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Please die this volume with care. diversity of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs J I illlili J) 9153 00251209 5 : LANCASHIRE FOLK-LORE: ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES, LOCAL CUSTOxMS AND USAGES OF THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY PALATINE. COMPILED AND EDITED BY JOHN HARLAND, F.S.A. AND T. T. WILKINSON, F.R.A.S. LONDON FREDERICK WARNE AND CO. BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. NEW YORK: SCRIBNER AND CO. 1867. LONDON : SAVILL AND EDWARDS, 1-RINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, COVENT GARDEN. — H'.LL PREFACE. "Folk-lore," though a term that will not be found in our standard dictionaries, from Johnson down to Webster, is nevertheless simply a modern combination of two genuine old English words Folc, the folk, the people, *^ the common people j" and Ldr, Laer, Lora, learning, doctrine, precept, law. In the earlier days of our English tongue, folk-land, folk-gemote, folk-right, &c., were terms in common use, and amongst this class of compound words our fore-elders had yb/c-/are, by which they denoted plain, simple teaching suited for the people, what we should now call *^ popular instruction," and hence folk-lare also meant a sermon. Folk-Lore, in its present signification—and for its general acceptance we are largely indebted to the Editor of that valuable periodical Notes and Queries,— means the notions of the folk or people, from childhood upwards, especially their superstitious beliefs and practices, as these have been handed down from generation to genera- tion, in popular tradition and tale, rhyme, proverb, or say- ing, and it is well termed Folk-Lore in contradistinction to book-lore or scholastic learning. It is the unlearned people's inheritance of tradition from their ancestors, the modern reflection of ancient faith and usaa^e. This Folk- Lore has not been wholly without record in our literature. Hone in his delightful Every-Day Book, Year Book, and Table Book, has preserved many a choice bit of England's Folk-Lore ; and his example has been ably followed in O CD iv Preface. Chambers's Booh of Days. Brand's Popular ylnt'hjuit'ws, Aubrey's Miscellanies, Allies' Antiquities and Folk-Lorc of IForcestershire, and other like works, have noted down for the information and amusement of future generations the prevalent superstitions, and popular customs and usages of the people in particular districts, during a past age, and at the present time. But the greatest and best depository and record of the Folk-Lore of various nations is that excellent periodical Notes and Queries, from which a charming little volume entitled " Choice Notes from Notes and Queries,— Folk-Lore,'' was compiled and published in 1859. But Lancashire has hitherto been without adequate re- cord, at least in a collected form, of its Folk-Lore. This has not been because of any lack of such lore. The North of England generally, and Lancashire in particular, is remarkably rich in this respect. Possessed and peopled in succession by the Celts of ancient Britain, by the Angles and other Teutonic peoples, by the Scandinavian races, and by Norman and other foreign settlers at early periods,—the result of the respective contributions of these various peoples is necessarily a large mass of traditionary lore. To bring this together and present it in a collected form is the object of this little volume. Its editors have been long engaged, apart,—distinctly, and indepen- dently of each other,—in collecting particulars of the superstitions in belief and practice, and of the peculiar customs and usages of the people of Lancashire. One of them, born in one of its rural districts, still rich in these respects, is thus enabled to remember and to preserv^e many of those customs and usages of his childhood and youth, now rapidly passing into decay, if not oblivion. The other, conversant from his earliest remembrances with the Folk- Lore of East Yorkshire, and with that of Lancashire for the last thirty-five years, is thus enabled to compare the Preface. v customs and usages of both, and to recognise the same essential superstition under slightly different forms. Simi- larity of pursuit having led to personal communication, their collections the Editors agreed to combine respective j and hence the present volume. They do not pretend herein to have exhausted the whole range of Lanca- shire Folk- Lore 5 but simply to have seized on the more salient features of its superstitious side^ and those of popular custom and usage. Part I. comprises notices of a great number of superstitious beliefs and practices. Part IL treats of various local customs and usages, at particular seasons of the year j during the great festivals of the church j those connected with birth and baptism 3 betrothal and wedding 3 dying, death-bed, and funeral customs j as well as manorial and feudal tenures, services, and usages. Should the present volume find favour and acceptance, its Editors may venture hereafter to offer another, em- bracing the fertile and interesting subjects of popular pageants, maskings and mummings, rushbearings, wakes fairs, sports legal and out-door and games 3 punishments, and popular 3 legends and traditions 3 proverbs, popular sayings and similes 3 folk-rhymes, &c. &c. September, 1866. But for unavoidable delay, consequent on the prepara- tion of a large-paper edition, this volume would have been published prior to " Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders," by Wm. Henderson. As that work has appeared, it may be as well to state that, notwithstanding similarity of subject, the two books do not clash. Mr. Henderson's work re- lates chiefly to the three north-eastern counties,—North- umberland, Durham, and Yorkshire,—with large notices VI Preface. not only of the Scottish borders, but of Scotland generally, and many details as to Devonshire folk-lore. Its notices of Cumberland and Westmoreland are fewer than of the is or three counties first named j and Lancashire only two three times incidentally mentioned. The field of this county palatine is therefore left free for the present volume. January, 1867. CONTENTS. PART I. SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES. PAGE Introduction i Lancashire Alchemists 23 Lancashire Astrologers , ^^ Bells 41 Beal-tine or Beltane Fires ; Relics of Baal Worship ..... 45 Boggarts, Ghosts, and Haunted Places 49 Boggart Hole Clough 50 Boggarts or Ghosts in Old Halls 51 House Boggarts, or Labouring Goblins 56 Hornby Park Mistress and Margaret Brackin 59 Boggarts in the Nineteenth Century 61 CHARMS AND SPELLS. Charms and Spells against Evil Beings 62 A Charm, written in Cypher, against Witchcraft and Evil Spirits 63 The Crow Charm and the Lady-bird Charm 70 Pimpernel . 71 The Mountain Ash, or Wicken or Wiggen Tree 72 Charms to Cure Sickness, Wounds, Cattle Distemper, etc. ... 74 Charms for the Toothache 75 Vervain, for Wounds, etc 76 Charms to Stop Bleeding 77 Touching for the King's Evil 77 Cures for Warts 78 Cure for Hydrocephalus in Cattle 79 Cattle Disorders.—The Shrew Tree in Carnforth 79 Charms for Ague 80 Stinging of Nettles 80 Jaundice 80 To Procure Sleep by Changing the Direction of the Bed ... 80 THE DEVIL, DEMONS, &c. The Devil 81 Raising the Devil 83 The Devil and the Schoolmaster at Cockerham 83 Old Nick 84 viii Contents, PAGE Dcmonology 86 Demon and Goblin Superstitions 88 Dispossessing a Demoniac 92 Demoniacal Possession in 1594 92 Demoniacal Possession m 1689 98 DIVINATION. Divination 102 Divination at Marriages 103 Divination by Bible and Key 103 Another Lancashire form of Divination 104 Divination by the Dying 104 Second-sight 105 Spirits of the Dying and the Dead 105 Casting Lots, &c 106 MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE. Druidical Rock Basins 106 Elves and Fairies no Folk-Lore of Eccles and the Neighbourhood 113 Tree Barnacles ; or. Geese hatched from Sea-shells 116 Warts from Washing in Egg-water 12 j Fortune-telling.—Wise Men and Cunning Women, &c. 121 Magic and Magicians 126 Edward Kelly, the Seer 126 Raising the Dead at Walton-le-Dale 128 An Earl of Derby charged with keeping a Conjuror .... 129 MIRACLES. Miracles, or Miraculous Stories 131 Miracles by a Dead Duke of Lancaster and King 132 A Miraculous Footprint in Brindle Church 134 The Footprint at Smithells of George Marsh, the Martyr . 135 A Legend of Cartmel Church 137 The Prophet Elias, a Lancashire Fanatic 138 OMENS AND PREDICATIONS. Omens and Predications 138 Cats j^^i r>ogs ,42 Contents. Ix PAGE Lambs 142 Birds 142 Swallows 143 Magpies I43 Dreams I45 The Moon 149 Haever or Hiver 149 Deasil or Widdersinnis^ 151 Omens of Weather for New Year's-day 151 Death Tick or Death Watch 152 SUPERSTITIONS, GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS. Popular Superstitions 153 Bones of St. Lawrence, at Chorley 157 The Dead Man's Hand 158 Nineteenth Century Superstition 164 Pendle Forest Superstition 164 East Lancashire Superstition 165 Superstitious Fears and Cruelties 167 Superstitious Beliefs in Manchester in the Sixteenth Century . 168 Wells and Springs 169 WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT. Witchcraft in the Fifteenth Century 174 The Famous History of the Lancashire Witches 176 Dr. Dee charged with Witchcraft 178 The Lancashire Witches 179 Superstitious Fear of Witchcraft 182 A Household Bewitched 184 The Lancashire Witches of 1612 185 The Samlesbury Witches 194 Witchcraft at Middleton 195 Witchcraft in 1633-34 I95 The Lancashire Witches of 1633-4 200 Lancashire Witch-finders 200 The Forest of Pendle—The Haunt of the Lancashire Witches . 202 Pendle Hill and its Witches 204 Witchcraft about 1654 206 A Liverpool Witch in 1667 206 The Witch of Singleton 207 Witchcraft at Chowbent in the Eighteenth Century 207 Killing a Witch 208 A Recent Witch, near Burnley 209 " Lating " or " Leeting " Witches 210 Contents, PART II.

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