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Folklore ISSN: 0015-587X (Print) 1469-8315 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfol20 Scraps of Folklore Collected by John Philipps Emslie C. S. Burne To cite this article: C. S. Burne (1915) Scraps of Folklore Collected by John Philipps Emslie, Folklore, 26:2, 153-170, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1915.9718868 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1915.9718868 Published online: 01 Feb 2012. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 12 View related articles Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rfol20 Download by: [University of Toronto Libraries] Date: 27 June 2016, At: 05:29 COLLECTANEA. SCRAPS OF FOLKLORE COLLICTED BY JOHN PHILIPPS EMSLIE. [THE late Mr. J. P. Emslie was a Londoner by birth, and an engraver by profession. He was accustomed throughout his life— ^839-1913—to make sketching excursions on foot in different parts of England, and to enquire into the local folklore by the way. What he heard he recorded in two small lamo notebooks, one dealing with London and its environs, the other with the country at large, which have now been presented by his executors to the Folklore Society. They will be placed in the Society's library, and the similar books containing topographical drawings, which accompanied them, in the London County Council's Museum. The following Notes represent the contents of the general commonplace book, arranged under counties by Miss Frances Henley of Charlton Kings. It will be seen that they consist chiefly of scraps of local legend, though here and there occurs the description of some celebration of which Mr. Emslie was an eyewitness. That of Bonfire Night at Lewes in 1899, where he tells us he saw men running through the flames, is especially worthy of note. The first-hand character of the evidence, and the early date of some of the records, give a value of its own to the little collection, begun before any Society existed to encourage the work, and patiently gathered together through so Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 05:29 27 June 2016 many years. Mr. Emslie was an original member of the Folk-Lore Society and for some years had a scat on the Council. He contributed several notes to the earlier volumes of Folk'Lore, and gave the device which with the motto Alter el idem has figured on the »54 Coltectanca. Society's title-page from the first. Among other things, a whole- page plate of weathercock designs in the volume of Folk-Lore for 1901 is from his pencil, and he also drew the illustrations for the Report of the Folklore Congress of 1891. C. S. BURNE.] Bedfordshire, see below, Oxfordshire, the Icknield Way. Berkshire.—On the edge of the Ridge Way, near West Ilsley, is Scutchamfly Barrow. The hill here is called Scotchman's Nob (see account of Grim's Bank, in Oxfordshire), also Scratch my Nob. I was told (June, 1901) that a battle was fought there with the Scotch, and that the barrow was the grave of those slain in the battle. An elderly woman told me that her father used to say that the battle was called the Battle of Anna. About four miles to the north-east, near Upton, is a place called Scotland's Ash. A great hollow in the downs above Letcome Basset, called the Punch Bowl on the Ordnance Map, is called the Devil's Punch Bowl by the people of the neighbourhood. In a farm-yard at Letcombe Basset I saw three horseshoes nailed over one door, and a single horseshoe nailed over every other door in the yard. I asked a boy what it meant, and he said he believed it was to bring luck. (June, 1901.) Buckinghamshire.—At Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, are some banks of earth on which it is said that a castle formerly stood. Many attempts have been made to level these banks, but always without success; the men engaged on the work have died soon after commencing it, or have been called away to other work, or have been taken ill, or, in some way or other, been prevented from levelling the banks. (August, 1901.) Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 05:29 27 June 2016 A solitary barn in a hollow of the hills near Ivinghoe, Bucking­ hamshire, is called Waterloo Barn, and is believed by some of the people of the neighbourhood to be the site of the Battle of Waterloo. (February, 191a.) (Cf. Oxfordshire, Icknield Way.] Derbyshire.—-In the churchyard at Hathersage is Little John's grave; a little stone marks the place of the head, and another little stone marks the place of the feet. A thigh-bone 32 inches long was dug up in the church, "so that proved that he must Collectanea. >55 have been a very big man 5 some gentleman took possession of this bone, but he had nothing but bad luck as long as it was his; he re-interred it. It is now in the British Museum." (1875.) Devonshire.—When, in 1869, I asked the people at Clovelly about the singular-looking people at the neighbouring village of Bucksmill, they always got rid of the subject, and appeared to have some undefined fear of it. I was told in 1872 that Jemmy Braund, a Bucksmill man, had been frightening people by threaten­ ing to bewitch them. (1869, 1872.) A woman at Bovey told me that when anyone in a house dies the bees are "lifted," that is, when the corpse is taken out of the house some one lifts the hive, comb and all, and puts it down again. This is done to prevent the bees going away. (1874.) Lydia Milton, a native of Devonshire, told me in April, 1893, that in her native place it is said to be lucky for a woman if, in putting on her dress, the end of it turns up; she should not smooth it out, but let it fall of its own accord, as it is a sign that she is going to receive a present. The same applies to a man in putting on his coat.1 ('893.) Durham.— , :—1 jy p±=r '~f—m- -0 ' j.-j- ;;vJT *r 1 1 \L ) 1 I am a little workhouse girl, My mother she is dead, My father is a drunkard, He will not buy me bread. Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 05:29 27 June 2016 I travelled through the country, I had a mansion fair. God bless my poor old mother, She's dead and in her grave. I heard the above sung by a little girl at Sunderland (August 9th, 1895) while another little girl and a little boy joined hands and '[I have heard the same thing from a maidservant born at Kingsbridge, Devon. It was described as " it is lucky if the hem of your dress turns up to make a pocket} it is a sign of money coming."—C S. B.] «56 Collectanea. walked backwards and forwards, or sometimes joined hands in such a manner that the face of one looked away from the face of the other, and they then went round in a circle, of which their hands were the centre. Essex.—On Friday Hill, between Chingford and Woodford, old men have often seen a spirit of a woman dressed in white; others have seen spirits in long white dresses flying about in the air. The latter have also been seen in Chingford old churchyard. (Told in 187a.) Gloucestershire. — I can laugh, I can sing, I can drive away care, I've enough for myself, and a little to spare; If a friend by chance should come by this way, We'll make him as welcome as the flowers in May. I heard the above sung by a boy at English Bicknor, Glouces­ tershire, in 18S0. Hertfordshire.—At Weston, two stones in the churchyard, 14 ft. 7 inches apart, are said to be the head and foot stones of the giant Jack o' Legs, who is there buried with his body doubled up. He lived at Baldock,—where, as he walked along the street, he would look in at the first-floor windows,—and thence he shot an arrow, saying that where it fell he wished to be buried. It fell in Weston Churchyard, and, in its flight, knocked away a corner of the church tower.8 (Told in 1883.) Near Stevenage are six barrows by the roadside. My father, John Emslie, was told, in 1835, by Mr. Williams, baker, of Stevenage, that in an adjoining wood are seven pits and one barrow. The devil, having dug out six spadefuls of earth, emptied them beside the road, thus making the six barrows. He then returned to the Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 05:29 27 June 2016 wood, dug another spadeful of earth (thus making the seven pits) and, walking along with this spadeful, dropped it and thus made the solitary barrow, which, I was told in 1883, had long since been cleared away. ('875,1883.) Isle cf Wight.—At Centurion's Copse, near Brading, there was formerly a tree, at the root of which a large treasure was said to be buried. This treasure could only be got at by rooting up the tree with twelve white oxen ; in no other way was it possible to * Compare Robin Hood's grave at Kirklees, and Little John's at I lathersage.

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