, in
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 93
order that Santa Cruz, the Holy Cross, may come into
the bedroom during the night, and deposit some httle
present in it. And when the chikl wakens in the morn-
ing, sure as fate, in the stocking is a Christmas pie, — a
yule doiigh, which is a l)it of rich j^aste rolled out, cut,
and baked in the shape of a nice little baby, with currants
for eyes, — a packet of figs, raisins, bullets, — an orange,
a ball, a top, or some other article, brought by the
mysterious nocturnal visitor, Vvdio has come with light
and gentle step, when the children were fast asleep.
PALMS.
It was quite customary, fifty or sixty 3'ears ago, for
children to make ]jalm crosses for Palm Sunday. The
substitute for palm was sauyh, sallow, or great round-
leaved or goat willow, with its soft downy saffron col-
oured catkins in flower. The branclies were tied together
so as to form a St. Andrew's cross, with a tuft of catkins
at each point, and bound with knots and bows of ribbon,
generally blue or pink. In the old Catholic times, the
branches were carried in procession, and strown on the
road the Sunday next before Easter, in imitation of the
palm leaves that Averc strown before Jesus on his entry
into Jerusalem. The palm crosses made hy the children
are sometimes still seen stuck up or sus2)ended in old
fashioned people's houses.
EASTER EGGS.
Easter eggs, Pash or Passover eggs, or Paste Eggs, as
they are vulgarly called, form a staple article of manu-
94 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
facture every year among the children in town and
country. They are lioiled as hard as possil)le, and stained
various colours, with whin blossoms, lichen off stone
walls, the juice of herl)s, arnatto, logwood chips, and old
rags ilycd with a pattern which will cast. They can be
bought in the shops by such as do not care to take the
trouble to boil and dye them for themselves, and the
dealers in them often have them covered with goldleaf.
The egg, in heathendom, was an emblem of the life lying
hid, dormant, and seemingly extinct in Nature during
the reign of winter, and rising again in due time with
the advent of spring. To Christians it prefigures
the resurrection of the body from the regions of death
and the grave. Easter Sunday is commonly known as
Paste-egg day.
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD ON CHRISTMAS EVE.
On Christmas Eve, in this county as well as elscAvhere,
it is customary for old women to go about with penny
waxen dolls, dressed up to represent the Virgin and
Child, carried under their cloak, from house to house,
and as a matter of course, expecting alms. They sing a
carol, the purport of which is to wish master and
mistress,
"And all their little children, that round the table go,
And all their kith and kindred that travel fai" and near,
A merry Christmas and a happy New Year."
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 95
BALL PLAYING.
This game commences on Pancake Tuesday and
continues without interruption till Easter.
SHROYE TUESDAY.
Shrive or Shrove Tuesday is still upheld, so far as
being a half-holiday, which the apprentices of Durham
claim as a privilege and an indisputalde right. The
custom of ringing the great hell of the Cathedral at
eleven o'clock, after morning service, is still observed,
receiving the usual designation of the " Pancake Bell ;"
but in pre-Reformation times it conveyed a more signifi-
cant intimation — that the inhabitants must repair to
their parish priests and get "shriven." The ancient
glories of Shrove Tuesday have disappeared, and there
are now few persons either
" man or maid who take their turn
And toss their pancakes lest they burn."
At Sedgefield and other places, the old fashioned
people still dine on ^lancakes ; and the afternoon is
devoted to playing at football.
COLLOP MONDAY.
It is usual to have eggs and collops, or pieces of bacon,
for dinner, on the day before Shrove Tuesday. The
origin of this custom was that, it being the last day of
ilesh-eating Ijefore Lent, our ancestors cut what fresh
meat they had left in their houses on that day, into
collops or steaks, for salting or hanging up to dry till
9G LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Lent was over. In many of the older villages the
inhabitants were once in the lialjit, on the morning of
Collop i\Ionday, of visiting tlie farm houses, and de-
manding a collop or steak, as well as a quantum of flour
for use tlie next day.
CLEANING UP ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.
Before the New Year comes in, it is proper that the
house should be thoroughly cleansed and purified. All
the ashes should ho carried out, all the slops emptied,
every drop of dirty water removed. Misunderstandings,
animosities and quarrels of every kind should likewise
1)0 made up before the advent of the New Year, and he
or she who makes the first advance towards reconciliation
has the greatest honour.
FIRST-FOOT.
It is considered very important that the first person
who crosses the threshold and enters the house after mid-
night on New Year's morning sliould be a true friend, and
therefore many make arrangements beforehand with
some one in whom they have perfect confidence, to get
him to 1)6 their " first foot." It would be counted very
unlucky indeed if the first entrant were a female, or if
the person who first came in did not bring 1)read or
spirits Avith him. In order to prevent the possibility of
mischief being done, through the influence of the evil
eye, some people prefer being their own first-foot, going
themselves to the door the moment it strikes twelve,.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 97
and immediately coming in again. Sailors' wives, when
their husbands are away at sea, usually get some canny
little lad whom they know to be their first-foot. Among
old friends and neighbours, when our town society was
less mixed than it is now, the first-foot used to come in
bearing a tray, with a bottle and glass, and recite the
following rhyme : —
" Happy New Year t' ye ! God send ye plenty !
Whei'B ye have one pound note I wish ye may have twenty ! "
THE YULE CANDLE AND THE YULE CLOG.
A large mould-candle is lighted and set on the supper
table in many old-fashioned houses on Christmas Eve ;
and it is considered unlucky to snuft' it until the con-
clusion of the repast. Another " betterly " candle is got
to serve the same purpose on New Year's Eve. And
both ought to be left to burn till daybreak next morning.
A common candle Avill not do. The grocers formerly
used to give a proper one away every year to their
customers. The Yule Clog is a large block or log of
wood, sometimes the root of a tree, laid on the fire on
Christmas Eve, and kept burning all the following day,
or longer, if possible. A portion of it is very often kept
to light up the new block at the next Christmas, and to
preserve the family from harm in the meantime. The
Yule-Dough is a Christmas Cake, or rather a little image
of paste studded with currants, and baked for children
at that season of the year.
98 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
THE WICKED SUNDAY.
In many places, in pre-Reformation times, the village
wake was held on a Sunday afternoon, after canonical
hours. That day used to be called the Wicked Sunday,
since the Sabbath was at no other time so generally
profaned. All the good wives and their servants stayed
at home in the morning to dress dinner; and in the
afternoon all the men who were not playing at football
or quarter-staff, sat drinking beer, either in their own
houses or in the village alehouse, till " all was blue."
THE YEULWAITING,
According to the Boldon Buke, there were two cottagers
in Heighington, each holding fifteen acres of land of the
lord bishop, for which they wrought two days in every
week throughout the year, and joined with the sixteen
"villains" in the place in several other services, and in
yeulwaitincj. This latter was the easy and agreeable
service of serenading the good prelate, of whom they
held their lands, on Christmas Eve. Each of the twelve
"villains" in the township of Killerb}^ was bound to
pay four shillings a year to the bishop, in lieu of
yeulwaiting. We have here, not the origin, it is true,
l)ut an old established form, of the Christmas Waits,
who still go their rounds in many parts of the country.
GOOD FRIDAY BREAD.
Bread baked on Good Friday, and laid by in a drawer,
will keep fresh till the same festival comes round next
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 99
year. A little bit of it grated, and taken in a wine glass
of water, is useful in cases of diarrhoea,
CERTAIN DISHES FOR CERTAIN TIMES.
A turkey and mince pie at Christmas ; a gammon
■of bacon on Easter Day ; a goose on Michaelmas
Day ; oysters on St. James's Day ; a roast pig on
St. Bartholomew's Day ; a fat hen at Shrovetide ; pan-
cakes on Shrove Tuesday ; a male pullet and bacon on
Fastin's Day ; hot cross buns on Good Friday ; lamb at
Whitsuntide ; bull beef at Candlemas ; eggs on the
Saturday before Shrove Sunday; a sweet cake on All-
Soul's Day ; salmon and all other kinds of fish in Lent.
We subscribe to all these, but the oysters on the 25th
July, holding, as we do, to what Ave consider the more
orthodox doctrine which associates oysters in season with
months in the names of which K. occurs. Pullets are in
season during the whole of January ; hence the
proverb : —
If you but knew how good it were,
To eat a pullet in Januar',
If you had twenty in your flock,
You'd leave but one to go with the cock.
YULE CAKES.
The Yule Cake, otherwise known as the Yule Dough,
was formerly baked at Christmas, and presented by
bakers to their customers. It was a little image of paste,
in the form of a baby, and represented the infant Jesus.
100 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Sometimes His Mother, the Virgin Mary, was added,
holding the babe in her arms.
DURHAM CATHEDRAL ON CANDLEMAS DAY.
Brand cites a curious anecdote concerning John Cosin,
bishop of Durham, on Candlemas Day, from a rare tract,
intituled "The Vanity and Downfall of superstitious
Popish ceremonies, preached in the Cathedral Church of
Durham, by one Peter Smart, a prebend there, July 27th,
1626." Edinburgh, 4to, 1628. The story is that "on
Candlemas Day last past, Mr. Cozens, in renewing that
Popish Ceremony of burning candles to the honour of
Our Lady, busied himself from two of the clock in the
afternoon till four, in climbing long ladders to stick up
wax candles in the said Cathedral Chiu'ch. The number
of all the candles liurnt that evening was two hundred
and twenty, Ijesides sixteen torches, — sixty of those
burning tapers and torches standing upon, and near, the
high altar (as he called it), where no man came nigh."
TANSY PUDDING.
Eating tansy pudding at Easter is a custom derived
from the Komish Church, Tansy (Athanasia) is one of the
emblems of immortality, and consequently of the
resurrection. The pudding is made of flour and eggs,
seasoned with the expressed juice of the herb.
MAUNDY THURSDAY AT DURHAM.
At the South-West Entrance of the Cloisters at Durham,,
on Maundy Thursday yearly, were placed, in the Eoman
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 101
Catholic times, as many poor children as there were
monks in the convent ; and each of the good fathers
Avashed, dried, and kissed the feet of one of the children,
and then gave him twenty silver pennies, seven dried
herrings, three loaves of Ijread, and a wafer cake.
TID, MID, MISERAY.
The first Sunday in Lent has no name ; hut the other
six are designated by the following couplet : —
" Tid, Mid, Miseray,
Carling, Palm, and Paste Egg Day."
The three latter have been already spoken of ; the three
former have been named from the beginning of Psalms
and Hymns, viz , Te Deiim, Mi Veus, and Misereri mei.
CRYING ON NEW YEAR'S DAY.
If a child cries on New Year's Day, it will cry every
day that year.
THE STOT PLOUGH.
In Sir Cuthbert Sharp's " History of Hartlepool," we
are informed that " the first Monday after Twelfth Day,
the Stot Plough, a small anchor drawn by young men
and boys, is paraded through the town. The}' stop at
every door and beg a small donation ; if successful, they
salute the donor with three cheers ; l^ut if the request
is refused, they plough up the front of the house, to the
great annoyance of the inhabitants." This was seventy
years ago.
102 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CANDLEMAS.
It is a common notion that the crows lay the first
stick of their nests on Old Candlemas Day. The ravens,
like the Eussians, do not recognise the New Style.
PERAMBULATING THE BOUNDS.
It was a general custom formerly, says Bourne, and is
still observed in some country parishes, to go round the
bounds and limits of the parish on one of the three days
before Holy Thursday, or the Feast of Our Lord's
Ascension, when the minister, accompanied by his
churchwardens and parishioners, were wont to deprecate
the vengeance of God, beg a blessing on the fruits of the
earth, and preserve the rights and properties of the
parish. This custom is still kept up in Sunderland,
and as the boundary line between it and Bishopwearmouth
parish passes in one place at least through the middle of
a house, some amusement is naturally caused by the
perambulators making their way from the street in at a
certain upstairs window and out again by the back.
VALENTINE DAY.
Brand says : " It is a ceremony, never omitted among
the vulgar, to draw lots, which they term valentines, on
the eve before Valentine Day. The names of a select
number of one sex are by an equal number of the other
put into some vessel ; and, after that, every one draws
a name, which for the present is called their valentine,.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM, 105
and is also looked upon as a good omen of their being
man and wife afterwards. There is a rural tradition,
that on this day every bird chooses his mate. From
this perhaps the youthful part of the world hath first
practised this custom, so common at this season." The
sending of valentines in envelopes through the post is a
practice Avhich Sir Eowland Hill's reform has given an
immense impetus to. It would be interesting to get the
statistics, if they could be had, of the number of hun-
dred weights of additional letters posted at this season
in the United Kingdom, each year since the penny post
came in.
ROYAL OAK DAY.
It was once customary on Eoyal Oak Day (the 29th
of May), for people to wear in their hats the leaves of
the oak ; and those who neglected to do so, were liable
to be hooted at by the boys in the streets. Carters still
ornament their horse's heads with a sprig of oak on
this great Caroline anniversary.
DRESSING STOOLS ON MIDSUMMER DAY,
A once prevalent custom in the city of Durham, as
well as throughout the county, in towns and villages,
was to dress out stools on Midsummer Day with a cushion
of fioAvers. A layer of clay was placed on the stool, and
therein was stuck, with great regularity, a great number
of all kinds of flowers, so closely arranged as to
104 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
form a beautiful cushion. These were exhil)ited at
the doors of houses in the villages, and at the ends of
streets and cross-lanes in the larger towns : and the
attendants levied donations from the passers-by, to
enable them to have an evening feast and dancing.
grocers' gifts.
On Christmas Eve, grocers who understand how to
push their business send each of their customers a pound
or half a pound of currants or raisins to make a Christ-
mas pudding. Sometimes the present is only a good
sized twopenny candle ; at other times, a nutmeg, when
the purchase is perhaps only " a penn'orth of tea."
THE TANCAKE BELL.
The Pancake Bell used to ring in Sunderland at eleven
o'clock every Shrove Tuesdaj^, until within the last nine
or ten years. Originally it was rung to call the
people together for the purpose of confessing their sins,
but latterly it was only meant as a signal for them to
begin frying their pancakes. All apprentices used to
consider themselves free for the afternoon from the
moment this bell began to ring.
mothering SUNDAY.
On Mid-Lent Sunday, young people out at service
used to make it a practice to go home and see their
parents, carrying little presents to them, and getting in
return a hearty meal, formerly of furmety, latterly of
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 105
tea and cake, called Simnel Cake or Mothering Cake.
On their way back at night, a good deal of courting went
on.
HOT CROSS BUNS.
On Good Friday Morning, hot cross buns are in
universal request, among those who like to keep up
harmless old customs. People send to the confectioner's
about half-past seven, and get seven for sixpence. If
one of these cakes is preserved, it may be used, sage old
women say, in cases of diarrhoea or other bowel complaints
with great advantage.
CHRISTMAS BOXES.
Christmas boxes, as they are called, are now generally
given only to postmen, newsboys, milk-lads, and others
who are in the habit of calling regularly at the house or
shop, on errands or such like.
GOWK DAY.
A Gowk is literally a cuckoo, but metaphorically a
fool, and the first of April, All-Fool's Day, is in this
part of the country termed Gowk Day. The observ-
ances on it are the same here as elsewhere, and therefore
do not need to be related at length.
BLOODY THURSDAY.
Besides Collop Mondaj^, Pancake Tuesday and Ash
Wednesday, we have Bloody Thursday, so called because
it was on that day that Jesus Christ was betrayed,
106 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
apprehended, and brought before the high priest of the
Jews, to be delivered up next day to the Komans for
crucifixion.
MIDSUMMER EVE.
There are still old women in Sunderland who were, in
their girlhood, in the habit of dancing Avith their com-
panions through fires made in the street on Midsummer
Eve, the vigil of St. John the Baptist's Day, It was
reckoned good fun to push or pull each other into the
fire, which was commonly made with dry straw. The more
nimble and adroit leaped over.
FEASTS AND HOPPINGS.
In many villages in the county annual wakes or fairs
are still kept uj), under the name of Hoppings, devoted
entirely to pleasure. There the young men and women
consort in great numbers —
To happe and sing and maken miche disport.
They were usually observed in Catholic times on the
Sunday next after the saint's day to whom the parish
church was dedicated. The parishioners " made them-
selves bowers about their churches, and refreshed
themselves and feasted together after a good religious
sort, killing their oxen to the praise of God and
increase of charity." These festivals were called Wakes,
because on the vigils or eves of them " the people were
wont to awake from sleep and go to prayers."
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 107
Subsequently a fair was held in the churchyard on
such occasions, accompanied by feasting and all sorts
of rural sports and exercises, which sometimes con-
tinued two or three days, or the entire week. In this
county, the most famous of these hoppings is Houghton
Feast, said to have been instituted by the celebrated
Bernard Gilpin. Swalwell Hopping is also famed in
song. Stockton Cherry Fair is another great gathering
of the kind.
SUGAR AND WATER SUNDAY,
In many villages in the North it was once the custom
for the lads and lasses to collect together at springs or
river sides, on the third Sunday in May, to drink sugar
and water, or Spanish juice (sugar-aloe) and water, the
lasses giving the treat. They afterwards adjourned to
the nearest public-house, where the lads returned the
compliment in cakes and ale, punch, &c. This custom
gave rise to many scandals, and is now, we believe,
quite obsolete.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON HOLIDAY.
The following curious extract is from a manuscript
volume of sermons for all the Saints' Days and remark-
able Sundays in the year, in the Episcopal Library at
Durham, communicated to Mr Brand by Mr Kobert
Harrison : — " It is writen in ye lifFe of Seynt xxxxx
that he was bisi on Ester Eve before None that he
108 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
made One to abase him or ye sunne wente doune. And
the fiend aspicd that, and gadirid up liis heris ; and
when this holi man sawc it, he conjured him and badde
him tell him Avhi he did so. Thane said he, bycause yu
didist no riverence to the Sundaie, and therefore thise
heris wolle I kepe unto ye day of dome in reproffe of
ye. Thane he left of all his sharying and toke the
heris of the fiend and made to bren hem in his oune
haund for pennance, which him thought he was worthe
to sufTrc ; and bode unshaven unto Monday. This is
saide in reproffe of hem that worcken at afternone on
Saturdayes."
ASH-RIDDLING.
On the eve of St. Mark (April 24th), it used to be
customary to riddle or sift the ashes on the hearth-
.stone, in the belief that, if any of the family were
destined to die within the year, the mark of the
individual's shoe would be impressed on the ashes.
CARLING, CARR, OR SATISFACTION SUNDAY.
Brand, in his " Popular Antiipiities," says : — " At
Newcastle, Sunderland, Shields, and many other places
in the North of England, grey peas, after being steeped
a night in water, are fried Avith butter, given away, and
eaten on the Sunday preceding Palm Sunday." These
peas are called Carlings. In Roxburghshire, a particular
kind of cake is used, called carr cake. It is made of
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 109
fine or " bootit " flour, with SAveet milk, eggs, and a
teaspoonful or two of whiskey, made into a thin paste
and put with a spoon into a frying pan, which has
been previously lubricated with a pat of fresh butter,
newly churned. Occasionally some hog's blood is
added during the mixing. The German word Kair
signifies the satisfaction of a penalty imposed, and hence
it may be taken to refer either to the redemption of
man by the Passion of Christ or to the fasts and
penances endured by Christians at this solemn season of
Lent to obtain thereby remission of their sins.
THE BORROWED DAYS.
The Borrowed Days, or Borrowing Days, are the
last three days of March, which, according to old
almanac-makers, are generally stormy. They have got
their name from the idea that March borrowed them
from Api-il, in order that he might extend his power so
much longer. And so the popular rhyme runs —
March said to Aperil
There lie three hopgs upon yon hill,
If ye will leud me days three,
I'll find a way to gar them dee.
The first day shall be wind and weet,
The second day shall be snaw and sleet,
The third day shall be sic a freeze
As to freeze the birds' nests to the trees ;
And ere that day be past and gane,
The three silly hoggs will gan hirplan hame.
Superstitious people Avill neither l)orrow or lend
anything on any of these days, lest the article should
be used for evil purposes. In some parts, they call
them the Barren Days.
110 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHILDERISIASS DAY.
On this (lay, the feast of the Holy Innocents, which
keeps up the memory of wicked Herod's murder of the
■children at Bethlehem, it is very unlucky to begin any
work, whatsoever day of the week it falls on.
DOING BUSINESS ON NEW YEAR's DAY.
Buy nothing, liorrow nothing, on New Year's Day ;
nnd do not mend a single rag upon it ; else you will be
in rags all the year after.
UNI-UCKY.
It is unlucky to lend anything whatever on New
Year's Day, and, as it is kept a close holiday in Shields,
prudent housewives take care to have everything laid
in for it beforehand. It is unlucky to meet a female
first on New Year's Day, or indeed on any day in the
year. Specially unlucky is it ■when a woman is your
" first foot," that is, when she is the first to enter your
house after the New Year has come in.
THE schoolmaster's COCK-PENNY.
In the good or bad old times, when Shrovetide was
the season for throwing at cocks, a yearly cock-fight was
a part of the annual routine of several of our northern
free schools. The plaj'ground of the scholars Avas the
place of diversion, and the master was umpire 1)y virtue
of his ofiicc. He was moreover entitled to a perquisite
or fee of a penny for each cock set down to the main ;
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. Ill
and every fugie or craven that showed himself chicken-
hearted, or either decHned to fight or fled before his
adversary, was confiscated for his benefit.
THE MELL-DOLL OR KERN-DOLL.
The last cut of corn of the season, gathered by a
maid, is plaited into the form of a child's doll, orna-
mented Avith ribbons, and hung up in a conspicuous
place till next harvest. There is a contest among the
maidens in the boon or gang of reapers to decide Avho is
to have it, as she who gets it is supposed to have the
best chance of being married during the year. As soon
as the last cut has been made, the shearers gather into a
ring, and throAving their hooks up into the air, make the
welkin ring with their shouts. The master, steAvard, or
grieve, if not young and frolicsome, takes care to be
out of the Avay when the Kern is Avon, or otherAvise the
women give him " up in the air," much in the fashion
in Avhich Sancho Panza Avas treated at the inn, only
barring the blanket, and he must afterwards kiss them
all round, old and young. Sometimes Avhen their
employer or overseer is not a favourite Avith them, the}'
have been knoAvn to let him fall to the ground instead
of " kepping " him in their arms, and cases have been
knoAvn of persons getting severely hurt in this Avay. It
is not usual to " cr}' the kern " after sunset, nor after
Old Michaelmas Day (October 9th), it being considered
that to constitute a " maiden kern," the harvest must be
concluded previously to that day, and in broad daylight.
112 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER VII.
LADY JARRATT.
The old manor-house at Darlington was long haunted
by the ghost of the lady of Charles Gerrard, Esq., Avho
is said to have been a daughter of Dr. John Cosin,
Bishop of Durham. This lady, according to the popular
tradition, was murdered by some of the Parliamentary
soldiers during the great civil war, when she left on the
wall of the room where the murder took place a ghastly
impression of the thuml) and fingerS of her left hand in
blood that no scouring could ever eradicate. Down to-
a comparatively late time the poor lady continued to
walk, and was frequently seen sitting on the boundary
wall of the churchyard, although why she chose that
place it would be difficult to explain. It was observed
that she had but one arm, for the other was cut and
carried oflf by the ruthless ravagers, in order that they
might secure the valuable ring which she wore on her
finger. She was believed to traverse nightly a supposed
subterranean passage leading from the Manor-house to
the church, wliicli nobody, however, dared to explore,
and the existence of which many denied. There was
one house near the factory which she liked to frequent,
making it in fact perfectly untenantable. She used to
jingle the pans of the establishment, and keep rattling
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 113
the old pump handle when she found it locked. She
would likewise pull the bedclothes off the servants'
beds, and sometimes pull them out on to the floor.
When the Manor-house was converted into the parish
Workhouse she did not cease her nocturnal visits, but
occasionally, instead of doing the inmates any mischief,
she would even make coffee for the sick, a proof that
her ideas were not altogether of a malevolent nature,
but that benevolence entered into them by fits. In all
her various appearances and offices within doors, she
invariably made a rustle-me-tustle Avith her stiff silk
dress, like the Silky that long used to haunt a lane near
North Shields. But, strange to say, she sometimes
took the form of a white rabbit, scampering about the
Market place. Her ladyship, moreover, is not tlie only
Darlington sprite associated with coffee. Many years
ago a house in Tubwell Eow was said to be sorely
infested by the ghost of a grocer's apprentice, who kept
grinding aAvay continually at a coffee mill. But in this
case the supernatural coffee grinder was resolved at
length, like Mi^s Radcliffe's romantic goblins in the
Mysteries of Udolpho, into a simple natural cause,
having been nothing more or less than the noise made
by an ill-fitted door, the slightest opening of which
hushed the noise.
lU LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER VII [.
BELIEF REGARDING TREES AND PLANTS.
THE BUR TREE.
A Ijranch of the common elder, bur tree, or l)ore
tree, is supposed to possess great virtue in guarding the
■wearer against the malevolence of witches, fairies, and
other " uncanny" people. Brockett says he remembers,
when a boj', during a school vacation in the country, at
the suggestion of his young companions, carrj-ing it in
his button-hole, with doubled thumb, when under the
necessity of passing the residence of a poor decrepit old
woman, who, though the most harmless creature alive,
was strongly suspected of holding occasional converse
with an evil spirit. Under this impression, the
country people were always very reluctant to meet
her. Some say the cross was made from the wood
of the bore tree ; others, equally worthy to be
believed, that Judas hanged himself on it; but all
" knowledgable persons " are agreed that the tree is
obnoxious to witches, because their enemies use the
green juice of its inner bark for anointing their eyes ;
and any baptised person whose C3'cs are touched Avith it
can see what the witches are about, in any part of the
world. Furthermore, if a man take an elder stick, and
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAil. 115
cut it on both sides so as to preserve the joint, and put
it in his pocket when he rides a journey, it will prevent
his fretting or galhng, let his horse go never so hard.
Moreover, if you gently strike a horse that cannot
stale, with a stick of this elder, and hind some of the
leaves to his helh', it will make him stale presently.
Sheep which have the I'ot Avill soon cure themselves if
they can get at the bark and young shoots of the elder;
and any tree or plant which is whipped with green
elder branches will not be attacked by insects. In some
districts the tree is known as the Bown-tree, which
means the Sacred Tree.
BUMBLE-KITES.
The fruit of the blackljerry bramble (Ruhus timbroms
or f rut Icosus) is vulgarly known in this district by the
name of bumble kyte, from its being supposed to cause
flatulency when eaten in too great a quantity. No
knowledgeable boy will eat these berries after Michael-
mas Day, iDecause the arch-fiend is believed to ride
along the hedges on the eve of that great festival and
pollute everything that grows in them, except the sloes,
by touching them with his club foot. The same notion
prevails further north, where the bramble-berries are
called lady's garter berries.
FERN SEED.
It Avas formerly supposed tliat "fern seed" was
obtainable only at the exact hour of midnight, on the
116 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
eve of the day on Avhich Saint John the Baptist was
horn ; and people heheved tliat if they gathered it at
that particuLar time, it wouhl endow them Avith the
power of walking invisible. The right way to obtain it
was to hold a plate under the plant, and let the seed
fall into it of its own accord, for if was shaken off by
the hand it lost its virtue. This belief was founded on
the doctrine of signatures, according to which certain
herbs were held to be specific remedies for particular
diseases, because they bore upon them some impress of
the morbose symjjtoms accompanying them. Thus the
liver wort was supposed to be a sovereign remedy
against the heat and inflammation of the liver, because
it was shaped like that organ ; the lungwort, from its
spotted leaves, was a popular remedy for diseased lungs ;
the pilewort, on account of the small knobs on the
roots, was administered in cases of hemorrhoids ; the
figwort, for a similar reason, in the disease called jicus.
The seed of the fern, being on the back of the plant,
and so small as to escape the sight of ordinary
observers, was assumed to have the property of
rendering those who tasteil it, or carried it about their
persons, invisible for the time.
THE DOCKEN.
There is a charm connected with the medicinal ai)pli-
cation of this plant, the common l)lunt-leaved dock. If
a person be severely stung with a nettle, it is
customary to collect a few dock leaves, to sjjit on them,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 117
.and then to rub the part affected, repeating the
incantation, " In docken, out nettle," till the violent
smarting and inflammation subside. This saying is at
least as old as Chaucer's time, as he uses it proverbially
— " nettle in, dock out," in his " Troilus and
Cresseide."
HOUSE-LEEK OR SEN-GREEN,
Country people plant the house-leek or sen-green,
locally termed " full " or " fullen," on the thatched
roofs of their cottages, in order to preserve them from
thunder and lightning, which, it is said, will never
strike this evergreen herb.
COW GRASS.
The common purple clover {Trifolium pratense) is
very good for cattle, but very noisome to witches. In
the days when there was at least one noted witch in
every hamlet, the leaf was commonly worn as a potent
charm, being regarded as an obvious emblem of the
Blessed Trinity. The belief in its magic virtue is not
■<^uitc extinct even yet.
THE ROWAN TREE.
One saying is —
If your whipstick's made of rowan
You may ride your iiag through any town.
Another —
Woe to the lad
Without a rowan tree gad.
The latter has fallen into disuse since tlie old
fashioned twelve-oxen plough was laid aside. When
118 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
that cumbersome affair was at work, making those
enormous S-shaped ridges of which are still seen the
traces left in some outlying old grass fields, a gadman
to take charge of the team was as necessary as a plough-
man to take hold of the stilts, and his iron pointed
instrument was made of a young mountain ash or
rowan tree, which kept the witches away from making
the cattle " camsteery." The following anti-witch
rhyme was used in Teesdale some seventy or eighty
years ago : —
Black luggie, lammer bead,
Rowan tree, and raid threed,
Put the witches to their speed.
The hlack luggie was a small wooden dish, Avith only
one handle, out of which children used to sup their
porridge. It was made of bog oak — that is, oak dug
out of a peat moss — and dyed through and through as
black as ebony. Lammer beads were properly amber
beads, the initial ' I l)eing merely the French article I ' —
the. They were worn as a preservative against a
variety of diseases, particularly asthma, dropsy, and
toothache. The rowan tree, so called from its berries
closely resembling the " rowan " or roe of a fish, Avas
also called witch-wood, witch-bane, quick-bane, quicken,
wicken, wiggan, Avitchen, Aviggy, &c. The right day to
gather it on Avas the second of May, the day sacred to
St. Athanasius, Avhose creed, still read in the Church,
shoAvs him to have been one of the boldest and most
expert exorcists that ever drove a demon out of a place
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 119
where he had no right to be. If the twig was wanted
to keep witches and boggleboes away from a house, it
was customary to wind some dozens of yards of red
thread round it, and place it visibly in the window.
Sometimes householders preferred to stick it into the
thatch, right above the door, so that it might disenchant
everybody and everything that crossed the threshold.
In Lancashire, wick means quick, alive, clearly pointing
to the old superstition that the mountain ash was the
ti'ee with which our ancestors "quickened" their cattle
to ensure them against the powers of witchcraft, the
evil eye, and other occult influences. In other parts of
England, the mountain ash is called the care tree,
possibly on account of its supposed redemptional
virtues ; and it is said to be, or more probably once
was, a favourite with rustics for cutting walking sticks
from, through its reputed anti-witch properties.
Turner, the father of English botany, derives the word
Eowan from runcl, incantation, because of the use made
of the word in magical arts. Rudbeck mentions its
sacred character among the northern Gothic tribes.
They inscribed their laws upon its wood, an honour
which it shared with the beech. In the olden time, in
this part of the country, almost every mansion and
outhouse was guarded with it in some shape. Usually,
the dwelling house was secured with a rowan ti'ce pin,
that the evil thing might not cross the threshold. In
addition to a piece in his pocket, the ploughman yoked
120 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
his oxen to a rowan tree bow, and with a whip attached
to a rowan tree shaft, drove the incorrigible steer along
the ridge. Moreover, the ox not unlikely had his horns
decorated with red thread, amidst which i)ieces of
rowan tree were inserted, or a portion of the Avood
hicroglyphed Avith quaint devices, and similarly
garnished with threads, might peradventure be dangled
at the tail. Thus fenced in person, home, and stall,
with " rowan tree and red thread," the agricultural
Ia])ourer bade defiance to sorcery and fiendish malice.
But it was equally requisite to a prosperous voj'age on
the deep, and sailors to ensure no other hazards than
those incidental to their profession, had over and above
their cargo a store of this harm-expelling preservative
on board their vessel. It is l^y no means a remote
period since a withered successor of " Noma, the Rcim-
kennar," tenanting a hut overlooking the steeps "where
Orcas howls his Avolfish mountains rounding," in plain
prose, in the Orkneys, obtained a miseraljle livelihood,
by vending winds and consecrated mountain-ash to
credulous mariners !
CROPPING TREES.
If a fruit tree is cropped with a saAv, it Avill die, and
not spring afresh, as intended.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 121
CHAPTER IX.
CONCERNING BEASTS.
PIGS AND PRIESTS.
When the men of Holy Island are going out to fish,
they do not suffer any one to mention a pig or a priest.
Our informant saith, he was threatened to he thrown
overboard, as Jonah was of old, if he dared to go on
with a story he had begun about a pig being able to see
the wind. The men believed they would catch no fish
if he did not hold his tongue, or that the boat would be
swamped.
CATS.
It is a very unlucky thing to let a cat die in the
house. Many a poor pet pussy has been carried out
into the back yard, by a kind housewife in cann}'
Sunderland, and deposited tenderly on a mat, or a piece
of old blanket, to die.
MAY KITTENS.
It is unlucky to keep May kittens ; they ought to ])e
<lrowned.
TO MAKE A GAT STAY IN A HOUSE.
Grease its feet, or dip them in cream.
THE BRAWN OF BRANCEPATH.
" The Brawn of Brancepath," says Surtees, " was a
formidable animal, which made its lair on Brandon
122 LECxENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Hill, and walked the forest in ancient undisputed
sovereignty from the Wear to the Gaunless. The
marshy, and then woody vale, extending from Croxdale
to Ferry-wood, was one of the l^rawn's favourite haunts,
affording roots and mast, and the luxurious pleasure of
volutation. Near Cleves-cross, Hodge of Ferry, after
carefully marking the boar's track, dug a pit-fall,
slightly covered with boughs and turf, and then tolling
on his victim by some bait to the treacherous spot,
stood armed with his good sword across the pit-fall.
" At once with hope and fear his heart rebounds ! "
" At length the gallant brute came trotting on his
onward path, and, seeing the passage barred, rushed
headlong on the pit-fall. The story has nothing very
improbable, and something like real evidence still
exists. According to all tradition, the rustic champion
of Cleves sleejis beneath a coffin-shaped stone in
Merrington church-yard, rudely sculptured with the
instruments of his victory, a sword and spade on each
side of the cross."
RATS FORSEEING SHIPWRECK.
When the rats take it into their heads to leave an old
ship, the likelihood is that she will founder next voyage,
and drown all hands.
THE DUN cow.
The precise spot designed for the permanent residence
of the mortal remains of the blessed St. Cuthbert was
indicated to the monks of Lindisfarne on their return
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 12^
from their flight to Ripon, in the manner following : — •
" Four months after their arrival at Eipon," says^
Patrick Sanderson, in his History of the Abbey and
Cathedral Church of Durham, " the Danish "War ceased,
and they intended to bring him (St. Cuthbert) again to
Chester-le-Street ; and coming with him on the east
side of Durham, to a place called AVarden-law, they
could not with all their force remove his body further,
for it seemed fastened to the ground ; which strange
and unforseen accident produced great astonishment in
the hearts of the bishops, the monks, and their
associates ; whereupon they Jasted and prayed three
days with great devotion, to know, by invitation from
God, what to do with the said body ; which was soon
granted to them, it being revealed to Eadmer, a virtuous
man, that he should be carried to Dunholme, where he
was to be received to a place of rest. They were again
in great distress, in not knowing where Dunholme lay ;
but as they proceeded, a woman wanting her cow,
called aloud to her companion, to know if she had seen
her Who 1 answered, she was in Dunholme. This
was an happy and heavenly sound to the distressed
monks, who thereby had intelligence that their
journey's end was at hand, and the saint's body near its
resting-place ; therefore with great joy they arrived
with his body at Dunholme, in the year 997." Hence
the effigies of the dun cow in the west corner tower of
the east transept of the cathedral. This legend, how-
124 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
ever, is not mentioned l)y Simeon of Durham or any
other old historian, and rests wholly on the scul^jture.
Of the other innumerable legends relating to St.
Cuthbert we need take no notice here. We do not
remember that any of them now circulate generally
among the people, all being confined to books and book-
men. In the same category we may place the legends
about St. Godric, the Anchorite, who made Finchale
famous.
WHY ASSES HWE LONG EARS.
Considering how intimately the County Palatine has
been connected Avith the Church, for upwards of a
thousand years, it is remarkable that so few of our
local superstitions have a direct and immediate
Scriptural origin. Here is one instance, however. On
the evening of the day on which Noah had got all the
other animals safe into the ark, the ass, even then the
most stupid beast in creation, still remained outside,
and by no coaxing or beating, threat or blandishment,
could the patriarch get old Jack and his mate Jenny to
walk the plank into his caravan. So he laid hold of
them by the ears, and pulled them in by main force.
Ever since then the ass has had long ears.
THE CROSS ON THE ASS'S BACK.
The ass has the mark of a cross made hy a black list
down its back, and another at right anglps from its
shoulders. Some say this was given to the poor
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 125
drudge to commemorate its having had the honour to
hear the Saviour on its back, on his triumjjhal entry
into Jerusalem. Others account for the transverse
mark by saying it is that which Balaam made when he
struck it in anger because it would not jjass the angel,
and jammed his foot against the Avail.
CURE FOR THE MURRAIN.
During the last century, at a time when the murrain
was prevalent amongst cattle, the people in several
places assembled and worked for need-fire, wherewitli
to kindle Ijonfires, into the smoke of Avhich the beasts
were driven, as a certain preventative, if not cure. The
mystic fire was produced by the violent and continuous
friction of two pieces of wood, say a wooden axle in the
nave of a waggon wheel ; and when it was to be got,
all the fires in the houses near had to be previously
put out ; otherwise it had no virtue. The swine were
driven through first, and lastly the horses, or vice versa.
HOW TO GET CALVES REARED.
A few years ago, Mr G. W , a gentleman of the
city of Durham, during an excursion of a few miles into
the country, observed a sort of rigging attached to the
chimney of a farm house well known to him, and asked
what it meant. The good wife told him that they had
experienced great difficulty that year in rearing their
calves, for the poor little creatures all died off ; so thej'
had taken the leg and thigh of one of the dead cah-es.
126 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
and hung it np in a chimney by a rope ; and since that
<lay the}'' had not lost anotlier calf.
SALAJIANDKRS,
A wide-spread popular belief attributes to long-
•coutinued tlame the power of generating a dragon-Hke
monster, the Salamander. The name, which comes to
us from the primeval seat of the Aryan race in Central
Asia, and which is found in Sanskrit in the form of
Salamandala, has been adopted by all the European
nations of Greek, Latin, and Teutonic origin, but not
by the Celts. It was long a habit with glass-workers to
•extinguish their furnaces once in seven years, to avoid,
a.s they believed, the generation of a salamander. "We
used to be told terrible stories, in our childhood, as to
what calamities would be sure to happen if such a
pestiferous creature was allowed to be bred anywhere.
THE POLLARD BRAWN.
Pollard's Lands is a small township on the east side
of the Gaunless, the greater portion of which now forms
a part of the town of Bishop Auckland. According to
the most trustworthy tradition. Pollard, of Pollard
Hall, a champion knight, for slaying a wild boar there,
had as much land granted to him by one of the bishops,
as he could ride round while the grantor dined, and he
made such good use of whip ajid spur as to encompass
a considerable tract of fertile ground. The Avild boar
or brawn has been transmogrified in the course of time
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 127
into a venomous serpent, like that of Sockburn ; and the
estate is held b}^ a tenure similar to that of the latter
estate.
HOWLING DOGS.
"When any person is Ij'ing ill in a house, and a dog
sits down on its haunches before the window, in the
dead of night, and lifts up its head and howls, it is a
sure presage of that person's speedy death.
COWS MILKED BY HEDGEHOGS.
Brockett says, " ignorant persons who attend to the
keeping of cattle still l^elieve in that very ancient
prejudice of the hedgehog's drawing milk from the
udders of resting cows during the night, thus dis-
appointing the milkmaid of the exj^ected repletion of
her morning pail." " The sraallness of its mouth," he
adds, "renders such an accusation thoroughly absurd ;
but to reason with such people is like talking of the
blessing of light to those who have the misfortune to be
born blind."
THE SHREW MOUSE.
It is supposed that the shrew mouse, which in reality
is perfectly harmless, is of so baneful and deleterious a
nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, be it cow,
horse, or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with
cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use
of the limb. Against this accident, to Avhich they were
continually liable, our provident ancestors always kept
128 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
a shrew-ash at hand, Avhich, when once medicated,
would maintain its virtue for ever. Into the body of
the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, and one
of the pestilent little vermin was thrust into it alive,
and plugged in securely, there to die of hunger. A
twig or branch of the tree was then drawn several
times across the afflicted l)east's back, in order to expel
the venom ; and as soon as the poor devoted mouse had
yielded its life up to famine, the beast Avould most
certainly recover. If an ash tree was not ready at
hand, a witch-elm, or witch-hazel, would do.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM, 129
CHAPTEE X.
CONCERNING BIRDS.
THE YELLOW HAMMER.
The yellow hammer, j^ellow teeclring, or yellow
bunting (Northumbrian, yellow yowley ; Scotch, yellow
yorling ; Emheriza citrinella) is looked upon by the
juvenile population of North Durham, as well as on
the further side of the Tweed, as a confederate with
old Nick. It is commonly called by them " the devil's
bird," and a superstitious dislike of it extends as far
south as the Tyne, and perhaps the Tees. Every time
the boys see the poor bird they shout : —
Half a paddock, half a tuad,
Horrid yellow yorling !
Drinks a drop of the de'il's blood
Every Monday morning !
This legend of its taste for blood, drawn from the
veins of the Evil One, has most likely risen from the
fact of the bird's breast being mottled with red, as if
blood-sprinkled.
MAGPIES.
The magpie is deemed to be a very unlucky bird.
One's joy, twee's grief ;
Three's a marriage, fowcr's deeth.
I
130 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Or, as others recite the rhyme : —
One is sorrow, two mirth,
Three a wedding, four a birth.
Five heaven, six hell,
Seven, the de'il's ain sell.
To make a cross in the air, or take off the hat, is
said to be not an uncommon practice on seeing a
magpie ; this is done to avert ill luck. A north-
country servant thus accounted for the unluckiness of
the "pyet" to her master, the Eev. H. Humble. "It
was," the girl said, " the only l:)ird which did not go
into the ark with Noah • it liked better to sit outside,
jabbering over the drowned world,"
WHEN A SNOW STORM COMES ON.
The folk i' the east are plottin' their geese,
An' sendiu' all their feathers tiv us !
At Shields, before the days of the police, the boys
used to make a procession through the streets, on the
occasion of the first fall of snow in the season,
shouting ; —
Jenny Cnt-throater, plot ver geese !
Caud day.s an' winter neets !
THE snipe's SONG.
Bidcake Bleary, bidcake bleary !
Gie the lads what ye like, I sit easy.
PIGEONS' FEATHERS.
It is a common superstition in the North of England
that pigeons' feathers, put in a bed, bolster or pillow,
prevent a dying person from giving up the ghost.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURH^iM. 131
Cooks, therefore, always burn them, and never mix
them with other feathers. It has frequently been
known, Avhen a poor d3'ing creature continued a long
time in mortal agony, that the attendants adopted the
expedient of emptying the bed of its feathers, so as to
get rid of any pigeon ones, and substitute others.
ROOKS.
When rooks desert a rookery it portends the down-
fall of the family on whose property it is. On the
other hand, when rooks haunt a town or village, it
indicates that the death-rate either is or shortlj'^ will be
inordinatel}^ high ; and if they feed in the streets, it
shews that a storm is near at hand. Both the latter
auguries, at least, seem to be founded on a real basis.
In the one case, the birds come to act as scavengers ;
in the other, premonition of hard weather drives them
so near human dwellings, v.'here there is generally some
off-fall to pick up.
SWALLOWS.
It is a very good omen for swallows to take possession
of a place, and build their nests around it, while it is
uupropitious for them to forsake a place which they
have once tenanted. To pull down a swallow's nest is
almost as sacrilegious an act as to break into a church
or chapel. AYe have known farmers who would as soon
have set fire to their steadings as do or sanction such an
act. We knew one case where there were half-a-dozen
132 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
nests Ijuilt outside each window, in the upper story of a
large farm house, besides a great number stuck under
the eaves of the roof ; and there they remained j'ear
after year, during a lease of twenty-one years, to be
occupied each summer by their old tenants, on their
return from Africa, not one of them being allowed to
be pulled down by the maids, though they protested
that the swallows were "dirty beasts," who even had
bugs among their featliers, and that they could not get
the windows cleaned for them. The only exception
was Avhen a pair of impudent sparrows thought fit to
take possession of a nest— a fact which was soon made
known l)y the long straws sticking untidily out of it.
In case of such usurpation, the prong of a hay fork, the
handle of a rake, or a besom shank, was unscrupulously
used to effect a clearance. But the nests were never
touched otherwise, and they were built in tiers of five
or six, attached to each other, like the " lands " in old
houses in Edinburgh.
ROBIN REDBREAST AND KITTY WREN.
The robin and the wren
Are Qod Almighty's cock and hen ;
Him that harries their nest,
Never shall his soul have rest.
This rhyme is current among our honest kindlj^
country people, who regard both these birds with
particular favour. Sympathy with the redbreast is
expressed in the following stanza : —
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 133
The north wind will blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the robin do then, poor thing ?
He'll fly to the barn
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing, poor thing.
COCK FIGHTING.
Cock fighting was once a favourite amusement all
over the country, and particularly in the pit districts.
In some places, the cockpit was the village school room,
and the master was the comptroller and director of the
sport. The "fugies," that is to say, such cowardly
cocks as tried to run and avoid fighting, were deemed
his perquisite. In Bishopwearmouth, there was a
cockpit in Low-row, behind some old cottages next the
burn. What is done in this way now is only in out-
of-the-way places, in public-house yards, and such like
clandestine haunts, as much as possible impervious to
the police. The barl^arous custom of throwing at a
cock, fully described by Brand and Hone, as practised
all over Britain, has long since fallen out of use.
PJDING AT THE GOOSE.
It was once no unusual diversion in country toAvns,
to suspend a live goose, whose neck had been well
greased, by the legs, to the middle of a cord fastened to
two trees or high posts, so as to let the poor bird swing
at the distance of between three and four yards from
the ground ; and then for a number of men on horse-
back riding full speed to attempt to pull off the head,
134 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
which if one of tliem managed to do, he won the goose
for his dexterit}'. Thanks to the march of intellect,
this custom has fallen into disuetude. It was kept up,
however, by the Honourable Society of Whipmen, in
Kelso, in Eoxburghshirc, till al)out half a century since.
CROWING HENS.
AYhistling women and crowing hens are proverbially
"not canny." An acquaintance of ours tells us he once
knew a woman who would instantly draw the neck of
one of her hens, if she heard poor Partlet crow.
robin's NESTS.
A correspondent, Avhen walking out to Silksworth,
the other day, fell in with a little boy, with whom he
entered into conversation, *' Have you seen any bird's
nests yet this year 1 " he asked, " No," was the reply,
"I haven't." And then, after a pause, "But I don't
like to rob a bird's nest, I like better to hear them
sing." "I am glad to hear you say that," answered the
gentleman. " It's cruel thing to deprive the poor birds
of their young." " Aye," returned the boy, " and it's
dangerous, particularly if it's a robin. If one robs one
of their nests, one's sure to get either killed or lamed.
There is a lad I know that Avorks down the pit ; he
robbed a robin's nest on the Sunday, and the very first
thing on the Tuesday morning a sad accident happened
him. He had not been long at work before he got his
thi'di broken. Now, I had worked in the same place
for six months, and never happened a thing."
or THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 135
A PULLET'S FIRST EGG.
Take a pullet's first egg, break it up into a tumbler
glass, and examine it carefully. The young woman who
does so will see in it her future husband, working at
his trade ; for instance, if a mason, she will see him
using the ladder, trowel, hammer, &c. ; if a sailor,
climbing up the masts of a ship ; and so on.
UNTIMELY COCK-CROWING.
If the cock crow in the afternoon, it is considered a
very bad sign. " My stepmother's mother," says a
correspondent, "was a canny old body. One Saturday
afternoon, Avhen I was a lad, and alone with her in the
house, we heard the cock crow about four o'clock. ' I
don't like that,' she said. ' Don't you, granny ? Why
so ? ' said I. ' It's a hundred to one,' was the answer,
* but some of us will be gone before next week.' On
the Monday following, while she was binding a shoe,
her daughter's husband being a shoemaker, she suddenly
became as it were blind and stupid, and began groping
about for something she thought she had lost. ' "What
are you seeking ? ' she was asked, ' The shoe,' said
she. 'Why, dear me, granny, you have it in your
hands.' She had been struck with her mortal illness,
went off to bed, and before the end of the week she was
dead."
THE PROUD PEACOCK.
The peacock has a very clumsy foot for such a grand
bird. Everybody knows he is as proud as his tail is
136 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
gorgeous. The old women say he looks at his feet only
once a year, and having done so, and seeing they are so
ugly, he never struts so proudly again that season. So
they call out to him — " Look at your feet and your
feathers will fall."
RAIN BIRDS.
The wood-pecker is commonly known as the rain-
bird, because it prognosticates rain, by its loud and
familiar cry, frequentl}^ repeated. The plover is another
rain-bird, and derives its name from the htitm pluvia,
rain. The peacock gives the same indications of an
approaching change of weather. Several species of
small birds are confounded under the not over-com-
plimentary title of "dirt birds," because they sing on
the approach of rain.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 137
CHAPTER XL
CONCERNING FISHES, INSECTS, &C.
THE SPANKER EEL.
The spanker-eel, called in parts further to the North
the lamper-eel, and sometimes the I'amper-eel, is the
common lamprey, so mnch esteemed in the South. It
is held in great abhorrence in this part of the country,
by boys at least. The seven roundish gill-orifices on
each side are mistaken for eyes, as is also the case in
other countries. Thus the German, Swedish, Danish,
and Dutch names of the creature all imply that it has
nine eyes (Neunauge, Nejenoegon, Negenoegen,
Negenoogen.) If it is supposed that there is a spanker
or ramper-eel in any pool in a Border river, he would
be a bold lad that would venture in to it to bathe. For
the monster, as it is deemed, lays hold of bathers and
sucks the blood out of them. It is true that it lives by
sucking the blood of fishes, the skins of Avhich the hard
teeth, or tooth-like tubercles, readily pierce, and which
are unable to shake it off.
THE HADDOCK.
The large black spot on each side of the haddock
behind the gills, is the impression St. Peter left with
his finger and thumb when he took, by Christ's orders,
138 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
the tribute money out of the mouth of a fish of this
species. As there are now no haddocks in the Sea of
Galilee, captious critics doubt this statement.
EATING A RED HERRING WHOLE.
When a young woman wishes to know what trade or
occupation her future husband is to be of, she takes a
red herring, and eats it whole, head, tail, fins, and all ;
and then she goes off to bed in the dark, without speak-
ing a word. If she utter a single sound by the way, the
spell is broken. So it is -common to lay all sorts of
impediments in her road, so as to provoke her to speak,
or utter some sudden exclamation. If she passes the
ordeal successfully, as soon as she falls asleep she dreams
of the sweetheart whom she is to make a happy man of.
BURNING FISH BONES.
No knowledgeable person in Holy Island will burn a
fish-bone, for they have a legend of a fish that jumped
out of the water and said, " Boil my flesh ! Koast my
tiesh ! But do not burn my bones ! " So they bury
them, or otherwise get rid of them, but never burn
them.
HORSE-HAIRS TURNING INTO EELS.
It is a common notion all over the North Country,
from the Yorkshire AYolds to the Lammermoors at
least, that a horse-hair kept in water will in time turn
into an eel. Many a time have I tried the experiment,
in a burn which ran past the home of my youth. It is
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 139
certain that the horse-hairs, after they had been a week
or ten days in the water, seemed to possess a sort of
sensient life, curling up at the ends when lifted out,
very much after the manner of eels, and being besides
visibly thickened throughout their whole length. There
was never any further approach, however, to the
anguilliform shape or nature. The fact is, the idea has
arisen from the sudden appearance, after rain, of long
hair-like worms in the deep holes left in clayey ground
by horses-hoofs. There having been no trace of such
creatures before they were filled with rain-water,
observant youths have not unnaturall}- fancied them to
be hairs, dropped from the horses' mane and tail, in
course of transition into eels. Indeed, young eels, at a
certain stage of their existence, so closely resemble
these worms, that it is not astonishing that the two
sorts of creatures, though generically different, have
been confounded by the vulgar.
SPIDERS.
It is very unlucky to kill a spider. On the other
hand, if a spider happens to get upon your clothes, it is
lucky to let it crawl all oxev you and get away safe.
Even to shake it off is a mistake.
THE FLYING ADDER,
There is no living creature which children iu the
country dread more than the large dragon fly, which is
chiefly seen about ugly moss haggs, pools, and "stanks."
140 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
It is suj^posed to carry a sting, Avhich, if not deadly, is
exceedingly painful. It is accordingly called the flying
adder, or " stangin ether," and I have known hoys, not
otherwise at all cowardly, take to their heels and run off
as fast as they could, on seeing one of these gorgeously
tinted insects.
HAIRY HUBERT.
If you throw a hairy worm, in the North called
Hair}^ Hubert, over j'our head, and take care not to
look to see where it alights, you are sure to get some-
thing new before long.
A MONSTROUS SERPENT.
In St. Nicholas' Register, Durham, is the following : —
" 1568, Mdm. that a certain Italian brought into the
cittie of Durham, the 11th day of June, in the y care
above sayd, a very great strange and monstrous serpent,
in length sixteen feet, in quantitie and dimensions
greater than a great horse ; which was taken and killed
by speciall pollicie in ^i-Ethiopia, within the Turkes
dominions. But before it was killed, it had devoured
(as is credibly thought) more than 1000 persons, and
destroyed a whole countrey."
A PERTINACIOUS SERPENT.
During the episcopate of Egelwin, which lasted from
1056 to 1071, there was a certain ill-conducted
individual lived near Durham, Avhose name Avas Osulf.
One day, on awaking from a sleep which he had been
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAil. 141
enjoying in the fields, he discovered that a serpent had
twisted itself roimd his neck. He seized it with his
hand, and dashed it to the ground ; but it leaped up
and wound itself round his neck a second time. Once
more did he throw it to the earth, but he was
instantaneously attacked by it exactly in the same
manner as before. It mattered not Avhether he threw
the snake into the lire or on the ground, it always
regained its hold round his neck ; how he knew not.
Sometimes he took a sword and cut it into pieces, but
forthwith the self-same serpent was twisting round his
neck once more. At first it had been a very little one,
but it gradually grew larger and larger. He experienced
no harm from its venom, however. And whenever he
entered that church, which was rendered illustrious 1)}'
the presence of St. Cuthbert's body, the serpent left him
at the very moment when he crossed the threshold, nor
did it presume to return so long as he remained Avithin
the sacred fabric. But whenever he went out it twisted
itself once more closely round his neck. After he had
endured this annoyance for some considerable period, he at
last fell upon a plan for releasing himself. For three
successive days and nights he remained within the
church at prayer, and when he came out he was
thenceforth unmolested.
TOAD-BIT.
When cattle exhibit certain symptoms of illness, they
are vulgarly supposed to have been smitten by a toad —
142 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
that harmless and really useful creature, which suffers
so dreadfully in common estimation, on account of its
dirty-looking, rough, warty-skin, and slovenly crawling
gait, and in spite of its bright and beautiful eyes. The
idea may be said to be luiiversal that the toad is very
" smittle," in plain English, venomous. The beast that
a toad is falsel}^ accused of having bitten or smitten,
must be passed in due form through the need-fire, in
order to expel the poison.
SPANGHEWING THE TOAD.
The toad as well as the ask, eft, or newt, is an object
of abhorrence to boys in general. Even to touch it with
the naked hand is supposed to venom the part, if not to
endanger life. The toad is, moreover, thought to be a
witch, having the power of the evil eye. And so it is
a common practice to spanglieio it, which is done by
lifting it with a pair of tongs, or between two sticks,
and laying it on one end of a plank or bar, resting on a
large stone, a cart tram, or any convenient fulcrum, and
then, with a club, striking the unsupported end with
the utmost force. This throws the poor creature high
up into the air, and when it falls to the ground with a
" soss," it is smashed to a jelly.
TELLING THE BEES.
If there is anything particular going on in the house,
the bees ought to l)e told. They will be very much
offended if they are not informed in time, particularly
OF THE COUNTY OF DUEHAM. 143
when there is sickness, or a death. Bees never thrive
in a family where there is quarrelHng ; and no bargain
regarding bees will turn out lucky when there are any
cross words about it.
TREVTING THE BEES.
When the master or mistress of the house dies, the
bees ought to get a bit of the best of everything that is
at the funeral feast — cakes, sugar, spirits, Avine, &c.
The hives shoiild likewise be shifted to a new place, or
at least turned round, to prevent all the bees dying, as
they otherwise would.
THE BEES HOLDING A COUNCIL.
The bees are said to take council together before they
swarm. Country people will tell you they have often
heard them talking to one another. One party will
say, " Out ! out ! " while another says, '• Wait ! wait ! "'
and the matter is supposed to be settled by a majority
of votes. AVhen the swarm is in the air, it is supposed
they can be made to alight by making a tinkling noise
Avith an iron spoon on the l)ottom of a kettle or frying-
pan.
BEES THAT KNEW THIER RIGHT OWNER.
Some time back, we cannot tell how far, at Sherburn,
" hard by Durham," a swarm of bees from a hive
Ijelonging to a poor man settled in the garden of a rich
neighbour, who challenged it as his own. The poor
man, appealing to the justice of Heaven, prayed that it
144 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
might immediately be made to appear to whom the
swarm of right belonged. His prayer was answered.
The swarm rose from the place where they had settled
down, followed the poor man, hung upon his beard, and
in this position suffered themselves to be carried back
to the hive which he had prepared for them.
COCKROACHES.
Cockroaches are fancied to bring good luck to a house.
Mrs Marshall, of AVestoe, got a breed on purpose, and
in a short time her house was over-run by them.
Many houses in Shields are full of cockroaches,
especially in cupboards near ovens. Some say they
were originally brought to this part of the country
amongst ballast.
CUCKOO SPIT.
A white frothy matter, very like spittle, seen on
certain plants in the spring, about the time when the
cuckoo makes its appearance, is supposed to be the
spittle of that bird. Eeally, however, it is deposited by
the female grasshopper as a place in Avhich to lay her
eggs.
THE DEATH WATCH.
The poor little worm, maggot, or beetle, called the
death watch, on account of its ticking having been
thought to forebode death in a family, is likely long to
keep its evil reputation, in spite of tiie spread of
knowledge. I confess to having been several times
startled out of a pleasant reverie by its eerie tick.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 145
LICE ON CLEANLY PEOPLE.
The late Barbara Neil, of Church Street, Sunderland,
told me in March, 1865, that she knew her brother had
been drowned, because she had found two lice on her
baby linen. She had got them off nobody, she said,
because she never washed her lodgers' clothes along
with her own. She had always had lice on her before
any of her relations died. Her mother SAvarmed with
lice before her demise. Lice denote sickness or death,
when they come upon cleanly people.
146 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER Xn.
LOCAL TRAGEDIES.
THE STRICKEN TRAVELLER.
In the Legendary Division of Eicliardson's Table
Book, Mr William Pattison tells the story of a traveller,
who had been collecting accounts at Alston, Nenthead,
and Allendale, and who, on his way over the moors into
Teesdale, in charge of a large sum of money, disappeared
at a lone place called Park-house pasture, and never was
heard of more. Suspicion of having murdered him
rested iipon two or three parties, one of whom is stated
to have been seen to force a horse down an old pit
which had long lain unworked. These men, we are
told, l)ecame suddenly rich, which was generally
attributed to the plunder of the luckless stranger.
Searching inquiries were made bj^ the friends of the
deceased without the slightest success. But not manj^
years ago, when the roads were altered, in cutting
through a certain field, the skeleton of a man was found
buried in an upright position. Straightway the story
of the Stricken Traveller was revi^'ed. " Such is the
substance of a tale long a fireside talk of the peasantry
of this secluded vale ; and at the dead of night a
phantom horse with a bleeding rider, careering over the
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 147
field and disappearing at the old quarry where the
headless rider was found, is sufficient to deter the timid
from using the road after nightfall, and enough to chill
the blood of the listeners who encircle the blazing
hearth."
THE DEAD MAN'S HAND.
The hand of a man who has been hanged on a gibbet,
— prepared in a manner which need not be here
particularised, but which those who would like to know
it will find in Ellis's Notes to Brand's Antiquities, under
the head of " Physical Charms," — is said to possess the
property of depriving those to whom it is presented of
all power of motion. It has been used by midnight
thieves and robbers on that account, in the idea that it
would enable them to rifle a dwelling house with
impunity. A story is told of its having been once thus
employed at the Old Spital Inn, in High Spital, on
Bowes Moor, the place where the mail coach used to
change horses, in crossing Stainmorc from Barnard
Castle to Brough. Mr Henderson tells the story at
some length. He says it was related to his informant,
Mr Charles Wastell, in the spring of 1861, by an old
woman named Bella Parkin.
THE STAINDROP, BARNARD CASTLE, AND BEDLINGTON
TRAGEDIES.
Three melancholy tales have been enshrined in verse,
by anonymous, and, it must be confessed, wretched
148 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
hallaJ-makers, connected with Staindrop, Barnard
Castle, and Bedlington respectively. The first relates
to a mnrder committed by a man named Yert, upon a
young Avoman who was pregnant by him. The villain
laid her dead body under some bushes, in a lonely place
where there seemed little or no chance of its being
discovered ; 1)ut a dog scenting out the hideous mass of
corruption, led the neighbours to the spot. The
murderer, horror-struck, confessed his guilt, was tried,
executed, and hung in chains. The " Barnard Castle
Tragedy " relates to the miller's sister at Barnard
Castle Bridge-end, a girl named Betty Howson, who
was courted by one John Atkinson, of Morton, near
Appleby, and was caught fast by him " in Cupid's
snare," he having a most "deluding tongue." Atkinson
was particularly fond of his glass, and, according to all
accounts, " of everything nice," like that notorious
AVelshman, David Price, immortalised in the " Milk-
maid's Story " in the " Ingoldsby Legends." And so,
one night, while carousing with his boon companion,
Tom Skelton, ostler at the King's Arms, to whom he
was in the habit of telling all his secrets, he revealed to
him that he had got a " new love," who had plenty of
money, and would stand treat, or, as he expressed it,
keep tlie pot full. Her name was Bett Hardy, and she
verified Atkinson's words, by pawning her Sunday
smock to defray their reckoning, when drinking about
at different pul)lic houses, where she went and joined
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 149
them. Skelton fortlnvith married tlie couple, that is,
declared them man and wife, to save his friend the
priest's fee, which, as he observed, was large. The
false swain next day acquainted j^oor Betty Avith the
fact that he Av^as a married man ; but she, of course, did
not believe him. Then the ballad goes on to tell how
.she pined away, and died through the cruelty of her
false swain. In the Bedlington Tragedy, a fair young
woman, "with ruby lips and auburn hair," and " heir
to store of wealth," is said to have been courted by a
"famous youth, for generous acts and constant truth,"
but, alas, penniless. The girl's parents, of course,
objected to their being joined in Avedlock, and sent their
daughter off to an uncle's at Stokesley, in Cleveland.
The young man thereupon sickened sore and died
heart-broken, " which pleased her parents' greedy
pride." The father resolved to go off to Stokesley the
day after the funeral, to bring his daughter home,
meaning now to marry her to a richer suitor. But the
dead lover was beforehand with him. James (it appears
that was his name) rose incontinently out of his grave^
mounted the old gentleman's horse which stood ready
saddled, galloped off to Staindrop, and brought home
his beloved one behind him on a pillion, greatly to the
astonishment, doubtless, of the old people. AAliat the
finale of the story is, nobody knows, for the ballad
narrating it is a fras;ment.
150 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
THE HARTLEPOOL TRAGEDY.
The Maiden Bower at Hartlepool, a yawning space
between a detached rock and the main land, is associated
in popiilar tradition with the murder, in 1727, of Mary
Fawding, who was thrown over the precipice by "William
Stephenson, a merchant of Northallerton (afterwards
executed), bj' Avhom she was pregnant. Hence arose a
ballad, " The Hartlepool Tragedy," reprinted by Mr.
Ord, of Hartlepool, twenty or thirty years ago.
ANDREW MILLS' STOB.
In the month of January, 1782-3, John Brass, Jane
Brass, and Elizabeth Brass, the son and daughters of
John Brass, of Fcrryhill, were all murdered in their
father's house 1)}^ his servant, a weak-minded young
man of 18 or 19 years of age, named Andrew Mills.
The wretched murderer was tried and found gxiilty,
and his body, after the execution, was hung in chains
on a common by the road-side, in full view of the scene
of his horrid and seemingly tmprovoked crime. The
universal tradition is, that he Avas gibbeted alive, with a
penny loaf suspended on a string, close to his face, so as
cruelly to tantalise him in vaiidy trying to Ijite it, till he
at length died of hunger and thirst. A portion of the
gibbet, or, as it was called, Andrew Mills' Stob, remained
till about fifty years ago, but the spot was then enclosed
and ploughed, and the last vestige removed. Like
other murderers' gibbets, the wood Avas supposed to
possess peculiar properties, in removing ague, toothache,
headache, &c.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 151
SPIRITUALISM IN WILLIAM II. 'S TIME.
Under the episcopate of William de Carelipho, the
friend of Robert Earl of Normandy, there was one of
the bishop's knights, named Boso, who, having been
attacked Avith sickness, appeared to be at his last gasp.
For there was only the slightest possible breathing from
his mouth and nostrils during three days in which he
lay senseless, and like a dead man removed from the
world. But, to the surprise of all, he '• returned to
himself" upon the third day, when he confessed to
Prior Turgot that he had been carried away in vision to
various places, of which some were terrible and some
were pleasant, and there he saw all the monks of
Durham who had been unfaithful to their vows punished
most severely, and also a number of women — the wives
of priests — who were having smart chastisement
administered to them by horrible fiends, and awaiting
the eternal sentence of condemnation in hell.
THE GRAVE OF A SUICIDE.
In Mile End Road, South ShieMs, at the corner of a
garden wall, on the left hand side going northward,
just adjoining Fairless's old ballast way, lies the body of
a suicide, with a stake driven through it. It is, I
believe, that of a poor baker, who put an end to his
existence seventy or eighty years ago, and who was
buried in this frightful manner, at midnight, in
unconsecrated ground. The top of the stake used to
152 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
rise a foot or two above the ground within the last thirty
years, and boys used to amuse themselves by standing
with one foot upon it. The practice of driving a stake
through the body of a suicide originated in the days
when a belief in vampires prevailed. It was done to
prevent the fiend from entering into the dead carcase,
and reanimating it.
THE NORTH SIDE OF THE CHURCH.
The north side of the church-garth is supposed to be
not quite so holy as the Ynore sunny sides ; and, for
that reason, is usually reserved for the place of inter-
ment of such as come to some untimely end, including
persons excommunicated, executed, suicides, and still-
born infants. On entering some country churchyard,
you will see a number of little tin}', undistinguished
wholly neglected mounds on the north side of the
church, and on inquiring who they are Avhose dust
reposes beneath, you will be told they are unbaptised
children. The south and east sides of the sacred
edifice are most preferred l)y the vulgar to bury their
dead in. The west side is in less repute ; and the
iiorth avoided. Old graveyards are consequently
crowded on the right side, but very seldom on the
wrong one.
THE SUNDERLAND USURER PUNISHED,
In the first volume of Richardson's excellent work is
a reprint from a curious tract, without date, intituled
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 153
^' The Wretched Miser, or God's revenge against the
OiDpressor ; remarquable in a most miraculous punish-
ment inflicted on the person of a notorious usurer, in
Sunderland, near Newcastle, Avho, having unjustly
taken away two kine from a poor widow, put them
among twenty of his own, which Avere all struck by the
hand of heaven, and found dead the next morning, the
widow's kine only escaping ; which sad judgment when
the miser had seen, he fell a-cursing, blaspheming, and
deriding C4od's justice in such words as are not fit to be
named amongst Christians. "Thereupon he immediately
sunk into the ground above the waist, and there
continually barketh and howleth like a dog day and
night, still beckoning with his hand for assistance, to
the great terrour and amazement of all that see or hear
him."
154 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHA.PTER XIII.
CONCERNING ST. CUTHBERT.
HOW ST. CUTHBERT GOT HIS PATRIMONY.
During the time that the uncorrupted body of the
most blessed father Cuthbert lay at Chester-le-Street,
then called Cuncaestre, the Saint appeared in a A'ision
to Bishop Eai'dulf, and spoke to him thns : " Tell the
king that he must give to me, and to those who
minister in my church, the whole of the district lying
between the Wear and the Tyne, to be held in perpetuity,
that it may be the means of providing them with the
necessaries of life, and secure them against want.
Moreover, command the king to appoint that my church
shall become a safe place of refuge for fugitives, so that
any one who flees to my body, for what cause soever,
shall have protection there for thirty-seven days ; and
that the asylum shall not l)e violated upon any pretence
whatever." Not only did the king of Northumbria,
whose name was Guthred, son of Hardacnut the J'lane,
who had been raised from the condition of a slave and
invested with the ensign of royalty, in implicit obedience
to another nocturnal vision, and who, grateful to his
sainted patron, constantly and faithfully served him all
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 155
his days, — not only, we say, did he give heed to the
special direction given him by " that trustworthy
messenger the abbot," to make over all that land to the
church, but moreover he contributed to it liberally in
other ways, bestowing honour and giving presents.
Besides this, Alfred, king of the AVest Saxons, better
known as Alfred the Great, having regained the posses-
sion of his kingdom " through the assistance of the
merits of St. Cuthbert," solemnly sanctioned this transfer
of land, publishing the fact to all the people, and decree-
ing that the settlement should be observed for ever.
Still further, " The whole army, not only of the English
but of the Danes also, agreed thereto, and approved of
the same." " It was determined," says the Church
historian, " that persons presuming in any manner to
violate the protection which the Saint had thus establish-
ed, should be fined by a payment of money. Moreover^
as the land which he had demanded, situate between
the two rivers, was immediately conveyed to him, — it
was resolved by the assent of the whole people, that if
any one gave land to St. Cuthbert, or if any land was
purchased Avith his m.oney, from that time no one should
presume to exercise over it an}- right or custom ; but
that the church alone should possess in perpetuity un-
broken quiet and liberty therein, together with all the
customs ; and (to use the common terms), with sac and
socne, and infangentheof. The universal suffrage
condemned by a sentence of anathema those persons.
156 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
whoever they might Ijc, who presumed in any manner
to attempt to set aside those laws and statutes, and
consign them to the perpetual punishment of tlie flames
of hell, unless the}^ made satisfaction.
HOW A SACRILEGEOUS VARLET WAS PUNISHED.
During the episcopate of Egelwin, a man, who came
with his master to the solemn feast of St. Cuthbert at
Durham, noticed the mass of coin that had accumulated
upon the holy confessor's sepulchre, by the offerings of
his visitors, and determined to plunder it. So, says
Simeon of Durham, he drew near, and for the purpose
of deceiving the people who were standing round, he
l^retended to kiss the sacred mai-ble ; but in doing this
he at the same time carried off four or five pennies in
his mouth. Each penny being twenty-four grains troy
of silver, would have bought perhaps fifty times as much
market stuff as a penny does now. And so, if he could
have carried his booty quietly off, he would have been
a comparatively rich churl. But immediately the inside
of his mouth began to feel as if on fire. He would
gladly have spat out the pieces of money, but he could
not do so much as even open his lips. Tortured with in-
tolerable agonies, he ran through the church hither and
thither like a dumb man ; terrifying all the people ; for
they thought he had gone mad. At last he broke out
of the church, rushing through the crowd, and dashed
from one spot to another without stopping, giving all to
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 157
understand by painful signs and gestures the extremity
of his sufferings. At length, however, he became more
tranquil, and hastilj^ returned to the sepulchre, and
kneeling down, from the depth of his heart he asked for
pardon from the saint, and offered all that he possessed.
Having made this offering he placed it upon the altar, and
kissed it ; and as he kissed the altar, the pieces of money
fell out of his mouth upon the sepulchre.
A MIRACULOUS EBB AND FLOW OF THE TIDE.
The miracle vouchsafed to Moses and the Israelites in
their passage through the Serljonian Bog, mistranslated
the Ked Sea, was repeated, according to Simeon of Dur-
ham, in the year of our Lord 1068, when Agelwin, Bishop
of Durham, and the cliief of the people, — fearing lest, on
account of tlie slaughter of Earl Eobert Cumin and other
Normans at York, the sword of William the Conqueror
should include equally the innocent and the guilty in
indiscriminate slaughter — with one consent betook them-
selves to flight, on Friday the third of the ides of
December, carrying with them the un corrupted body of
the holy father Cuthbert. They made their first stay
at Jarrow, their second at Bedlington, the third at
Tugall, and the fourth at Holy Island. " But about
evening," says Simeon, " when the full tide would prevent
travellers from crossing over, behold by its sudden recess
it left the approach clear for them ; so that neither when
they hurried did the waves of the sea linger behind them,.
158 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
nor when the}^ delayed did they press upon them. But
"when they reached the h\nd, lo ! the sea coming uj)
covered the whole sands as before."
AN ENTIRE ARMY SWALLOWED UP.
Some time towards the close of the ninth century
wdiile King Guthred, the Anglo-Dane, wielded the sceptre
of Northumberland, the Scots collected a numerous army
and invaded his dominions. Among their other deeds
of cruelty, says Simeon, they plundered the monastery
of Lindisfarne. Guthred marched against them, waving
the banner of St. Cuthbert, and when he was just on
the point of engaging in battle with them, "immediately
the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up alive,
herein repeating the ancient miracle in the matter of
Dathan and Abiram."
AN INCOMBUSTIBLE HUMAN HAIR.
JSlfrid, the priest, who was honoured to be the man
to whom Durham was indebted for the possession of the
fiacred relics of Balfer and Bilfrid, the anchorites — Acca
and Alchmund, bishops of Hexham — Oswin, King of
Northumberland — the venerable abbesses Eblja and
-^thelgitha — St. Boisil, the master of St. Cuthbert
-^the doctor Bedc (now known as " the Veneral^le"), and
other illustrious North country saints, had in his
repository one of St. Cuthbert's Hairs, which he frequent-
ly exhibited to those friends who visited him. When
the holy father's sanctity was the subject of conversation,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 159
as it very often was, Alfred made his guests wonder
still more at it than they would otherwise have done
by means of this hair. For he used to fill a censer with
glowing coals, and lay that hair upon them, and although
it continued thereon for a long time, it could not be con-
sumed thereby, but it grew white and glittered like gold
in the fire ; and after it had remained there for a con-
siderable period, on its removal it recovered, little by
little, its former appearance.
A MAN FIXED TO THE GROUND.
In the " History of the Translations and Miracles of
St. Cuthbert," printed by Mabillon in his "Acts of the
Holy Order of St. Benedict," there is an account of a
certain Pagan named Onlafbald, who laid violent hands
upon the farms Avhich of right belonged to the bishop of
Durham, being part of St. Cuthbert's patrimony, and
inflicted many grievous injuries on the Christian people
of the diocese, showing himself more savage and more
cruel than the bulk of the heathen Danes his country-
men. " Puffed up with the spirit of the Evil One," he
swore eternal enmity to St. Cuthbert and his successors,
and proceeded to enter the sanctuary where his remains
rested, meaning to pollute and scatter them. The bishop
(Cutheard) and all the brethren thereupon fell upon the
ground, and prayed that God and St. Cuthbert would
render nugatory his proud threats. The Pagan had by
this time reached the door ; one foot was even Avithin
the threshold, and one liad crossed over it ; and there he
160 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
stood fixed as if a nail had been driven througli each
foot, — unable to move in any direction. After having
undergone many tortures, he was compelled to make
public confession of the sanctity of St. Cuthbert, and
then, says the historian, " he gave up his wicked spirit
in that same place." Terrified by this example, as well
they might be, none of the other sacrilegeous wretches
from the other side of the sea dared, from that time
forward, to seize any of the lands or other property
which belonged to the Church.
INCORRUPTIBILITY OF ST. CUTHBERT'S REMAINS.
The miraculous incorruptil^ility of the body of St.
Cuthbert was one of the fundamental articles of faith in
Catholic times. After he had been eleven years in his
sepulchre, " Divine Providence," says Bede, " put it into
the minds of the brethren to take up his dry bones,
expecting, as is usual with dead bodies, to find all the
rest of the body consumed and reduced to dust, and
intending to put the same into a n(3w coffin, and to lay
them in the same place, l)ut above the pavement, with
the honour due to them. They acquainted Bishop Ead-
berct Avith their design, and he consented to it, and
ordered that they should remember to do this on the
anniversary of his deposition. They did so, and on
opening the grave, found all the body whole, as if he
had been alive, and the joints pliable, much more like
one asleep than a dead person ; besides, all his vestments
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 161
in which he was clothed Avere not only found incormpted,
but wonderful for their original freshness and beauty.
The brethren, on seeing this, with much fear hastened
to tell the bishop what they had found ; he being then
in solitude in a place remote from the church, and en-
compassed by the sea. They brought him also some
part of the garments that had covered his (Cuthbert's)
holy body ; which presents he thankfully accepted.
And when they had dressed the body in new gamients,
and laid it in a new coffin, they placed it on the pave-
ment of the sanctuary."
MIRACULOUS CURES AT ST. CUTHBERT'S SHRINE.
Miraculous cures are said to have been performed at
St. Cuthbert's Shrine, in the Feretory Chapel, in Durham
Cathedral. In the latter end of the twelfth century,
Thomas, the Norman Archbishop of York, came to Dur-
ham. For two years he had laboured under a grievous
indisposition, and his case had been pronounced desper-
ate by his physicians. In consequence of an admonition
in a dream, he passed a night at the tomb of St. Cuthbert,
and during the night saw the saint approach him, and felt
him pass his hands over his limbs. He was immediately
restored to health.
ST. cuthbert's beads.
St, Cuthbert's Beads are found in great abundance on
the rocks at Holy Island, now reckoned in Northumber-
land, but formerly a part of North Durham. They are
L
162 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
sold to strangers as the workmanship of the Saint, who,
according to tradition, often visits the shore of Lindisfarnc
in the night, and, sitting upon one rock, uses another as
his anvil, on which he forges and fashions these singular
beads. Science has revealed the fact that these so-called
beads, which were once commonly used in rosaries, are
neither more nor less than the joints of the fossil encrin-
itis, or sea-lily, a radiate animal, somewhat resembling a
star-fish inverted, and attached to the rock by a pedicel.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 163
CHAPTER XIV.
ST. GODRIC AND OTHER SAINTS.
HOW THE DEVIL STOLE ST. GODRIC'S CLOTHES.
One cold winter night, when St. Godric of Old Finch-
ale was standing praying in the river Wear up to his
neck, the devil was so provoked to see him, that he stole
away his clothes, which he had left lying on the bank
.side. Godric detected the petty larceny, and being
well aware who the foul thief was, he set about saying
Aves and Paternosters with might and main. This
forced the devil to restore the clothes, much against his
will ; "for though," as Hegg says, " his apparel was so
coarse, that the devil would scarce have worn them," it
pained him exceedingly to have to be just, even for once.
Godric's jerkin, it seems, was of iron, of which he had
Avorn out three in the time of his hermitage, — " a strange
coat," says the same quaint writer, " whose stuff had the
ironmonger for the draper, and a smith for the tailor."
His shirt was of coarse sackcloth, and was never changed
till it wore out, and fell off piecemeal, half or wholly
rotten.
HOW THE DEVIL GAVE ST. GODRIC A BOX ON THE EAR.
The devil, Proteus-like, used to transform himself into
164 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
sundiy strange shapes before the saint, GoJric saw-
through all his flimsy disguises, and merely laughed and
made sport, instead of being afraid, when he saw Satan
come in like a ravening wolf, or a fierce wild boar, or a
hungry hound, or a sneaking fox. This so provoked the
devil, that one night as the saint sat by the fire, he gave
him such a box on the ear as would have felled him
down, had he not promptly saved himself by making the
sign of the cross, which deadened the blow, and at which
the fiend fled.
ST. GODRIC AND THE GOBLIN.
St. Godric Avas one day informed by a friend where he
might find a hoard of gold. The pious man knew full
Avell that he was dealing Avith the Evil One, and for his
own private use he had no need of either silver or gold,
and therefore he felt it to be no temptation ; but he also
knew that if he had the money he could utilise it by hand-
ing it over to the church. So he quite forgot that it was
once said by his Divine Master that the devil is a liar and
the father of lies, and he Avent to Avork Avith pickaxe and
shovel, pleasing himself with the idea that he Avas about
to get hold of a grand Avindfall for the use of Holy
Mother Church. But Avhen he had dug some depth, and
Avas literally dropping Avith sAveat, he was alarmed to find
that he had broken into a dark hole, in which, instead of
treasure, there Avere a number of small black imps,
huddled together, like adders in a moss hag. They
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 165
issued from the hole in which they had been confined,
and Avith screams of laughter pelted the saint, their
unconscious deliverer, right lustily with fire-balls. The
saint never again attempted to search for unconsecrated
gold. His chief employment when not engaged in
prayer, or standing stock-still in the river Wear up to
the neck, to mortify the flesh, was digging in his garden.
One day, Aveary with digging, he had stopped to rest
himself, when a strange man suddenly appeared, and
after staring for some time at the saint, spoke and
accused the good man with idleness, telling him he did
not work half so hard as the saints of former times used
to work. Godric, Avho at first thought it had been a
messenger of God sent to instruct him in his duty,
answered, " do you then first set me an example." And
he gave him the spade and left him ; but he promised
soon to return and see how much work the man had done.
The stranger took the spade and worked most vigorously ;
and when the saint came back he was astonished to find
that in the space of an hour his new labourer had dug as
much ground as he himself could dig in eight days.
" There" said the fellow, " that is the way to work ! "
Godric was now seized with ghastly fear, for he was sure
it could not be a real man he was speaking to. Indeed,
appearances were much against the stranger, for he was
very dark and hairy, and somewhat too tall, and what
seemed exceedingly odd, though he worked so hard, yet
he showed no signs of weariness, and did not even
166 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
sweat. Then Godric went back to his cell, and concealed
a little book in his bosom, after which he returned and
said, " Now tell me who thou art, and why thou hast
come here 1" "Do you not see I am a man like yourself ?"
was the evasive answer. "Then," said Godric, " if you are
a man, tell me if you believe in the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, and join with me in adoring the Mother
of our Lord." But the hairy gentleman only said, "Be
not solicitous about what I believe, for it is no concern of
yours." Godric of course became more suspicious than
ever. He took the book out of his bosom, and laid it
suddenly against the stranger's mouth, telling him, if he
believed in God, to kiss it devoutly. It contained the
pictures of our Lord, of the Virgin, and of St. John, and
contact Avith it was too much for the graceless goblin,
for such the stranger was. So with what the old story-
books call an eldritch laugh, and a strong perfume any-
thing but pleasant, he vanished. But, like a pious man
as he Avas, Godric lost no time in Avatering Avith holy
Avater the ground Avhich had been thus fiendishly dug,
and let it lie uncultured for seven years.
PRIOR MELSONBY,
Thomas Melsonby, Avho Avas appointed Prior of Durham
in 1233 and Bishop of Durham four years afterAvards,
but had his election negatived by the king, resigned his
office of Prior in 1244, and retired to the Fame Islands
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 167
to prepare for death. It had been asserted by his
enemies, that he was an improper person to hold any
ecclesiastical dignity, being the son of the rector of
Melsonby by his maid-servant ; and that he had been
guilty of homicide, in having instigated a roiDe-dancer to
exhibit his feats upon a cord suspended from two towers
of the church, from which dizzy height the mountebank
fell, and, as might have been expected, broke his neck.
However this might have been, he did sore penance for
his sins. He died, after all, in the odour of sanctity, and
the lay brother who was deputed to minister to him dur-
ing his illness, a man named Heming,saw a choir of angels,
in white apparel, Avaiting upon the roof of the hermitage
to receive his soul ; while a brother hermit, whose name
was Bartholomew, espied, in the corner of the cell, the
archfiend himself, in the shape of a grizzly bear, bitterly
lamenting that the dying man had escaped his snares,
and was going to his eternal reward. Bartholomew
more than once sprinkled a few drops of holy water on
the ugly beast, to make him Avithdraw ; but against these,
strange to say, he was proof ; till at last the patience of
the hermit was exhausted, and he boldlj^ dashed the
sacred vessel, with the whole of its contents, in the face
of the fiend, and thus, to his great delight, effected his
purpose.
SACRED RELICS AT DURHAM.
In a list compiled in 1383, and first printed by
168 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Dr. Smith in his edition of Bede, there are mentioned, as
contained within the shrine of St. Cuthbert, a pyx of
crystal containing the milk of St. Mary the Virgin ;
manna, from the grave of St. Mary ; a portion of the
very identical Ijread blessed by Our Lord ; a piece of the
tree (the oak of Mamre) under which the three angels
sate with Abraham ; some bones of the Innocents slain
by Herod ; a piece of the Desert (the dust of it, I presume)
in which Our Lord fasted forty days ; one of stones aimed
at St. Stephen the proto-martyr ; a piece of the throne on
which Christ is to sit with his twelve disciples judging
the tribes of Israel in the New Jerusalem, together with
portions of the apostles' thrones ; three griffins' eggs, &c,
" In an old manuscript of a monk of Durham," says Hegg,
" I find in a catalogue of the reliques of this abbey, which
were so many that it seemed a charnel-house of saint's
bones — For from hence, at the resurrection, St. Stephen
will fetch his tooth, Zachary a leg, Simon an arm,
St. Christopher an elbow, St. Lawrence a finger,
St. Ambrose some of his hair, and St. Ebbe her foot."
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 169
CHAPTER XV.
THE LAMBTON WORM.
The wicked heir of Lambton was fishing one Sunday
in the Wear, and, after toiling in vain for some time,
vented his dissatisfaction in curses loud and deep. At
length he felt an extraordinary tugging at his line, and,
in the hope of catching a large fish, he drew it up with
the utmost care. It took all his strength to bring the
expected salmon to land, but it proved to be only a
worm, of most unseemly appearance, so that he hastily
tore it from the hook, and threw it in a passion into a
well hard bj^ When he had again thrown in his line,
a venerable-looking stranger came past, and asked him
what sport he had had. He replied testily — "Why,
in truth, I think I have caught the devil," and bade the
man look into the well, which he did. The stranger
remarked that he had never seen the like of it before ;
it resembled an eft, indeed, but then it had nine holes
on each side of its mouth, and he felt certain that it
boded no good. Whatever it might be, it was left to live
or die in the well, for the heir of Lambton did not believe
in omens. But, strange to say, it grew, and grew, and
better grew, till it had become so large that it had to
seek for itself some new abode. So it crept out of the
170 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
well and returned to the river, in the middle of which
it usually lay during the day time, coiled round a rock ;
and at night it l)etook itself to a neighbouring hill, now
called the Worm Hill, near Fatfield, around the base of
which it tAvined itself, increasing in size till it could com-
pass the hill nine times (Sir Cuthbert Sharpe says three,
but he was probably mistaken). As this hill is between
three and four hundred yards in circumference, lessening
gradually towards the apex, it may be taken for granted
that the worm, Avhen it had reached its full growth, Avas
about tAvo miles long. No Avonder it AA^as noAV the terror
of the neighbourhood ; for it had an appetite propor-
tioned to its size. It soon Avasted cA^erything on the
north side of the river, and then crossed the stream
toAvards Lambton Hall, Avhere the old lord was living in
grief and sorroAv. The young sinner Avho had done the
mischief, and Avhose name Avas John Lambton, had long
ere this repented of his horrid profanity, duly confessed
his manifold sins to a priest, l)athed in a bath of holy
Avater, assumed the l)adge of a crusader, been dubl^ed a
knight of Ehodes, and set out for the Holy Land to Avin
it l)ack from the infidels. The terrified household
assembled, Avhen the Avorm appeared, and it Avas proposed
by the steAvard, a man far advanced in years and of great
experience, that the large trough which stood in the court
yard should be filled with milk for the creature to drink,
as otherAvise it might droAvn them all. The monster
approached, eagerly drank the milk, and returned, Avith-
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 171
out further ravage, to repose round its favourite hill.
But it came again the next morning at the same hour,
and the same quantity of milk had to be provided for it.
It was soon found that it could not he satisfied with less
than the milk of nine cows. If the quantity Avas dimin-
ished ever so little, it would lash its tail round the trees
in the park, and tear them up by the roots in its rage.
"The worm was a terrible hugeous cretur," said an old
woman at Lambton to William Howitt ; " it drank every
day nine cows' milk ; and even if the family took a little
sup out for their tea C?) it Avor fain to rive a' doon."
Many a gallant Knight essayed in vain to sla}^ this terror
of the country side, but they always suffered loss of life
or limb, and never did the creature any real hurt, for
though it had been frequently cut asunder, yet the sev-
ered parts had immediately re-united, and so it reigned
triumjDhantly on its hill. At length, after seven long-
years, the Knight of Ehodes returned, and found the
broad lands of his ancestors desolate. He heard the
wailing of the people, and hastened to his father's hall, to
receive the embrace of the old man, avIio was worn out
with sorrow for the Knight's supposed death, and the
dreadful waste caused by the Worm. We are beholden to
Surtees for the briefest account of what follows : — " John
Lambton was extremely shocked at witnessing the effects
of his youthful imprudences, and immediately undertook
the adventure in which so many knights had failed.
After several fierce combats, in which the crusader was
172 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
foiled by his enemy's power of self-union, he found it
expedient to add policy to courage, and, perhaps not
possessing much of the former qualitj^, he went to con-
sult a witch or wise woman. By her advice he covered
himself in a coat of mail studded with razor blades, and
placed himself on a crag in the river and awaited the
monster's arrival. At the usual time the Worm came to
the rock, and wound himself with great fur}^ round the
armed knight, who had the satisfaction to see his enemy
cut to pieces by his own efforts, whilst the stream, wash-
ing away the several parts, prevented the possibility of
re-union. The Avitch had promised Lambton success
only on one condition, that he should slay the first living
thing which met his sight after his victory. To avoid
the possibility of human slaughter, Lambton directed his
father that as soon as he heard him sound three blasts of
his bugle horn, in token of the achievement being per-
formed, he should release his favourite greyhound, which
would immediately fly to the sound of his horn, and thus
become the sacrifice. On hearing his son's bugle, however,
the old chief was so overjoyed that he forgot the injunc-
tion, and ran himself -with open arms to meet his son.
Instead of committing a parricide, the conqueror again
repaired to his adviser, who pronounced, as the alter-
native of disobeying the original instructions, that no
chief of the Lambtons should die in bed for seven (or, as
some accounts say, for nine) generations," a prophecy
believed to have been literally fulfilled.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM, 173
CHAPTER XVI.
DIABOLIC.
THE DEVIL IN SOUTH DURHAM.
About ninety years ago, an old farmer at or near
Bishopton — a Roman Catholic, but married to a Protes-
tant, — died after making his will, by which he left a
considerable sum to the church he belonged to. The
pair had agreed that if they had any children the boys
should be brought up Catholics and the girls Protestants.
They had two boys. After the priest had performed
his preliminary duties, the corpse was placed in an upper
room, and the lads, with a few of their friends, proceeded
to hold the wake in another apartment. The widow,
who did not believe in the efficacy of crucifixes, holy
water, and moulded candles, refused to give the priest
any money to pray the deceased out of purgatory, saying
he had given the church a great deal too much already.
The holy father warmly expostulated with her, and as
she still declined, told her he should not be surprised if the
devil were to come at midnight and carry off the corpse,
but even this did not frighten the good woman into
drawing her purse strings, and the priest went away
very ill-satisfied. Just as the clock struck twelve, the
lads, who were whiling away the dull hours with playing
174 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
at cards, heard a terrible noise upon the stairs as if some
monstrous thing Avere coming up, loaded with clanking
chains. Looking out, they say a huge black man, with
horns, and a cloven foot, who was about to enter the
room in which the corpse lay. " Go back, or I'll shoot
you ! " cried the eldest lad, laying hold of a horse pistol.
The apparition, however, took no notice of the threat,
and was proceeding to lay hold of his prize, when the lad
fired and the devil fell, severely wounded in his nether
extremities. It was the grave-digger, whom the priest
had bribed — So runs the tale.
THE devil's apron.
A legend connected with a large stone in Castle Eden
Dene, reveals the fact that the devil is not above wearing
aprons. His Satanic Majesty Avas, it seems, on one
occasion flying over the Dene with this immense stone
in his apron, when, sad to relate, the apron string broke,
and the weighty burden was precipitated to the place
where it now lies.
In days now long past, when Newcastle upon-Tyne was
privileged with the presence of such bold, earnest, and
powerful preachers of the gospel as John Knox, and there
seemed a near prospect of the bulk of the inhabitants
becoming truly religious, and, therefore, honest and fair
in all their dealings, the Devil, we arc told, determined
that he would ruin the place, and, therefore, set about
blocking up the entrance into the Tyne by flinging great
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAJNI. 175
apronfuls of stones, brought from Whitley quary, into
the channel. One morning, however, when he was com-
ing along the bank top, as usual, heavily laden, he met
a woman, whereupon, poltroon as he is, he dropped his
burden in a great fright, fled, and never returned. The
stones he had managed before that to throw in are now
known as the Black Middens.
PER CONTRA : MICHAEL SCOTT AT CAMBOIS.
The Wansbeck runs into the sea at Cambois, in North
Durham, and the tide flows about four miles up the river,
towards Morpeth. Tradition reports that Michael Scott,
whose fame as a wizard is not confined to Scotland,
would have brought the tide up to the respectable old
market town, as a particular favour for some kindness
shown to him, and that he gave instructions to one of
the town's people to run up all the way from Sheepwash
to Morpeth, as fast as he could, without looking behind,
Avhen the tide would follow him. After running some
distance the man became afraid by the roar of waters
behind him, and forgetfully gave a glance over his
shoulder to see if the danger was imminent. Immediately
the advancing tide was still. Michael also intended to
confer a similar favour on Durham's reverend city, but
his good intentions were defeated in like manner by the
cowardice of the ])erson who had to "guide the tide."
RAISING THE WIND.
It was quite common, forty or fifty years ago, to hear
176 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
a South Durham man or woman observe, during a hurri-
cane of wind, " There's somebody been at t' wise man
this mornin', and he's raised t' wind." A storm of Avind
and rain, thunder and hghtning, when extremely violent,
and especially during the night, was once generally
regarded as indicating that the foul friend was very busy,
carrying away a witch to the realms below, "There hasn't
been sic a neet as last neet sin' Kate Steele, the witch o'
Katiefield, deed," is an expression we have often heard.
" As busy as the devil in a gale of wind " is still a com-
mon saying,
BATTLE ECHOES AT NEVILLE'S CROSS.
A lady was once teaching in a Sunday School in the
City of Durham, when the chapter read in class happened
to be one in the First Book of Samuel. After it had
been duly gone through, one of the pupils observed that
he did not like that chapter so well as last Sunday's,
because there were no battles in it. On this the teacher
thought fit to dilate on the horrors of war and the bless-
ings of peace, to all which, like a truculent young
Northern as he was, the boy turned a deaf ear, only
observing that there had been a great battle at Durham
once. " And where was it fought ? " asked she. " At
Neville's Cross," answered the lad, promptly. " I go
there very often of an evening to see the place ; and if
you Avalk nine times round the Cross, and then lay your
head to the turf, you'll hear the noise of the battle and
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHMl. 177
the clash of the armour." These were the young fellow's
exact words to his Sunday School teacher.
KING DAVID BRUCE UNDER ALDIN GRANGE BRIDGE.
There is a tradition in the neighbourhood of Broom, a
couple of miles or so West of Durham, that David Bruce,
King of Scots, concealed himself under the old narrow
stone bridge over the Browney at Aldin Grange, after
the battle of Neville's Cross, and that he was discovered
by his pursuers by his shadow in the water. This is
perhaps as true as many other traditions.
PHANTOM ARMIES.
A folio of "Apparitions and Wonders," jireserved in
the British Museum, records that at Durham, on the
27th of September, 1705, when the evening sky was
serene and full of stars, a strange and prodigious light
spread over its North- Western quarter, as if the sun it-
self was shining ; then, came streamers, which turned to
armed men, ranked on horseback. This may be accounted
for on the supposition that it was an extraordinary dis-
play of the Aurora Borealis, or "merry dancers." That
beautiful phenomenon is still known in the "North
Country'' as "the Derwentwater lights," in consequence
of their having been particularly red and vivid at the
time of the unfortunate last Earl's execution. Myriads
of fighting men were seen in the sky, night after night
throughout the county of Durham, before the French
Revolution.
M
178 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
THE DRAGON, WORM, OR FLYING SERPENT, OF SOCKBURN.
The legendary tale concerning this monster is simply
this, as set down in the Bowes Manuscripts : — " In an
ould manuscript which I have sene of the descent of
Connyers, there is writ as followth : Sir John Connyers,
knight, slew that monstrous and poysonous vermine or
wyverne, and aske or werme, which overthrew and
devoured many people in fight, for that the sent of that
poison was so strong that no person might abyde it, and
by the providence of Almighty God this John Connyers,
knight, overthrew the saide monster and slew it. But,
before he made this enterprise, having but one sonne, he
went to the church of Sockbourne in complete armour,
and offered that his only sonne to the Holy Ghost. That
place where this great serpent laye was called Graystane.
And as it is written in the same manuscript, this John lieth
buried in Sockburne Church, in complete armour, before
the Conquest." The grey stone is duly pointed out in
a field near the church, as well as a trough, where the
worm was in the habit of drinking so much milk daily,
and basking itself before returning to the river Tees.
Mrs. Anne Wilson, in her very wretched poem Teisa,
published in quarto, in 1778, says the Sockl^urn worm
was supposed to have fallen from the lunar circle, and
states that the knight slew it by stabbing it in its only
vulnerable part, under the wing. Its body was then
drawn into a pit and a heap of massive stones raised
over it. The manors of Sockburn and Dinsdale were
given to Conj-ers as a reward for his bravery, and when
he died a monument was raised over his remains.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 179
THE GABRIEL HOUNDS.
The strange unearthly cries, so hke the 3-elping of
dogs, uttered by wild fowl on their passage southAvards
on the approach of winter, from Scotland and countries
further north, have engendered a wide-spread belief in
the existence of a pack of spectral hounds. In Durham
and the neighbouring counties they are called the Gabriel
Hounds, and under that name they are mentioned by
Wordsworth in one of his sonnets. They are monstrous
human-headed dogs, who traverse the air, generally dur-
ing dark nights, or high up out of sight. Sometimes
they appear to hover over a house, and then death or
calamity is sure to visit it. Some call them the Sky
Yelpers.
180 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER XVIL
CONCERNING CHILDREN AND CHILDREN'S GAMES.
ROCKING AN EMPTY CRADLE.
It is very unlucky to rock an empty cradle, and any
inadvertent person, who happens to do so, for want of
better employment, when sitting waiting for somebody
or something in the room where a cradle stands, Avill be
sharply rebuked for his imprudence. The reason assigned
is that it gives the child a headache or other ailment,
and, if persisted in, may even cause its death. Eocking
the empty cradle is often deprecated, likewise, on the
ground that it is ominous of another claimant for that
place of rest coming before it is wanted.
BAPTISM AND CHRISTENING.
There is a clear distinction in the minds of good old
Tees, "Wear, and Tyneside people, between baptism and
christening. Baptism, a venerable gossip tells us, is
simply sprinkling with Avater in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This may be done by a
layman, or, in case of necessity, even bj^ the midwife,
when the life of the infant seems in danger. "Drop it !
drop it ! " was the exclamation of an old woman at the
Felling, meaning, sprinkle its face with water— when an
infant, that moment born into the world, seemed ready
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAJM. 181
to give up the ghost, and might be dead before a priest
could be got at. Christening is a more solemn ordinance,
in which the priest dips his finger into the font, and Avith
it makes the sign of the cross on the baby's face, and
godfathers and godmothers take obligations on them.
One intelligent lady of my acquaintance, resident in
Shields, was baptised Mary and christened Elizabeth.
At the request of her mother, she received, on l^eing
sprinkled in the name of the Blessed Trinity by the
parish priest, the name of Mary. And when her father
came home from sea she was carried to church and
christened Elizabeth.
GROANING CHEESE.
A large cheese, procured in expectation of the l:>irth of
a child, is called the Groaning Cheese, or the Sick Wife's
Cheese. A slice of the first cut, laid under the pillow, is
said to enable young damsels to dream of their lovers.
But in order to be of any use, it must be pierced with three
pins, taken from the infant's pincushion. In Sunderland,
it was once common for cheese-mongers to lend a cheese
on such occasions, to poor but honest customers, who
could not afford to buy one, but who had it to cut and
come again, that is, to be used ad libitum and the remain-
der returned. By this plan, the child has the honour of
a, whole cheese at its birth, and the parents pay for no
more than they need. The cake provided to be eaten
with the cheese is called the Groaning Cake, and persons
have been known to preserve bits of it for years, as a sort
182 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
of amulet, "unmould}^ and immouse-eaten," to promote
fniitfulness. In the days when all people of moderate
means breAved their own ale, it was the universal custom
to provide a boll, a bushel, or a peck of "groaning
malt," according to the prospective demand and supply.
Brockett says there was once a time, his old nurse
informed him, when children were drawn through a hole
cut in the groaning cheese, on the day they were
christened.
CARRYING A BABE UPWARDS FIRST.
It is very important for an infant to go up in the world
before it goes down. Accordingly, if a child happens to
be born in the top storey of a house, one of the gossips
will take it up in her arms, and, for want of a flight of
stairs leading to the roof, mount with it upon a table,
chair, or chest of drawers ; after which it may safely be
taken down stairs.
SUNDAY AND WEEK-DAY CHILDREN.
The following verses are still current in North and
South Durham, as well as in many other parts of the
kingdom ; —
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
And Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
And Saturday's child works hard for its living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is blythe and bonny, good and gay.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 183
ALMS TO A NEW BORN BABE.
The first time that you call at a house where there is
a new born babe, and the first time an infant is brought
to your own house (at least after it has been christened)
you must present it with what is called alms. In the
former case, it should be in the shape of a piece of silver,
and in the latter of " the three blessings," viz. : — salt or
sugar, an egg, and bread. The following form of Avords
is used by old-fashioned kindly people : — " Weel mayest
thou thrive and grow till thou bringest me this back
again." The egg is emblematical of new life, the salt of
incorruption, and the bread of bodily sustenance. These
votive offerings must be pinned in the baby's lap, and so
brought home.
children's hands AND NAILS.
In order that a child may gather riches it is said to be
proper to leave its right hand unwashed, for " muck,"
as an old crone once told me, " bodes luck." A baby's
nails must not be cut till it is a year old, for fear it
should grow up " light-fingered," that is, in plain terms,
a thief. The mother must bite them off, if needs be ;
and in some parts it is believed that if the first parings
are buried under an ash tree, the child will turn out a
first-rate singer or famous musician. Care must be taken
not to cut the child's nails on a Sunday or a Friday, at
any rate for the first time. For —
Cut them ou Friday, cut them for sorrow. ;
And—
Better a child had ne'er been born
Than cut his nails on a Sunday morn.
184 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
GIFTS.
Many a child has been buoyed up wth the hope of
getting some vakiable present soon, through seeing a
white speck on his finger nail. As it grows up to the
end of the nail the prospect grows near ; but he must
not let it be pared oft", for fear of losing the gift. Its
particular nature dei:)ends on the finger the mark is on.
Beginning with the thumb, young people say : — " A
gift, a friend, a foe, a lover, and a journey to go."
Children less precocious, too bashful to say a " lover,"
substitute "a letter" instead.
TIG-GEE.
When children are leaving school, to go home for the
night, and come to the place where their roads separate,
each tries to get the last touch. Giving a sudden sharp
tug at the boy's jacket, the girl's frock, or the satchel or
bag, if any, the challenger runs off" as fast as he or she
can, exclaiming —
Tig tag !
Leather bag !
Last bat's poison.
The challenged one, if possessed of any spirit, follows,
and tries, and often manages, to get the last bat. Tiggy-
touch-wood is a similar play.
OTHER children's GAJVIES.
The old game of Hunt the Slipper is still occasionally
played by girls. The players, all but one, sit down in a
circle on their " hunkers," and pass a slipper round from
one to another under their skirts. The odd player tries
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 185
to catch hold of it, and Avhen she succeeds in doing so,
another takes her place. Certain forfeits are demanded
for any breach of rules, and reclaimed on sundry hard
conditions. The game of *' Honey Pots," played indis-
criminately by both boys and girls, is too well known to
require description ; so is the familiar girls' game of
Hitch i' Bed, sometimes simply called " The Beds."
THE GOSSIP STONES.
On the side of the road, between Pensher and Offerton,
there once stood two tall stones, of which one only is
now left. A woman who had seen eighty-eight winters,
told my informant in 1876 that she had heard her mother
tell the story of their erection, as even then an old story.
Two gossips, that is to say, persons who had together
stood godfather to a child, were coming from a christen-
ing at Pensher, when they fell out and fought. The one
was killed and the other died on the spot. Their bodies
were buried where the}- were found lying, and the stones
placed above them.
SPITTING one's FAITH.
When required to make an asservation on any matter
deemed important, schoolboys "spit their faith," or, in
the Durham vernacular, " pin their sawl," that is, their
souls. They also add " Christ's Cross, cut my throat if
I tell a lie ! " at the same time making the sign of the
cross In bygone daj^s, when peculiar fashions were more
rife than they are now, the pitmen used to spit upon a
18G LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
stone together, by way of cementing their confederacy,
Avhen about to make a " stick " for higher wages. When
one lad challenges another to fight, he dares him to spit
over his little finger, or scratch his buttons ; if he will
not, he is a coward ; if he does, it is a fair battle,
BARLEY.
When a lad wishes to bespeak something for his own
exclusive use, he says " Barley me that ! " an expression
that Brockett thinks is only a corrupt contraction for
"By your leave me that." When he calls for a truce
during a school-green fight, he cries " Barley ! " which is
just the French " Parlez," from which comes our English
"Parley."
BOGLE ABOUT THE STACKS.
This has, from time immemorial, been a favourite
pastime, during the clear moonshiny autumn nights,
about farm places and in country villages. One of the
young players personates a bogle, and hides himself
among the stacks in the farm yard. The rest hunt him
until they catch him, Avhen he has to pay a forfeit, kissing
his captor if it bo a young woman, or giving up his cap,
pocket-knife, or some other article, if it be a young man.
COBBING.
To cob is, according to Brockett, to pull the hair or ear,
to strike, to thump ; and cobbing he defines as " striking,,
thumping, a punishment among children and workmen."
In some schools cobbing means taking a lad firmly by the
collar with both hands, and bumping him behind with.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 187
the knee. In others it is seizing the unfortunate object
of the cobbing-match by the hair, and tugging at it on
both sides alternately, dragging out in some cases the
ear-locks, and in all cases inflicting great pain.
Those who will bear no part in cobbing the delinquent
are liable to be cobbed themselves, and so is any boy
who is mercifully disposed, and does not give a sufficient
tug to hurt the victim. The prescribed rites for this-
administration of justice, or as it more usually is, this
gratification of capricious mischief, are standing on one-
leg, closing the eyes, elevating the left thumb, compressing,
the lips, and repeating some such verses as the following —
All mauuei- of men, under threescore and ten,
Who don't come to this cobbing match,
Shall be cobbed over and over again !
By the high, by the low, by the wings of a crow,
Salt-fish, regnum, a buck or a doe ?
A doe is a violent tug at the hair ; a buck, a rap on the
skull with the closed hand ; what salt-fish and regnum
are I do not know,
children's rhymes.
To make a butterfly alight, repeat the following lines —
Le, la, let,
Ma bonny pet.
and if this is only said often enough, the charm never
fails.
188 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
Does rain spoil a holiday, let the boys and girls shout
out : —
Kain, rain, gan away !
And come some other summer's day !
or more imperatively and decidedly —
Rain, rain, go to Spain !
Fair weather come again !
sooner or later, the rain will depart, If there he a rain-
bow in the sky, the children must keep looking at it all
the time.
In order to charm away a flight of crows, when they
settle upon a new-sown field of corn, or corn nearly ripe,
■or standing in the stook, the crow herds ought to say : —
Crow, Crow, get out of my siglit,
Or else I'll eat your liver and light.
When you happen to touch a snail, it draws in its
horns. To make it put them out again, you should
say :—
Snail, snail, put out your horn.
Or I'll kill your father and mother the morn.
The ladybird (Cocclnella Septemimnctahis) is raised to
activity 1)y the cry of : —
Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home,
Your house is on fire, your children all gone.
In the South Shields vernacular this runs —
Cushie cow lady, flee away hyera,
Yer house is on fire, yer bairns are all gyen.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM, 189
The Dock being an approved antidote to the sting of
a nettle, the following lines should be repeated when it
is being applied : —
Nettle out, dock in ;
Dock remove the nettle sting.
To the lapwing, peewit, or peeze-weep, when it is pre-
tending to be lame, and hirpling along the ground to
draw you away from its young, you may call out —
Peeze-weep, wallojj away,
Cau'd feet and a frosty day.
The cry of the plover is interpreted into the following
in some districts :—
Bidcake bleary, bidcake bleary,
G'ie the lads what you like, I sit easy.
There is a ridiculous mock numeration rhj-me : —
Onery, tworey, tickery seven,
Allum-a-crack, tennum, eleven.
Pin, pan, musky dan,
Tiddleum, Toddleum, twenty-one.
When the clock strikes, after the usual warning, the
nurse should say to the child —
Zickery, zickery, zock, zock !
The mouse ran iip the clock, clock !
The clock struck one, down the mouse ran !
Zickery, zickery, zan, zan !
JAWPING EGGS.
Jawping eggs at Easter is a favourite youthful amuse-
ment. One boy or girl holding a boiled egg in his or her
hand, challenges another to give blow for blow, taking
190 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
care to hit the end only. One of the eggs is sure to be
fractured in the conflict, and its shattered remains become
the spoil of the conqueror. To "jaup" is the local
vernacular for "Chip."
STEALY-CLOTHES. — SCOTCH AND ENGLISH.
A party of boys divide themselves into two bands, the
captain of each alternately choosing his man till the num-
ber be complete, so as to secure, as far as possible, equality
of strength and skill. Then a line is drawn as a bound-
ary of their respective territories, and at equal distances
from this line, the hats, coats or handkerchiefs of each
band are laid in a heap. The game commences Avith a
defiance, couched in no measured terms of abuse, and
ending with " Set your foot on English ground, Scots, if
ye dare ! " or the converse. After this they make
mutual incursions, each trying to seize and carry away
some articles from the other's store. But if they are
unfortunately caught in the attempt, they must not only
restore the plunder, but remain prisoners until one of
their own party can make his way to them, and touch
them. When all the things belonging to one of the
bands are transferred to the other's head-quarters the
game is Avon.
THE STIRRUP GLASS.
It used to be a common thing for the host or landlord
to present a parting drink to his guests, at the door of
the private mansion, tavern, or inn, as the case might
be, after they had mounted their beasts to go away.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 191
This was called the stirrup cup or stirrup glass. I knew
an old butcher who had a favourite l^rown pony he rode,
and who used to require a stirrup glass for his beast, in
addition to one for himself, the real fact being that Mr
Toot-up drank off both to fortify the inner man, though
his galloway got the credit of the second.
THE SWORD-DANCERS.
It is still the practice, though less in repute than for-
merly, for companies of pitmen and other workmen from
the neighbouring collieries to visit Sunderland, Gates-
head, Hartlepool, Seaham, and other towns, during the
<3hristmas holidays, to perform or play a dance, accom-
panied by song and music. The dancers carry swords
in their hands, very often made of lath, and they wield
these in various ways during the performance; hence
they are called sword dancers. They are clad in white
shirts or tunics, decorated with a profusion of ribbands,
of various colours, gathered from the wardrobes of their
sweethearts, sisters, and other well-"\vishers. The captain
generally Avears a kind of faded uniform, with a large
cocked-hat and feather, for pre-eminent distinction; and
the buffoon, or "Bessy," who acts as treasurer,and collects
the cash bestowed on the party in a tobacco box, some-
times wears a woman's go^^Ti and petticoat, and a hairy
cap, with a fox's brush pinned on to it behind. One of
the actors is dubbed "Galatian," and is the braggadocio
of the lot. Another personates a doctor, direct from
High Germany. " Bessy " first enters, brandishing a
192 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
besom, and clears the floor for the players. Then Gala-
tian and the Ca})tain, after reciting their various past
achievements in high-sounding rhyme, engage in mortal
combat. A dreadful clashing of steel it sometimes is.
At last Galatian falls, and the Captain soliloquises over
his body. He repents, however, that he has killed him,
and offers a great reward to any one who will restore
him to life. Then the doctor chimes in with a long list
of his infallible nostrums and miraculous cures, and after
being somewhat severely cross-questioned by the Captain,
he is ordered to try his skill. This he does in a very
ludicrous fashion, administering a strong dose of some
horrid compound which he calls "hoaxy croaxy" tO the
fallen champion, and giving him a sly kick behind, order-
ing him to rise up and fight again. Galatian rises as if
out of a swoon, and sings out —
Once I was dead,
But now I am alive,
And blessed be the hands of him
Who made me to revive.
The final is that all differences are patched up, and a
general dance takes place, with which the play concludes,
and the party take their leave, with set metrical expres-
sions of thanks, proportioned to the largess they have won.
HINTS TO LIARS.
Mr Punshon informed Mr Brand that among the colliers
of his time there was a custom of giving a pin to a person
in company, by way of hinting to him that he was fibbing.
If another man outlied him, he in turn delivered the
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 193
pin to him. "No duels," adds Brand, "ensue on the
occasion." "Take ray cap," was another common hint,
to people who were transgressing the bounds of credulity.
On one occasion a North Country wench was indicted at
the Old Bailey for feloniously stealing from her mistress
a dozen round-eared lace caps, of a very considerable
value. The girl pleaded not guilty, insisting very
strenuously that she had her mistress's ex2:>ress orders for
what she had done. The prosecutrix being called upon
by the court to answer this allegation, said, " Mar}',
thou wast always a most abominable liar." "Very true,
Madam," replies the hussy, " for whenever I told a round
lie, you was so good as to bid me take your cap." The
court burst into a violent fit of laughter, and the jurj*
acquitted the prisoner.
N
194 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER XVIIL
CUSTOMS REGARDING COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE.
MARRIAGE.
Each clay of the week has some peculiar virtue as a
clay for getting married on. Thus it is —
Monday for wealth,
Tuesday for health,
Wednesday the best day of all,
Thursday for losses,
Friday for crosses,
And Saturday no luck at all.
The unsiiitableness of Lent for marrying and giving
in marriage is expressed in the verse —
If you marry in Lent
You are sure to repent.
It is very unluck}- for swine to cross the path in front
of a wedding party. Tiie bridegroom, as well as the
bride, has been known to turn back, instead of proceed-
ing to church, when such an occurrence happened. This
was, of course, before the clays when actions for breach
of promise became fashionable. Hence the old adage —
" The Swine's run through it." The presence of the
bride's mother is inauspicious at a wedding. A wedding
after svmset entails to the bride a joyless life, the loss of
children, or an early grave. A wet day is deemed un-
lucky, too, while a fine one is auspicious, for —
"Happy is the bride that the sun shines on."
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 195
To rub shoulders with the bride or bridegroom is
deemed an augury of speedy marriage ; and, again, she
who receives from the bride a piece of cheese, cut by
her before leaving the table, will be the next bride among
the company. Dinner over, the bride sticks her knife
into the cheese, and all the men at table endeavour to
seize it. He who succeeds, without cutting his fingers
in the struggle, thereby insures happiness in his married
life. The knife is called "the best man's prize," since
commonly, by some means or other, the "best man"
secures it. Should he fail to do so, woe to his matri-
monial prospects. The maidens, for their prize, try to
possess mementoes of a piece of the wedding dress, called
a " shaping," for use in certain divinations regarding
their future husbands. When she proceeds to the altar,
the bride should wear something borrowed. On the
bride's arrival at her new home, one of the oldest women
in the neighbourhood, who has been stationed on the
threshold, throws a plateful of cake over her head, so that
it falls outside. A scramble ensues, for it is deemed very
fortunate to get a piece of the cake, which ought to be
put next night under the pillow to dream upon. Throw-
ing a shoe after the bride and bridegroom, on their leaving
the bride's parents' house, is also very common. It is a
symbol of renunciation of all right in the happj?- woman
by the old people, and the transference of it to her hus-
band. In the pit districts the bridal party used, at one
time, to be escorted to church by men armed with guns,
which they fired again and again close to the ears of the
196 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
bride and bridegroom, terrifying them sometimes not a
little. In some places he Avho gives the bride away claims
the first kiss, in right of his temporary paternity ; in
other places it is the privilege of the parson who ties
the knot.
It is unlucky for a woman to marry a man whose sur-
name l)egins with the same letter as her own, foi' —
If you change the name and not the lettei",
You change for the worse and not for the better.
A country wedding is, by rights, wound up by a race
for a ribbon, given by the bridegroom. All the racers,
winners and losers alike, are entitled to a glass of spirit
each ; and, accordingly, as soon as the race is run, they
present themselves at the house, and ask for their allow-
ance, without any particular hesitation. It is unluck}^
for a young Avoman to attend church on the day when
her banns are being published ; if she do, her child will
run the risk of being deaf and dumb. The wife who
loses her wedding ring incurs the loss of her husband's
affection, Avhile the breaking of the ring forebodes death.
THE BRIDEWAIN.
West Sheel, or West Broomshields, in the chapelry of
Satley, near Lanchester, was long the inheritance of the
Darnells. One of the family, named William, by his
last Avill and testament, in 1674, appointed for his
daughter Elizabeth (besides her marriage portion), the
ancient provision, on her marriage day, of a Bridewain :
that is, a wain or Avaggon, Avith articles of use and luxury,
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 197
" inside and outside gear and plenishing" for the young
couple. The bridewain was usually crowned with boughs
and flowers, and the horses or oxen which drew it
were decorated with ribbons and bride favours. It was
brought around to the houses of relatives and friends,
who contributed what they pleased as a marriage present.
STEALING THE BRIDE'S GARTERS.
In some of the villages in the county palatine, in the
unsophisticated olden time, it was the custom after the
connubial knot had been tied, for one of the wedding
party, the bridegroom's man or some other, to take oif
the bride's garter while she knelt at the altar ; and this
rather delicate piece of work having been anticipated,
the garter was generally found to do credit to her taste
and skill in needle-Avork.
THROWING THE STOCKING.
On the wedding night, after the bride has retired, and
while she is undressing, she delivers one of her stockings
to a female o-ttendant — " the best maid," — who throws it
at random (or perhaps not quite) among the assembled
company. The person on whom it happens to light will,
it is supposed, be the next to enter into the blessed state
of matrimony. Another and more curious, though per-
haps obsolete mode of divination, was for the invited
guests to repair to the bridal chamber, where the happy
pair received them sitting up in bed, in full dress, except
only that they had taken off their shoes and stockings. ^
One of the bridesmaids then took the bridegroom's-^
198 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
stocking, and standing at the foot of the bed with her
back towards it, threw the stocking with the left hand
over the right shoulder, aiming at the bridegroom's face.
This was done by all the unmarried females in rotation.
When any of them was so fortunate as to hit the object,
it was a sign that she was soon to be married. The
bride's stocking Avas thrown by the young men at the
bride's face in like manner, a like prognostic being di^awn
from it. Brand says new marriages were often occasioned
b}^ such incidents. Throwing the stocking finds a place
among the ceremonies gone through in that popular old
local poem " The Collier's Wedding."
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 199
CHAPTER XIX.
DEATHS AND FUNERALS.
THE LYKE WAKE.
The watching of a corpse previous to interment is
known by the old Saxon term Lyke wake, from lie, a
body, and u-aecce, watch. It was formerly considered
very wrong, indeed positively impious, to leave the
defunct for a single moment alone. One set of watchers
therefore took the place of another, from the moment of
the breath leaving the body, till the lifting of the coffin
previous to the interment. And as the grief, even of
near relations, cannot long drown the natural appetites,
refreshments had to be provided somewhat liberally for
such good natured friends and neighbours as volun-
teered to sit up with the corpse. In the custom itself
there was nothing wrong, it was rather a tribute of
respect paid to the deceased and an exhibition of sym-
pathy in affliction. But as the best things in this world
are apt to be abused, even so was the lyke wake. In
process of time it came to be nothing better than a scene
of feasting and revelry, extremely indecent on such a
melancholy occasion. Instances are related to have
occurred where the festering corpse was kept unburied
for more than a week, until the watchers had consumed,
in their festivity, everything that was in the house.
200 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
This almost always happened when the deceased man or
woman had lived alone, had some modicum of means,
and had no relations near. It was common to say that
people had met to drink such a one's dirgie ; and after
the funeral it was the usual practice to adjourn to the
nearest public-house to finish off, if it was not convenient
to return to the deceased's late residence and conclude
the orgies there.
EARTH AND SALT ON A CORPSE.
It was once customary to set a plate full of earth and
salt upon a corpse, as an emblem of mortality and eternal
life. Some matter-of-fact people, who could not rise to
the conception of the mystical meaning, said it was done
to prevent the body from swelling, through the air get-
ting into the boAvels.
FLOWERS IN THE COFFIN.
Down till about fifteen or twenty years ago, it was an
almost universal custom in Sunderland to decorate the
dead in their coffins Avith wreaths of flowers. For this
purpose rosemary, white roses, wall-flowers, southern
Avood, and other flowers, were used in their season, and
those who had them in their gardens were always ready
to give them to their poorer neighbours. This was a
very ancient custom, going back to the earliest times.
THE TIDE.
Life goes out with the tide, and comes in with it. So
births and deaths, in seaport towns at least, happen
respectively at the flow and ebb. In some extracts of
old date, from the parish register of Heslidon, near'
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 201
Hartlepool, the state of the tide at the time of death is
named. "The xith day of Maye, A.D. 1595, at vi of
ye clocke in the morning, being full water. Mr. Henrye
Mitford, of Hoolau, died at Newcastel, and was hurried
the xvi. dale of Male, at vii of ye clocke at noon, being
Sondaie, at evening prayer ; the hired preacher made ye
sermon." — " The xvii. dale of Male, at xii of ye clocke
at noon, being lowe water, Mrs. Barbara Mitford died,
and was buried the xviii. day of Male, at ix. of the clock.
Mr. Holsworth maid ye sermon."
THE SOUI. BELL.
Many people still believe that the tolling of the parish
church bell at the time of a death or funeral, commonly
called the passing bell, the dead bell, or the soul bell, is
for the purpose of driving awa}' the evil spirits, which
dare not, it is imagined, come Avithin hearing of the
solemn sound. It used formerly to call all good Christians
to pray for the soul of the deceased person. Hence the
old couplet — ■
When the bell begins to toll,
Lord, have mercy on the soul.
Bede is the first who mentions the custom.
REALISING THE RESURRECTION.
The Rev. Arthur Shepherd, vicar of Pittington, who
died in 1770, had a hatchet deposited with him in his
coffin, and a plate of looking-glass inserted in the lid
opposite his face, " both," says Surtees, " with a view to
facilitate his resurrection." Mr. Shepherd is said to
202 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
have been a very worthy character. He held the living
during forty years, and as he reprobated the practice of
burial within the walls of churches, he and his wife Anne
were interred in the church yard, in the open air, and,
presumably, not very deep.
ANIMAL SACRIFICES AT CHRISTIAN BURIA.LS.
In the month of August, 1849, in excavating the earth
within Staindrop Collegiate Church, in order to build
flues for warming the sacred edifice, the skeleton of a
human body was exhumed, which was generally sup-
posed to be one of the " Noble Nevilles," of Raby Castle,
in the Bishopric ; and at his feet were found the bones
of a dog of the greyhound breed, which must have been
buried along with its master, and had probably been
killed (in other words sacrificed) for the purpose.
BARNARD CASTLE FUNERALS.
At Barnard Castle, half a century since, funerals were
attended by women chiefly, all those in the neighbour-
hood going as a matter of courtesy, if it took place in the
afternoon. Forenoon Funerals were counted private, and
none attended unless invited. The poorer class generally
sent round the bellman to announce that such a person,
naming him or her, was to be interred at such an hour,
or that so and so Avas going to bury his father, wife, or
child, as the case might be, and that all persons were
invited to be present. Not to go was reckoned a slight.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 203
THE DEAD KNOCK.
A mysterious rap heard at the door, or upon the foot
of the bed, when there is nobody there to give it, is set
down as being a warning of the approaching death of
some friend or relative. In most cases it is neither more
nor less than an indication that the wood of which the
furniture has been made has not been thoroughly sea-
soned, and is now beginning to crack, because dried.
SHROUDING THE LOOKING-GLASS.
If you look into a mirror in the death-chamber, you
will see the corpse looking over your shoulder. There-
fore, the mirror ought to be removed or shrouded. "We
have seen this done by the attendants in a number of
cases.
RECOVERING THE BODIES OF THE DROWNED.
It is said that the bodies of the drowned float on the
ninth day, and, that if a gun be fired over a dead body
lying at the bottom of a river, or of the sea, the con-
cussion will break the gall bladder, and cause the body
to float.
A DEAD MAN RESTORED TO LIFE.
In Simeon's History of the Church of Durham, that
veracious chronicler tells us that shortly before Bishop
Walcher's death, which took place during a popular
tumult at Gateshead, in the year 1080. a man named
Eadulf, who resided at no great distanct from Durham,
204 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
in a ville called RavensAvurthe (RavensAvorth), fell sick
and died ; but he returned to life before sunrise next
morning. Suddenly sitting up, he so terrified the people
who were Avatching by the supposed corpse, that they
took to flight. But as they A\:ere running away, he called
them back and said : " Do not be afraid. Of a truth I
have arisen from death. Sign yourselves and this house
Avith the sign of the cross." As soon as he had said this
a number of little birds rushed through the door from
the outside of the house, and filled the room in which
they were sitting ; and they flew backAvards and for-
Avards in such a troublesome manner as almost to dash
themselves in the very faces of the beholders. So the
deacon (Avhom the priest had dispatched thither Avhen he
himself had returned to the church) ran and sprinkled
them and the house Avith holy Avater, and immediately
all that ghastly company of birds vanished like smoke
from before their eyes. The man Avho had risen from
the dead then related several things regarding the joys
of the dead and the punishment of the damned, which
he had seen Avhen absent from the body ; he also stated
that he had recognised several of his former acquaint-
ances, Avho Avere rejoicing along Avith the blessed ones
in flowery abodes, and he announced that for some others,
who were still alive, the eternal torments of hell Avere in
preparation. One of these was Waltheof, Earl of North-
umberland, who afterAvards was the instigator of the
Eishop's murder.
OF THE COUNTY OF DUKHAM. 205
BIDDERS TO A FUNERAL.
Brand, in his Antiquities, says : — " At South Shields,
in the County of Durham, the bidders, i.e., the inviters
to a funeral, never use the rapper of the door when they
go about, but always knock with a key, which they carry
with them for that purpose."
virgins' GARLANDS.
It used to be the custom in many country churches to
hang a garland of artificial flowers over the seats of
deceased virgins, in token, says Bourne, of esteem and
love, and as an emblem of their reward in the heavenly
church. They were made of variegated coloured paper,
dyed horn or silk, representing forget-me-nots and other
flowers, fastened to small sticks crossing each other at
the top, and fixed at the bottom with a circular hoop.
From the centre was suspended the form of a woman's
glove cut in white paper, on Avhich the name and age of
the party commemorated by these frail memorials were
sometimes written. The custom, once probably very
general, of placing flowers, particularly roses, lilies, and
violets, in the coffin with the deceased, is still preserved
amongst our villagers. Brand says he saw in the churches
of Wolsingham and Stanhope, in the county of Durham,
specimens of the Virgins' Garlands, the form of a
woman's glove, cut in white paper, hung in the centre of
each of them.
206 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CONFIRMATION.
A preference is universally felt among ignorant candi-
dates for the touch of the Bishop's right hand over the
left in the rite of confirmation. The reason assigned is,
that the unfortunate recipients of the sinister palm are
doomed on the spot to a life of single blessedness. On
this account, some young women are known to have come
forward twice or thrice to be confirmed, in order to
improve their chance for marriage.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 207
CHAPTER XX.
PORTENTS, AUGURIES, AND OMENS.
CUTTING one's NAILS.
One must not cut one's finger or toe nails on a Friday.
If anything happens to a nail on the sixth clay of the
week, the broken part must be bitten off. Neither knife
nor scissors must be used by any means.
A shoe omen.
A person who wears away his or her shoes in the
middle and fore part of the sole will be fortunate in life.
He or she who, on the contrary, either wears out the
shoe at one or the other side, and so " cams " it, through
walking in a shambling fashion, and setting the feet
down carelessly, or else causes it to break out at the toes
or go down at the heel, will be unfortunate.
LENDING SALT.
No knowledgeable person will lend salt. " No, indeed,"
an old crone will say, " I will not lend you any, but I'll
give you some. Let's have nyen o' yer salt back here."
If you borrow salt, it is very unlucky to return it.
TEA LEAVES.
It is unlucky to throw aAvay tea leaves ; they should
always be laid on the back of the fire ; this keeps away
poverty.
208 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
FUNERAL OMENS.
He who meets a funeral is certain soon to die, unless
he bares his head, turns, and accompanies the procession
some distance. If the coffin is carried by bearers he
must take a lift. This done, if he bows to the company,
he may turn and go on his Avay without fear. If, at a
funeral, the sun shines brightlj' on the face of one of the
attendants, it marks him for the next to be laid in that
churchyard ; and persons aware of this take care to place
themselves, dui'ing the interment, on the south or east
side of the grave. If the sound of the earth falling on
the coffin be heard by any person at a considerable
distance from the spot, it presages a death in that
person's family,
sailors' dreams.
If a Sailor dreams that the ship has signed articles to
sail, it will be lost on the voyage ; no consideration will
tempt him to go to sea in her. He would ten times
rather go to jail. In a case of this kind, not long ago,
the man told the Magistrate that he was satisfied with
the ship, officers, and food, l)ut he had had a dream that
the ship would be lost, and would not go to sea in her
for any amount of money. Once before, he added, he
had a dream that the vessel in which he was sailing
would be lost, and it was lost.
SUPERNATURAL GIFTS.
The seventh successive son and the ninth successive
daughter are supposed to be endoAved with supernatural
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 209
powers. On the other hand, the illegitimate child of an
illegitimate man or woman cannot enter, it is said, into
the kingdom of heaven. We once knew a poor fellow
who believed this to be true.
SUPERSTITIONS OF SAILORS.
A correspondent of the Sunderland Times, whose
initials were A.J.G., writes on the subject as follows : —
" It is not a little strange that the men Avho face terrible
dangers oftener than any others, the men who are sup-
posed to be the boldest and hardiest, should be the most
superstitious. The most common omen current among
sailors is that it is unlucky to put to sea on a Friday.
It is accounted very unlucky to lose a water bucket or
mop. To throw the cat overboard or drown one at sea
is the same, and a storm is bound to be the consequence
of such a rash deed. Children are deemed lucky to a
ship. Whistling at sea is supposed to cause increase of
wind. This belief is supposed to arise from an old dread
of the potency of his Satanic Majesty in stirring up a
storm, and to abstain from whistling is thought to con-
ciliate his feelings — wherein generally is implied a most
delicate compliment to his Highness's ear for music.
The appearance of dolphins and of porpoises, disporting
themselves in the water, is held to presage a gale."
TO TEST A lover's TROTH.
The maidens in Durham are wont to test their lovers'
fidelity by taking an apple pip, and, naming the lover,
putting it in the fire. If it makes a noise as it bursts
210 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
with the heat, the experimenter is assured of her young
man's affection ; hut if it burns away silently, she Avill
be convinced that he has no true regard for her, and will
forsake her Avhenever to do so serves his turn.
WISHING CHAIRS,
We have wishing chairs here and there throughout
the North Country. There is one at Finchale Priory ;
and he who seats himself in it, breathes a wish, and tells
no one what it is, will possibly receive it.
SPITTING ON A HORSE SHOE.
If you see a horse shoe, a piece of old iron, or even a
nail, on your path, take it up, spit on it, and throw it
over your left shoulder, wishing for something at the
same time. Then keep the wish an inviolate secret, even
from your wife or husband, if you have one, and you will
be sure to have it gratified, if you wait long enough.
MINOR SUPERSTITIONS.
The folloAving list of little superstitions, still extant in
the County of Durham, was supplied to Mr. Henderson
by a careful observer : — "It is counted lucky there to
carry in the pocket a crooked sixpence, or a one with a
hole in it, or to put a stocking on, through inadvertence,
inside out. People with meeting eye-brows are thought
fortunate fellows. It is lucky to set a hen on an odd
number of eggs ; set her on even ones, and you will have
no chickens. Again, if two persons wash their hands
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 211
together in the same basin, they will be sure to fall out
before bed time. If a person's hair burn brightly when
thrown into the fire, it is a sign of longevity ; the brighter
the flame the longer the life. On the other hand, if it
smoulder away, and refuse to burn, it is a sign of
approaching death. If the nose itches, it is a sign that
you will be crossed, or vexed, or kissed 1)y a fool ; if the
foot, it foretells that you Avill soon tread on strange
ground. Itching of the right hand portends receiving
money ; of the left hand, paying money ; of the ear,
hearing sudden news. If the right ear tingles, you are
being spoken well of ; if the left ear, some one is speak-
ing ill of you. If you shiver, some one is walking over
jour future grave. If you stumble up stairs (by accident),
you will be married the same j'ear ; if you snufF out the
candle you certainly will. If you sing l^efore breakfast
you will cry before supper. If you put a button or hook
into the wrong hole while dressing in the morning, some
misfortune will occur during the day. A mole at the
back of the neck marks out the bearer of it as in danger
of hanging." Here follow some more omens of the same
kind : — Spring has not arrived till you can set 3'our foot
upon twelve daisies. If you take violets or primroses to
a house in less quantity than a handful, all the owner's
young chickens or chicks will die. Before you kill any-
thing that is to be eaten it is necessary to wash your
face ; otherwise the meat will not keep. Eat pancakes
on Shrove-Tuesdaj^, and grey peas on Ash-Wednesday,
and you will have money in your pockets all the year
212 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
round. To sweep the dust out of your house 1)}^ the
front door is to sweep away the good fortune of your
family ; it ought to be swept inwards, and carried out
in a basket or shovel, and then no harm will follow. It
is unlucky, after one has started on a journey, to be
recalled and told of something previously forgotten ; but
the spell may be t)roken by asking for meat and drink,
and partaking of it. No one should, on any account,
lend another a pin ; say — " You may take one, but, mind,
I do not give it." To make anyone a present of a knife
or other sharp implement is sure to cut friendship or
love. Mr. Henderson has heard in Durham of a school-
master who wished to reward one of his pupils with
a knife, but dared not do so Avithout first receiving from
the boy a penny, in order that the knife might be pur-
chased, not given. Every body knows it is unlucky to
spill salt. Rooks and swallows are lucky birds ; where
they come to a place and take possession of it, the people are
sure to thrive ; whereas a place Avhich they desert, or from
which they are driven away, is alwaj's an unlucky place.
DISAGREEABLE DREAMS.
If you dream that a cat is lying on your bed, you are
going to encounter an enemy who will give you trouble.
If you dream about your teeth getting loose and falling-
out, you are going to lose a friend.
SIGNIFICANT DREAMS.
A reverend gentleman in Barnard Castle— a near
relative of my own — used to pray every evening that the
dreams of himself and household might be "spiritual
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 213
and significant." There is, indeed, a veiy general belief in
the significance and fulfilment of dreams. A remarkable
discovery of a dead body by means of a dream took place
in South Durham in the year 1848, and was narrated in
the papers of the day. Mr. Smith, gardener to Sir
Clifford Constable, was supposed to have fallen into the
Tees, his hat and stick having been found near the water
side, and the river was dragged for some time, but with-
out success. A man named Awde, from Little Newsham,
a small village four miles from Wycliffe, then dreamt
that poor Smith was lying under the ledge of a certain
rock about 300 yards below Whorlton Bridge, and that
his right arm Avas broken. The dream so affected this
man, that he got up early and set out at once to search
the river. He went to the boat-house, told his story to
the person in charge there, and asked for the boat. He
rowed to the spot he had seen in his dream, and on the
first trial he made with the boat-hook, he drew up the
body of the drowned man, and found his right arm
actually broken. A few years ago a plate-layer, named
"William Potts, was killed on the North-Eastern Railway
at Washington, by being knocked down and run over by
a goods train. The night before the accident, a little
girl, who lived next door to the engine driver of the
goods train, dreamed that she saw the engine knock a
plate-layer down, who was at the time driving in a
"wooden key" with his hammer, and run over him,
killing him on the spot. The thing was so strongly
impressed on the mind of the girl, who was then an
214 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
invalid, that the first thing she did in the morning was-
te go and tell the engineman's wife ; and when her hus-
band came home she related to him the dream as it had
been told to her, Avhen he told her what had happened on
his journey home from York. The wife was the more
affected at the circumstance, from the fact that the
deceased and herself had been acquainted with each other
almost from childhood. It was concluded that he was
really employed at " keys " or " chairs," according to
the dream, from the fact that there were some out near
the spot where he was killed.
UNLUCKY HOUSES.
"Aye, shour, Ave're removin', honne'," said a ship-
master's wife in Bishopwearmouth, as she stood at the
door of her domicile one day, with her household goods
around her: "folks say it's all them unlucky houses.
My hoosband was three times shipwrecked in our first
house. Then we removed ; but we had ney sooner get-
tin' into the next house than he was browt on shore in
the life-boat. Aw's shour I hope we'll hev better luck
in the house Ave're gan tey."
LAYING A LOAF UPSIDE DOWN.
You must on no account lay a loaf on the table, or,
e I , anywhere, upside down. To do so is, in the
sieht of all old housewives, a serious fault.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 215
WINDING WORSTED.
Ill the County of Durham, in the old times of our
grandmothers, it was reckoned unhicky to wind worsted
by candlelight. No sailor's or shipowner's wife, at any
rate, would do it, as it Avould have been sure to " Avind
away the ship's luck."
THE NEW MOON.
If a person happens to have money in his pocket when
he first sees the new moon, he will certainly not want
money that month. There is an equivoque in this. It
is unlucky to see the new moon first through the window.
CANDLE OMENS.
Candles and other lights burn blue and dim when
invisible beings are present, especially if they be evil
spirits. " A letter at the candle," as it is called, caused
by a hair or some other foreign substance, collecting some
of the half melted tallow round it and preventing it from
dissolving, is regarded as the fore-runner of some strange
news. " A spail at the candle," which is a similar
appearance, in the shape of a chip, or rather shaving of
wood, prognosticates death in the house — generally that
of the person who sits opposite to it, or some one very
near and dear to him or her.
A CINDER FLYING OUT OF THE FIRE.
When household coal is full of gas, the bubbles pro-
duced in burning not unfrequently burst, and throw off
hot sparks or flakes Avhich are apt to burn holes in the
216 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
carpet (if there is any), or might even set the house on
fire, if not promptly stamped out. If the explosion is a
silent one, as sometimes happens, the spark or cinder
signifies a coffin ; if it rattles, it means a purse.
HANDSEL.
Fishwomen and huxters have from time to time im-
memorial been in the habit of handselling, that is, spitt-
ing upon the first bit of money they receive in a morning,
so as to render it lucky. They say it makes it draw-
more money to it. The Danes and Swedes, as well as the
Scots, use the same word — handsel, handsol, hansel, —
to signify the same thing,
SIGNS OF BEING A WITCH.
" Hinny, if ye ivver gan intiv a house, an' ye see a
person there who has eye-brows meetin' each other, that
person's a witch. An' you must be sure to cross your-
self, and close the fingers of your left hand over your
thumb ; and that takes away her power. I always de'd,
an' they can do nothing to us." Such was the sage advice
tendered to a young woman by an old crone, in the hear-
ing of a friend of mine, a short time ago. To follow it,
it is clear, could do no harm.
SNEEZING,
Many a Durham dame — mother, nurse, friend, or
simple acquaintance, — never hears a person sneezing, and
particularly a child, without ejaculating the brief prayer :
" God bless thee ! "
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 217
HARVEST BLESSING,
Seventy or eighty years ago, nobody ever passed a
body of reapers in harvest time without shouting — " For-
ther ye !" to which the response was " thank ye ! " A
similar custom is alluded to in the book of Ruth (II. 4),
wherein it is said that when Boaz came from Bethlehem
he said unto the reapers " The Lord be with you ! " and
they answered him "The Lord be with thee !"
BREAKING THE RAINBOW.
The children hereabouts cut the rainbow in two, or at
least fancy they do so, by laying two straws on the
ground in the form of a cross. Shortly after they have
done so, the rainbow always falls asunder. The weather-
wise call it a "weather gall," Scotice weather ga',when only
a small piece of the end of a rainbow, near the horizon,
is visible. It has this name evidently from its colour.
GOING SUN-WAYS ROUND.
" The dead maun aye go wi' the sun." This custom
originated in the notion that it is unlucky to walk in
procession in a contrary Avay to that in Avhich the sun
goes. When the wind veers round northerly from east
to west, old farmers observe that fine weather seldom
follows ; but that when it goes sun-waj^s round, or " south
about," a favourable change may be expected. From
this the general conclusion has been draAvn, that to go
against the sun's course (in German " widersonne,"
Scotch " withershins ") is purposely to bring ill luck,
not on the individual who does so, however, but on those
against whom he harbours ill-will.
218 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
THE EAST WIND.
A wind from the East
Is good for neither man nor beast.
There is reckoned to be something very remarkably
unwholesome in East winds, and particularly North-
easters. They cause headaches, cramps, lumbagoes,
rheumatisms, and a host of serious disorders. One old
commandant at Tynemouth is said to have suffered so-
dreadfully from them, that when he looked out in the
morning, and saw tlie weather-cock pointing in the-
dreaded direction, he never shewed face outside again
that day. Some of the men, observing this, climbed up
and nailed the weather-cock with its bill to the East, and
so kept the old gentleman indoors for six or seven weeks.
Every morning when he arose, his hrst exclamation was,
" There it is still — always the same ! " adding a round
volley of oaths.
THE HURRICANE OF 1839.
Mr. Luke Mackey, of South Shields, communicates-
the following item : — " A farmer's wife at West Cowton,
near Croft, Avas the cause of the hurricane of June, 1839.
She Avas blamed by a butcher with stealing some meat
from him, and in revenge read the 1 — 6 psalms back-
wards, and prayed that the winds might rise. My infor-
mant, Matthew Crawford, knife grinder, &c., was living
there at the time, and says there are numbers of people
who can attest it. The farmer's wife, he adds, left West
Cowton shortly after, the place being too hot to hold
her," The storm here referred to was one of the most
violent that ever visited the North. There is a good
account of it in " Fordyce's Local Eecords."
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 21 &
WHIN-BURNING.
It is a common notion in the North of England, and
also in the South of Scotland, that Whin-burning breaks
the weather; likewise mooi^-burning, and even "wrack-"
burning — especially the former.
STARS NEAR THE MOON.
The appearance of a star near the moon is an omen of
bad or stormy weather being not far distant.
SNAKE STONES.
In Scott's Marmion, the Nuns of Whitby are recorded
to have told exultingly
how, of thousand snakes, each one
Have changed into a coil of stone,
When Holy Hilda prayed ;
Themselves, within their holy bound,
Their stony folds had often found.
Specimens of the seemingly petrified snakes, or snake-
stones, as they are called, may still be seen in many a
house in the County Palatine, carefully kept. The good
Saint Hilda, it was said, knocked oft' their heads, and the
fact is that all of them are headless, the reason being,
however, that they never had any ; for they are not
snakes at all, but fossil shell fish or ammonites. One of
the Flint Jack fraternity, some time ago, made a pretty
good livelihood by attaching stone heads to these fossils,,
and sellino- them to iernorant tourists.
220 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER XXL
OLD women's cures, CHARMS, &C.
CONCERNING THE TEETH.
It Avas by eating the forbidden fruit that toothache was
first caused. So you will be gravely told by many sage
matrons. Even after the tooth is drawn there is still
some mysterious connection between it and the gums.
For if it is thrown away and allowed to rot, you will
have gumboil or some other plague of the kind until it
has been fairly dissolved away. To prevent this, when
a decayed tooth is extracted, salt should be put into the
hollow part, and it should be thrown into the fire. In
the case of a young person losing his or her first teeth,
the old woman who pulls the loose grinder out with her
fingers or by means of a pack thread, will say, as she
devotes it to the devouring element : —
" Fire, fire, burn tlie byen !
God send thee thy tyeuth agj'en."
SALT WORKERS ESCAPING THE PLAGUE.
A tradition prevails at Shields, that when the plague
raged there, in the middle of the seventeenth century,
the persons employed about the salt works entirely
escaped the infection.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 221
CURE FOR WHOOPING COUGH.
Take the child affected with whooping cough to a tan-
yard, and hold it for some time over the pit while the
hides are being turned over. Or put a live trout's head
into the mouth of the sufferer, so as to let it breathe
therein. Or make it sup porridge made over a stream
running from north to south. Or tie a hairy caterpillar
(locally Hairy 'Ubertj in a small bag round the child's
neck, so that when it dies, the cough may vanish. Or
carry the patient through the smoke of a lime-kiln. Or
catch a shrew mouse, make a holocaust of it (that is,
burn it to ashes) and administer the water in which the
ashes are put to the child as a curative draught. Or,
take the patient to the gas works to breathe the air
engendered there. Another remedy current in Sunder-
land is to have the crown of the head shaved, and the
hair hung upon a bush or tree, when the birds carrying
it away to their nests will carry away the cough with it.
Still further, the sufferer may be passed nine times over
the back and nine times under the belly of a donkey, or
of a piebald pony, Avith good hopes of a cure. Another
infallible cure is said to be, to bake a cake on Good
Friday, hang it up to dry thoroughly, so that it will not
mould, and grate as much of it as you think will do,
when a child happens to take the whooping cough, and
give it the powder in a warm drink.
A REMEDY FOR GOITRE.
The Eev. J. W. Hicks, incumbent of Byers Green,
near Bishop Auckland, informed Mr. Henderson, that
222 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
on asking a parishioner afflicted with Goitre, whether he
had tried any measure for curing it, he answered : — " No,
I have not, though I have been a sufferer for eleven years.
But a very respectable man told me to-day that it would
pass away if I rub a dead child's hand nine times across
the lump (the hand of a suicide will do equally well).
I've not much faith in it myself, but I've just tried it."
Somewhat similar measures were resorted to, Mr.
Henderson tells us, on the authority of the Eev. H. B.
Tristram, of Greatham Hospital, by another sufferer,
not many years ago. " The body of a suicide, who had
hanged himself in Heselden-dene, not far from Hartle-
pool, was laid in an out-house, awaiting the coroner's
inquest. The wife of a pitman at Castle Eden Colliery,
suflfering from a wen in the neck, according to advice
given her by a ' wise Avoman,' went along and lay all
night in the out-house, with the hand of the corpse on
her wen. She had been assured that the hand of a
suicide was an infallible cure. The shock to the nervous
system from that terrible night was so great that she did
not rally for some months, and eventually died from the
wen. This happened about the year 1853."
CURE FOR THE STY.
A great relief, if not a perfect cure, for that trouble-
some and painful swelling on the eye-lid, commonly
called a sty, by learned doctors hordeolum, is supposed to
be effected by the application to the tumour of a wedding
rina;, nine times reoeated.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 223
CURE FOR EPILEPSY.
Let a half-crown piece that has been offered by some
person on going to Holy Communion, and begged for
from the priest, be made into a ring to be worn by an
■epileptic patient, and it will infallibly cure him.
TO CAUSE OR TO REMOVE WARTS.
Wash your hands with water in which eggs have been
boiled, and it will cause warts ; wash them nine times
with the water in which potatoes have been boiled, and
it will cure them. Or, for the latter purpose, take a
large black snail, rub the wart well with it, and throw
the poor creature against a thorn hedge, so as to impale
it on one of the twigs ; as the snail melts away, so will
the warts. Another way : — Put into a small bag as many
pebbles as there are warts on your hands, and drop it at
a place where four roads meet. Whoever picks up the
bag will get the warts. A fourth plan is to steal a piece
of beef from a butcher's shop and rub the warts with it,
after which the beef must be thrown into a place where
it vvall lie and rot, and as it rots the warts will fade away.
A fifth, sometimes adopted, is to make as many knots on
a hair as there are warts on the hands, and throw it to
the winds. The application of eel's blood is likewise
supposed to cure warts. Boys take a new pin, cross the
Avarts with it nine times, and fling it over the left
shoulder ; or they cut an apple in two, rub the warts
with each half, tie the halves together again, and bury
them in the ground. In the latter case, as the apple
decays, the warts will disappear.
224 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHARMS AGAINST CRAMP.
Mr. Henderson says : — " School-boys have their super-
stitions and legendary rites. In my own day, and
perhaps at the present time, no boy would commit him-
self to the Wear without tlie precaution of an eel-skin
tied round his left leg to save him from cramp. Well
do I remember thus fortifying myself against danger,
before plunging into the stream," A charm often used
by folks who are troubled with cramp in their limbs —
a most excruciating malady — is to take a roll of sulphur
or common brimstone in each hand when they go to bed,
and keep it there all night. I have known this done in
several cases, it was said with good effect. Another
charm is to wear a cramp ring, made out of the handle
of a decayed coffin. Such rings used formerly to be
blessed by the priest on Good Friday. They were either
worn on the finger or placed next the skin on the limb
subject to the cramp.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 225
CHAPTER XXII.
MORE GHOSTS.
A HYLTON CHAPEL CHOST,
Many years ago— our authority is George Gamshy's
grandmother, who has heen dead for half-a-centurj', and
who was eighty years old when she died — a sailor named
Wull, who lived at Hylton, was returning home one
night along the north Ijanlc of the Wear, Avhen a woman
came out of the hedge, between High Southwick and
H}lton Castle, laid her hand iipon his shoulder and
walked along with him. She said nothing, and he said
nothing ; Ijut the sweat poured off him like water.
When he came to the small chapel near the castle, she
disappeared, gliding down the two or three steps and
through the little gate leading to the cemetery attached,
at the foot of the slope next the river. He got home,
but he scarcely knew how, and as soon as he crossed
the threshold he fainted away, and it was a good while
before he came to.
APPARITION AT STOCKTON.
In Mr. W. D'Oyly Bailey's " History of the House of
D'Oyly," the following passage occurs : — " Many cases
are related by the superstitious of persons who, dying
abroad, have in their last moments visited or appeared
P
226 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
to their friends at many thousand miles distance.
That a most remarkal)le instance of this occurred in Mr.
Bailey's house at Stockton, Ijetween the hours of twelve
and one, midnight, close upon the time when it was
afterwards ascertained Lieut. T. D'Oyly (the late Mr.
Bailey's nephew), died in the East Indies, the author
can vouch for, as it was communicated to him some
weeks before news of Lieut. Thomas D'Oyly's decease
reached England."
THE miser's ghost AND THE BOX-MAKER.
Surtees, in his " History of Durham," quotes the follow-
ing wonderful story said to have been told by Bishop
Gunning, who had it from a doctor who came out of the
Bishopric of Durham, in the year 1671 : — Lately there
lived a usurer in Durham who spoke to a boxmaker of
his acquaintance, to make him a box to hold about
j£208, which he did ; after this the usurer died and left
neither will nor money that anyone knew of, and so he
was buried ; after this his ghost apj)eared to the box-
maker in the night, made him rise and carried him over
hedge and ditch into a meadow ; and there made him
dance till he Avas quite tired, and so left him ; and served
him so a second time ; and came the third time, and
then the box-maker did speak to the ghost, asking him
what he Avould have him to do for him ; then the ghost
l)id him follow him into a barn, and] there showed him
where the box which he made was hid full of gold and
silver ; and then gave him his will in writing, making
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 227
±he boxmaker swear to perform the same, which accord-
ingl}^ he did, and got well by it too ; and after that the
ghost came to give him his thanks, and told him, to
gratify his care and due observance of his will, he "would
^.ell him a secret that should be for his good but he must
.^wear to keep it ; and then he told him and left him.
WAFTS.
The waft, waff, or fetch, is the apparition of a dying
•person, manifestfng itself at his or her departure from
this world, to a friend at an indefinite distance. In
Scotland it is known as the wraith. The belief in it is
common all over the country, and we have heard many
■examples of it quoted. Sir Cuthbert Sharpe says that
*' at Hartlepool ' wafFs ' were still common in his time,
and few persons died there before their neighbours had
seen their 'waff.' " Indeed he tells us that "some persons
have seen their own ' waffs,' and under the conviction
that their death before long was thereby predicted, have
seldom recovered from the impression." The 'waft'
usually takes the form of the person about to die, but
not always. For a strange cat or dog, a hare crossing
the road, or some other startling appearance, is some-
times, from coincidence of time, supposed to be the
waft of a friend in the article of death.
228 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
CHAPTER XXIII.
SUBTERRANEAN PASSA(;ES.
Near every ancient castle, cathedral, al»l)ey or hall, the
common people have traditionar}' tales of nnJerground
(vaulted) roads, sometimes to great distances, such as
from Durham to Finchale Abbe}', from liaby Castle to
Staindrop Church, from the Bishop's Manor House to
Darlington Church, from the Green Cove at Hartlepool
to the Church there, from Wearmouth Monastery, or
some say Hylton Castle, to the sea at Roker (Spottie's
Hole). The latter, called also more euphoniously the
Monk's Cavern, Avas partially explored some eighty years
ago, by three of the inhabitants of Monkwearmouth, as
related by Garbutt (History of Sunderland, p. 89),
" After they had advanced a little way from the entrance,
they found the passage perfectly good, in general allow
ing them to walk upright, and entirely hewn out of the
limestone rock, with which this place is surrounded.
Having proceeded a considerable distance in the direction
of the site of the monastery, without meeting with any
considerable impediment, they thought it prudent to
return, on account of the danger of coming in contact
with foul air, to which they might have been exposed by
a further progress." The local song of " Spottie,"
written b}- Mr. Thomas Clarke, of Sunderland, father of
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. * 229
Mr. Thomas Clarke, of Silver Street, in that town, wlio
died in 1816, and preserved by Sir Cuthbert Sharp, in
his "Bishoprick Garland," has immortalised the memory
of a poor foreign refugee, who took up his residence for
some time in this dreary aliode, and communicated his
sobriquet to it. Being unable to speak the English
language, his daily subsistence Avas gained among the
farm houses in the neighbourhood, where he endeavoured
to make himself understood by means of signs, and was
known by the name of Spottee, on account of the
variegated spots on his upper garment. Having lived
for some time in this subterraneous habitation, he
suddenly disappeared, and was supposed either to have
died suddenly, or, by advancing too far into the cavern,
to have fallen a prey to foul air. Poor Spottee, whoever
he was, and whatever became of him, furnished the sub-
ject for one of the most racy local songs that ever was
written, a song which Topliff used to sing with peculiar
gusto, and which Captain Edward Eobinson preferred to
act in character, in a style which no one can ever hope
to equal. The following stanza is a specimen of the
composition : —
The fiud weyves o'Wibburn they (livv'ut knaw what for te dey ;
They darn't come alang the sands, wi' their sweels i' their hands,
te sell their lang tyel'd skyets at Jacob Spenceley's landin', as
they you'sd for te dey ;
Now they're fworced te tyek a cobble, an' come in by the sey.
"Flowter's Flowd," mentioned in one of the stanzas,
.seems to be a vulgarism for " Slater's Flood," and if so,
230 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
the reference is to one Slater, a bailiff of Durham, whose
dead corpse, when being taken from St. Nicholas' parish
in that city for burial at St. Oswald's, had to be carried
round by Elvet and Kotteu Eow, owing to a great flood
in the river AVear, which rose that day (8th July, 1721)
higher than had ever been remembered. *•' The Life and
Adventures of Little Spottee, the Hermit of the Rock"
— entirely fanciful — are contained in a ballad written by
John Young, Bishopwearmouth, and published and sold
(without date) by "\V. Sutherland, Bedford Street, North
Shields. The song is golden, the ballad only tinsel.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 231
CHAPTER XXIV.
MISCELLANEOUS.
HOLY WELLS. \
At Monkton, near Jarrow, the reputed birth-place of
Bede, there is a famous well Avhich bears his name. Its
waters have long been in great repute for their health-
giving properties. As late as the year 1740, saj^s Brand,
it was a prevailing custom to bring children troubled
with any disease or infirmity to it, A crooked pin was
put in, and the well laid dry between each dipping — a
curious association of ideas, for here, as at the Pool of
Bethesda, beside the sheep market in Jerusalem, only
one patient could receive benefit, it seems, after each
troubling of the waters. Brand's informant had seen
twenty children brought together on a Sunday to be
dipped in Bede's well, at which also, on Midsummer
Eve, there was a great concourse of neighbouring people,
with bonfires, music, dancing and other rural sports,
This and other merrj' customs have long been discon- ,
tinned. But still when the well is occasionally cleared /
out, a number of crooked pins (a few years ago a pint)^
are always found among the mud. These have been
thrown into the sacred fount for some purpose or other,
either in a general way as charms for luck, or to promote
and secure true love, or for the benefit of sick babies.
232 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
In days when the ague was common in this country, the
usual offering at this and other holy wells, by the shiver-
ing and shaking Gaffer Grays and Goody Blakes of
the period, was a bit of rag tied to the branch of an
overhanging tree or bush. The particularlj' fine springs
of Houghton, from which the town receives its distinctive
appelation of le-Spring, are all chalyljeate. One of them,
situated in Newbottle Lane, is still called the Holy AVell,
This name is said to have been imposed upon it in the
year 700, when the Venerable Bede and his attendants
jmssed through Houghton, and regaled themselves with
" the fine beverage of nature " at this particular fountain.
Of the Holy Wells at Shotley, Brancepeth, Butterby,
Hartlepool, &c., little more can be said, but that they
have all more or less powerful medicinal properties,
though without any local traditions attaching to them.
THE HELL KETTLES.
Holinshed, in his " Chronicles of England," published
in 1677, says : — " What the foolish people dream of the
Hell Kettles, it is not worthy the rehearsal ; yet to the
end the leAvd opinions concerning them may grow into
contempt, I will say this much also of these pits. There
are certain pits, or rather three little pools, a mile from
Darlington, and a quarter of a mile distant from the
These [Tees] banks, which people call the Kettles of
Hell, or the Devil's Kettles, as if he should seethe souls
of sinful men and women in them. They add also, that
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 233
the spirits have oft l^een heard to cry ami }'ell about
them, with other hke talk, savouring altogether of pagan
infidelity." Mr. Manson, of Darlington, in his " Zigzag
Eambles," gives the best account I have seen of these
mysterious ponds.
THE GIANTS COR, BEN, AND <'0N.
Corbridge, Benfieldside, and Consett, got their names,
it is said, from three giants, whose names form the first
syllables of the words respectively. They were Ijrothers,
and they had a huge hammer in connnon, which each,
at a whistle, could throw nine miles. On one occasion,
when Con, who had become blind, threw the hammer, it
fell short, and made Howden, which, as the name indi-
cates, is a hollow dene near Consett. I am inclined to
suspect that Cor was no other than Thor, the Xorse
God of Thunder, whose hammer— the mauler or smasher
— had the property of returning to his hand, like the
Australian boomerang, after beinu' hurled.
HOLY BIZONS.
In the good old times, to which some sentimental
people would fain return, it was customary to make
men or women guilt}^ of certain misdemeanours stand
on " the stool of repentance " in church, for three
successive Sundays, in face of the whole congregation,
and be rebuked by the minister. This penitential act
was performed in a white sheet, and the misdemeanant
so undergoing purification, was commonly knoA\ni as a
234 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
" Holy Bizon," from an old Anglo-Saxon Avord meaning
" an example." But a " Holy Bizon," now, is any shame-
ful person, scold, rogue, termagant or hypocrite, who by
the judgment of his or her fellows, ought to be made a
public example of. The word " bizon " used l)y itself, is
a shame or scandal, anything monstrous or excessive.
Thus, in the local song, " Canny Newcastle," the follow-
ing verse occurs : —
Wiv a' the stravaigin aw wanted a munch,
An' maw thropj^le was ready te gizen ;
Se aw went tiv a yell-house, and there tyeuk a lunch,
But the reck'uin', me soul ! was a bizon.
TOO DEAR FOR THE BISHOP OF DURHAM.
The Bishops of Durham, now sadly stinted, Avere long
proverbial for their riches. For a thing to be too dear
for the Bishop of Durham to buy meant that it was
priceless. In the thirteenth century, a piece of cloth,
richly embruidered, was offered for sale, but was held
up at so high a price that even the nobles themselves
refused or durst not buy. This coming to the ears of
Anthony Beck, who then filled the see as prince-bishops
he Avent immediately and bought it, and ordered that it
should be cut into cloths for his sumpter horses. It is.
likeAvise recorded that at one time in London, the
Bishop of Durham gave forty shillings for forty fresh
herrincfs — the dearest fish of the kind ever heard of.
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 235»
WHENCE DRYBURN HAD ITS NAME.
On the 27tli of May, 1590, four seminary priests,.
"Papysts, tretors, and rebels to hyr Majestye," Avere
hanged and quartered at Durham " for their horryble
offences." Their names were Hill, Hogge, Holida}^ and
Duke. A brook, near the common galloAvs, ceased to
flow at the time of their execution, and has remained
dry ever since ; therefore it is called Dryburn to this
day. Mr. John Yaxley, a reverend priest, in a letter
dated July 17, 1707, says : — " Above twenty year&
since, I have been shown the hole from whence it issued,
and the marks of its former channel."
MARVELS AT BUILDING HILL.
In the year 1767, during a lawsuit raised by Mr.
Teasdale Mowbray against Mr. John Thornhili for
digging and carrying away stones from the quarry at
Building Hill without paying dues for the same, a
woman deposed " that her father went to the hill one
night for his gavelock, and saw a " waugh ;" also, that
when a man of the name of Coward Avas " digging the
rock about ninety years ago, he found in a cavity, several
fathoms from the surface, a large toad alive, Avith a nob
on its head as big as an egg, full of diamonds, and there-
by got a great deal of money."
RHYME ON BULMER STONE, DARLINGTON.
" In Darntoun Towne there is a stane,
And most strange yt is to tell,
That yt turnes IX times round aboute,
When yt heais ye clock strike twell."
236 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
In Longstaffe's " History of Darlington," we are tokl
that this trnl}' Avonderf ul revolving stone, thongh, by-tlie-
bye, it is not singular in this property, stands in front
of some low cottages constituting Northgate House, in
the street bearing the same name. It is a water-worn
boulder-stone of shap (Westmoreland) granite.
SIR JOHN DUCK.
Sir John Duck, the richest burgess in the civic annals
of Durham, -was bred a butclrer under John Heslop, in
defiance of the trade and mj-stery of l)utchers, Avho were
fully as arbitrary and despotic in the good old times as
trade unions in ours. In the l^ooks of the trade appears
the following entry : — " That he (Heslop) forbear to set
John Duck on work in the trade of butch ei-." Tradition
tells that after he was thus cast out and was -walking
/about in a state of extreme despondency, a raven, flying
over his head, let fall a piece of silver, Avhich lucky
incident made a strong impression on his mind. AVith
the money he bought a calf; the calf, with care and
perseverance, ere long became a cow ; the cow became a
herd of cattle ; and in the course of a few years he
realised a splendid fortune. He built himself a noble
mansion in Silver street, and endowed an -hospital at
Lumley, probably the place of his birth. His death
took place on the 26th of August, 1691, and he was
buried beside his wife (the daughter of his old master) at
the church of St. Margaret, on Monday the 31st of the
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 237
same month. He was created a baronet by James the
Second. The following rhyme was once current regard-
ing him : —
On Duck, the Butchers shut the door ;
But Heslop's (hiughter Johnny wed :
In mortgage rich, in offspring jjoor,
Nor son nor daughter crowned his bed.
RUN AWAY, DOCTOR BOKANKI !
This saying is used by the school-boys and young
collegians of Durham, to any of their chums or mates
who are guilty of a mean or cowardly act. It arose
from the circumstance of Dr. Walter Balcanqual, Dean
of Durham, in the time of the Civil AVars, fleeing away
from the city with extreme precipitation, after the battle
of Newburn, for fear of the Scots. The reason was that
he understood they had given out that they would seize
upon and punish him as an incendiary, for writing the
Kings' " Large Declaration " against them. Balcanqual
was a Scotchman, who had followed James I. into
England.
THE WANDERING PIPER.
I happened to encounter this famous personage in
1833, when travelling along the great North Eoad. He
was said to be a " gentleman," some said a " nobleman,''
others more definitely " Lord Glenlyon," or " Lord
John Gordon," who, to decide a wager whether he could
collect a certain sum of money within a certain time,
238 LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
without solicitation, by playing on the bagpipes, travel-
le<l from town to town, l)estowing liis receipts on the
charitable institutions of each place. At Durham, he
made a donation of £1 15s. to the Lying-in-Charity,
established for the relief of poor married lying-in-women.
It stands recorded in their books as from the " The
Wandering Piper." Whether it really was a wager, and
whether, if it was, he won it or not, we cannot say. AVe
only recollect that he had a very fine ass to carry his
ipipes, that he spoke with a sharp Highland accent, and
that he looked very like a real nobleman, with long
fingers that would have pleased Lord Byron. A portrait
of him Avas published at the time. Many Sunderland
people well remember his visit to that town. As he
walked about the streets he was followed by a group of
boys. One gentleman threw him a sixpence which fell
on the ground. A lad called his attention to it. He
would not stoop to pick it up, but merely said " Put it
into your pocket, my boy " — an order quickly complied
with. All money offered to him the donor had to put
in his sporran, or at least into his hand.
KING CHARLES I. AT BISHOP AUCKLAND,
On the night of the 4th Februar}^ 1646, His Gracious
Majesty Charles lay at Christopher Dobson's house in
Bishop Auckland. This much we learn from the parish
register, quoted by Sir Cuthbert Sharp. And well-
supported tradition relates that Gertrude, the eldest
sister of Colonel Francis Wren, who was as earnest a
OF THE COUNTY OF DURHAM. 239
Eoyalist as her brother was a stern Republican, went to
Dobson's to visit the King, and found him in the middle
of a large guard room, the soldiers sitting round on
benches, smoking tobacco — a practice Charles, like his
father, held in utter abomination. Shocked at their
uncourtly freedom and want of respect towards royalt}-,
she dashed the pipes from the soldiers' mouths as she
advanced towards the King, to whom kneeling, she
tendered her respectful homage His Majesty, equally
surprised and gratified at such a bold and unexampled
proof of attention to his personal comfort, raised her up,
saying, '* Lady, I thank you ! you have done more than
the boldest man in England durst have done." Charles,
it may be proper to add, was then " in the hands of the
Philistines," having been delivered up to the English
Parliament by the Scottish Presbyterians, to whom he
had fled for shelter, but with whose hard conditions he
refused to comply : and he was then being conveyed to
Holmby House, where he was seized and carried off by
Colonel Joyce at the instigation of Cromwell.
/.
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