Lcibop, O.Ctober 16Th, 1908. NOTES
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107 lcibop, O.ctober 16th, 1908. NOTES. [405 .] MUTINY OF THE "BOUNTY ." (See Note No . 214 .) In his last week's London Letter, Mr . Henry CV . Lucy writes :- The deathless human interest that for more than a century has lingered round the story of the mutiny of the "Bounty" is illustrated afresh by a correspondence that has just reached me. Nearly three months ago, under date July 4th, there appeared in this column a paragraph re- porting the sale at Messrs . Sotheby, Wilkinson's Wellin g ton Rooms, of an autograph manuscript in which Captain Pipon related the story of the discovery of the mutineers on Pitcairn Island . "Captain Pipon," it was written, "described the condition of the community consisting, with one exception, of women and children . The excep- tion was Fletcher Christian, who had assumed the name of John Adams." The paragraph, making leisurely way round the world, has reached Australia . A member of the Australian Historical Society writes to me from Sydney : "If it could be proved that the sole survivor of the crew was, as Captain Pipon states, Fletcher Christian, who had assumed the name of John Adams, a very interesting discovery indeed would have been made. Captain Folgar, of the ship Topaz at Boston, landed on Pitcairn Island in 1808 and reported that he found Alexander Smith, alias John Adams, the sole survivor . This was six years before Captain Pipon visited Pitcairn . If Captain Pipon says that Fletcher Christian was still alive, and had adopted the name of one of his shipmates, it would throw a new light on the mystery attaching to Christian's fate . Captain Peter Heywood was under the impres- sion he saw Christian in Plymouth in 1809. Singularly enough, the age attributed to Adams at his death in 1829 (65) approximates nearer to Christian's years than to Adams' ." Another correspondent, equally erudite and not less profoundly interested in the mystery, writes, also from Sydney : "Fletcher Christian was killed by the Otaheitons a year after the mutineers settled at Pitcairn, more than 20 years before Captain Pipon visited the island . 108 The man he met was Fletcher Christian's son, Thursday October Christian ; and the only sur- viving mutineer at that date was Alexander Smith, who had taken the name of John Adams ." My first correspondent suggests that so interesting a document as Captain Pipon's report should be lodged in the library of New South Wales, and he undertakes to take steps to secure its possession . PETER. [406.] A LABOUR MEETING IN 1844 . On the first day of July in 1844 a Labour meeting was held in Heywood, and as Heywood at that time had no newspaper of its own in which such an event could be reported and the record preserved, a brief account of the meeting given in a Manchester paper two days after- wards may be deemed worthy of reproduction here . The report reads as follows :- On Monday last a public meeting of colliers from the neighbourhoods of Bury, Middleton, etc., u -as held at the back part of the Bull's Head beerhouse, Heywood ; from 600 to 700 per- sons were present . Henry Ingham, an opera- tive coal miner, frond Bury, was chairman .- Berrill, a missionary from Newcastle-on-Tyne, spoke at considerable length, and in the course of his speech he said the miners had 155 lodges in Lancashire, consisting of upwards of 8,000 well-organised colliers, and the lodges were worth £20 each . He hoped all other trades would unite to reduce the hours of labour and increase the rate of wages . It was for that meeting to determine whether they would support the turn-out miners of Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, in their present struggle.- Wil-liam Holgate, another of the colliers' mis- sionaries, - Dixon, a 'Chartist, and other paid delegates, also addressed the audience .-Votes of thanks to the chairman, and Mr . Roberts, the miners' attorney, were given, and the party separated . Probably there is a much smaller number of colliers to-day in "the neighbourhoods of Bury, Middleton, etc .," than in 1844, but in the county as a whole the number is far greater, and the miners' lodges are financially, as a rule, worth much more than was the case sixty-four years ago . At one time a fair number of colliers found employment in the Birtle-cum-Bamford and Ashworth districts, where to-day none, or exceedingly few, are seen. 109 On the Thursday, before the miners' meeting, the landlord of the Bull's Head was concerned in a very different event. In the same paper it is recorded that on the Thursday morning A pig weighing upwards of nine score pounds, belonging to George Horner, of the Bull's Head beerhouse, Heywood, was found dead . It had been in a very bad state for some time, yet a "slink butcher" named Farrow agreed with the beerseller to dress it and sell it for pork ; but the inspectors of meat, and three of the Bury constabulary force, having been informed of the circumstances, took it and burned it in the Market Place, at Heywood, the same evening . Was it customary in those days to cremate condemned meat in the Market Place? Does any venerable Heywoodite remember the Burning of the Pig? X .Y. [407 .] THE COLLECTION OF FOLKLORE : A PLEA. I have often wondered why more, people don't take up the study of folklore, for I am sure it is the most fascinating of all the sciences. In the investigation of one stray custom or legend one may be led back to the very earliest and most primitive man, to man before metals, to man living in wandering hordes, cannibal in fact To trace the growth of a fairy tale is surely not an uninteresting thing, but rather something full of living interest . To find that some episode, say, in "Beauty and the Beast," goes back to the earliest religious beliefs of man and has affinity with the customs of savage races to-day certainly gives much human interest to what we should otherwise condemn as meraly a childish thing . The vast bulk of the materials of folklore date from the prehistoric period before knowledge was committed to writing and when it could only be perpetuated orally . As one eminent folklorist says, "To this mode of preservation and communication, as well as to the things thus preserved and communicated, the name of tradition is given, and folklore is the science of tradition ." Then, to quote another writer, "Folklore contains the survivals of the oldest and rudest culture of man ." Thus it is the study of "survivals" or "relics of an unrecorded past : 110 It is sometimes urged against the study of history, as it is generally taught, that it is merely the record of kings, statesmen, and generals, that the people are neglected . Of what use to us, it is said, are these petty details about the rulers, it is the condition of the ruled we want to know . That point of view is all right, but, as in other things, the compromise between the two views is the most satisfactory . Any- how, that objection cannot be raised against the history derived from the material of folklore study . It is the "lore" of the "folk ." Perhaps a short quotation from Dr . Haddon's book, "The Study of Man," will help to establish my meaning :- "Everywhere," he rays, "and at all times, man has `attempted to explain the natural phe- nomena surrounding and affecting him . When such explanations are universally or generally accepted by any tribe or people they constitute the mythology and to some extent the religious beliefs of such tribe or people' (G . L.Gomme .) "Man is naturally profoundly affected and even modified by his environment, the physical conditions of his country and climate, the nature of the vegetation and of the animal life around him all leave an impress on his character . The friendly as well as the inimical relations be- tween man and man have given rise to rules to govern conduct and intercourse, and these have crystallised into custom "When man changes from one condition to another, lie still clings to his old beliefs and customs, and should these in process of time cease to be as binding to him or as sacred as they were in the olden time, the memories of them will be preserved and related to the rising generation, to be again narrated to future genera- tions. But in all civilised races there are less cultured people who have lagged behind in the march of civilisation and who still maintain a greater or less amount of belief in the ancient traditions, and who practise old customs though it be but in an attenuated manner ; these are the `folk,' and it is their `lore' which is the sub- ject of enquiry ." That admirably sums up in general terms what we mean by folklore . ill Folklore comprises all classes of superstition and tradition, children's games, nursery rhymes, and so forth, local customs and festivals, while a very important part of it deals with the growth of religious . Thus it will be seen that folklore is no inconsiderable part of the great science -anthropology-the study of man . Its object, as Dr . Haddon says in a few words, is "to increase our knowledge about ourselves ." As yet "Heywood Notes and Queries" does not seem to have gathered much folklore material . I should like to see some effort made to print here all the published material relating to the district and also to print many hitherto - unpub- lished items gathered from the lips of the people themselves .