It would seem moreover that the ringing of bells was a usual custom on Hallowe'en in the time of popery, greatly to the annoyance of Archbishop Cranmer, and others desirous of a church-reformation. Earnest were the endeavours of this prelate with his stiff-necked master, Henry, to abolish such vanities, as he called them; and at length "he prevailed with the king to resolve to have the roods in every church pulled down and the accustomed ringing on All-hallow night suppressed."* Burns in his notes upon Halloween has given a minute account of the superstitions practised by the Scottish peasantry, and though familiar to most readers these details would hardly seem complete without them. 1. "The first ceremony of Halloween is pulling each a stock, or plant of kail. They must go out hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first they meet with; obscure as it is, the editor has not thought proper to offer any explanation. In the first line, low is evidently used in its provincial meaning of flume; and, taking teen in its now obsolete, but once common, signification of "grief, damage," the whole may stand for an invocation to fire-or, symbolically, to the sun-to keep off ill, and prosper the growing crops. But the passage is most probably corrupt. * MEMORIALS OF CRANMER; by Strype, p. 442. folio. Lond. 1694. In all probability Strype drew his information from the fountain-head, namely from the Draught of a letter which the King was to send to Cranmer against some superstitious practices. A copy of this has been given by Burnet in his COLLECTION OF RECORDS part ii. book i. p. 237 (History of the Reformation), and in it the king states that he has been moved by the Archbishop and other learned men to abolish the "ringing of bells all the night long upon All-hallow-day at night," as the customs of many other vigils have been abolished "for the superstition, and other enormities and abuses of the same," and that in consequence he orders that there shall be "no watching nor ringing, but as be commonly used upon other holy days at night." its being big or little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size and shape of the grand object of all their spells the husband or wife. If any yird, or earth stick to the root, that is tocher, or fortune; and the taste of the custoc, that is the heart of the stem, is indicative of the natural temper and disposition. Lastly the stems, or to give them their ordinary appellation-the runts, are placed somewhere above the head of the door; and the christian names of the people, whom chance brings into the house, are according to the priority of placing the runts, the names in question. 2. They go to the barn-yard, and pull each at three several times a stalk of oats. If the third stalk wants the top-pickle, the party in question will come to the marriage bed any thing but a maid. 3. Burning the nuts is a famous charm. They name the lad and lass to each particular nut as they lay them in the fire, and accordingly as they burn quietly together, or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courtship will be. 4. Steal out all alone to the kiln, and darkling throw into the pot a clue of blue yarn; wind it in a new clue off the old one; and towards the latter end, something will hold the thread; demand, “who hauds?" i.e. who holds?—an answer will be returned from the kiln-pot, by naming the christian and surname of your future spouse. 5. Take a candle, and go alone to a looking-glass; eat an apple before it, and some traditions say you should comb your hair all the time; the face of your conjugal companion to be will be seen in the glass, as if peeping over your shoulder. 6. Steal out unperceived and sow a handful of hempseed, harrowing it with any thing you can conveniently draw after you. Repeat now and then, "hemp-seed I sow thee; hemp-seed, I sow thee; and him (or her) that is to be my true love, come after me, and pou thee." Look over your left shoulder, and you will see the appearance of the person invoked, in the attitude of pulling hemp. Some traditions say, come after me, and shaw thee," that is, show thyself, in which case it simply appears. Others omit the harrowing, and say, "come after me and harrow thee." 56 7. To win three wechts o'naething.-This charm must likewise be performed unperceived and alone. You go to the barn, and open both doors, taking them off the hinges if possible; for there is danger that the being about to appear may shut the doors and do you some mischief. Then take that instrument used in winnowing the corn, which in our country dialect is called a wecht; and go through all the attitudes of letting down corn against the wind. Repeat it three times; and the third time an apparition will pass through the barn, in at the windy door, and out at the other, having both the figure in question, and the appearance or retinue marking the employment or station in life. 8. Take an opportunity of going unnoticed to a bearstack, and fathom it three times round. The last fathom of the last time, you will catch in your arms the appearance of your future conjugal yoke-fellow. 9. You go out, one or more,-for this is a social spell-to a south running spring or rivulet, where three lairds' lands meet, and dip your left shirt sleeve. Go to bed in sight of a fire, and hang your wet sleeve before it to dry. Lie awake; and sometime near midnight an apparition, having the exact figure of the grand object in question, will come and turn the sleeve, as if to dry the other side of it. 10. Take three dishes; put clean water in one, foul water in another, leave the third empty; blindfold a person, and lead him to the hearth where the dishes are ranged; he (or she) dips the left hand; if by chance in the clean water, the future husband or wife will come to the bar of matrimony a maid; if in the foul, a widow if in the empty dish, it foretells with equal certainty no marriage at all. It is repeated three times, and every time the arrangement of the dishes is altered." CUSTOM OF THE FLITCH OF THIS custom has passed into a proverb and become the subject both of play and ballad, but its real nature does not seem to be well understood by those, who are most in the habit of alluding to it. In general it is supposed to attach itself exclusively to Dunmow. This however is no more than a popular error. We know from authentic records that it prevailed also at Tutbury in Staffordshire, and I can not help suspecting that a more extended and accurate research would prove that it existed in many other localities, and was itself but the shadow of some older custom. Sir William Dugdale* indeed fancies that he has found the source of it so far as Tutbury is concerned, and he thus quaintly describes it from an ancient parchment roll in English of the time of King Henry VIII, which however was not the original, having been translated from a roll in French, belonging to the age of King Edward III. The person, of whom he is speaking, is Sir Philip de Somerville, who held several manors of the Earl of Leicester, then Lord of the manor of Tutbury "by two small fees; that is to say, * Dugdale's BARONAGE OF ENGLAND, vol. ii, p. 106, folio, London, |
