Old Church Lore Part 7

In addition to the small cakes presented to strangers as well as villagers, every resident in the parish is ent.i.tled to a threepenny loaf and three quarters of a pound of cheese. The charity was formerly delivered at the tower door of the church, but since some alterations have been made in the building, the distribution takes place at the old workhouse. The congregation, on Easter Sunday afternoon, after which service the cakes are given, is always very large, many persons coming from the surrounding villages.

Halsted, the historian of Kent, discredits the traditional origin of the old custom. A similar story is related of two females, whose figures appear on the pavement of Norton St. Philip's Church, Somersetshire.

Plagues and Pestilences.

The graphic pages of Daniel Defoe have made the reader familiar with the terrible story of the Great Plague of London, which began in December, 1664, and carried off 68,596 persons, some say even a larger number. To give a detailed account of that visitation would be to relate an oft-told tale. Some important facts, not generally known, respecting old-time plagues and pestilences may be gleaned from parish registers and churchwardens' accounts, and it is from such records that we propose mainly to draw materials for this chapter.

When a town was infected with the plague, business was suspended, and the inhabitants isolated from the neighbouring places. If a person desired to travel at large, he made application to the Mayor or Chief Magistrate, and obtained a certificate to the effect that he was not suspected of the plague.

In many towns, great wisdom was displayed by erecting huts on breezy moors and other places away from the busy haunts of men, for the reception of the plague-stricken persons, and to which they were removed. The inmates of a house were not suffered to leave the homes from whence the patients had been removed. An order pa.s.sed in London, in 1570, states: "Howses, having some sicke, though none die, or from whence some sicke have been removed, are infected houses, and such are to be shutt upp for a moneth.

The whole family to tarrie xxviii daies." Round the houses, watch and ward were constantly kept to prevent egress. Certain boundaries were defined, and these could not be pa.s.sed. The watchers provided the inmates of the houses with food, etc., and took messages to their friends. In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary, Woolchurch, Haw, is an entry:--

"1607-8. Paid a warder for warding Mr. Clarke's house, being infected, ordered by the Mayor 4 0."

On the door of the infected house was the sign of a cross, in a flaming red colour, with the pathetic prayer, "Lord, have mercy on us." In old churchwardens' accounts, many items like the following, drawn from the accounts of St. Mary, Woolnoth, London, might be quoted:

"1593-4. Item for setting a crosse upon one Allen's doore in the sicknesse time ijd.

Item paid for setting two red crosses upon Anthony Sound his dore iiijd."

These crosses were about a foot in length. More than one student of the past has suggested that the practice of marking the doors of infected houses with red crosses arose from the injunction given to Moses at the inst.i.tution of the pa.s.sover. The crosses served the important purpose for which they were intended, namely, to caution folk against going to infected houses.

Queen Elizabeth, in 1563, commanded that the inmates of a house which had been visited by the plague should not go to church for a month.

Orders were given that any dogs found in the streets were to be killed. An order, bearing on this matter, made in May, 1583, at Winchester, may be reproduced: "That if any house wtn this cytie shall happen to be infected with the Plague, that thene evye persone to keepe within his or her house every his or her dogg, and not to suffer them to goo at large: And if any dogg be then founde abroad at large, it shall be lawful for the Beadle or any other person to kill the same dogg: and that any Owner of such Dogg going at large shall lose 6s." It was believed that dogs conveyed contagion from infected houses. A pa.s.sage in Homer's "Iliad" has a reference to man obtaining infection from an animal. It relates to the great pestilence that prevailed in the Grecian army:

"On mules and beasts the infection first began, At last, its vengeful arrows fix'd in man; Apollo's wrath the dire disorder spread, And heap'd the camp with mountains of the dead.

For nine long nights throughout the dusky air, The funeral torches shed a dismal glare."

Many remedies were tried to stay the progress of plagues. The ringing of church bells was among the number. "Great ringing of bells in populous cities," says Bacon, in his "Natural History," "disperseth pestilent air, which may be from the concussion of the air, and not from the sound."

Music, in the Middle Ages, was believed to have a healing power. Large fires were lighted in houses and streets as preventatives. It is not unlikely that the practice may be derived from the fact that, in 1347, during the time of the plague raging at Avignon, Pope Clement VI. caused great fires to be kept in his palace, day and night, and by this means believed he had kept the pestilence from his household. In 1563, we learn from Stow that a commandment came from Queen Elizabeth that "every man in every street and lane should make a bonefire three times a week, in order to the ceasing of the plague, if it so pleased G.o.d, and so to continue these fires everywhere, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays."

It is a.s.serted in Rome, in A.D. 195, that for some time, 5,000 persons died daily of a fearful plague. The physicians were unable to check its deadly course. It lasted for three years. The doctors of the day urged upon the people to fill their noses and ears with sweet smelling ointments to prevent contagion. We learn from Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year, 1665," how largely perfumes, aromatics, and essences, were employed to escape contagion at that time. Says Defoe, if you went into a church where any number of people were present, "there would be such a mixture of smells at the entrance, that it was much more strong, though, perhaps, not so wholesome, than if you were going into an apothecary's or druggist's shop. In a word, the whole church was like a smelling bottle; in one corner, it was all perfumes; in another, aromatics, balsamics, and a variety of drugs and herbs; in another, salts and spirits; as every one was furnished for their own preservation." He further says: "The poorer people, who only set open their windows night and day, burnt brimstone, pitch, and gunpowder, and such things in their rooms, did as well as the best."

The annals of many of the northern English towns contain numerous sad references to plagues. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for example, suffered much.

The churchwardens' accounts of St. Nicholas contain records of payments which bear on this subject. We find, for instance, the following item:

"1699. By cash paid for a tarr barrell to burn in ye church 0 8."

Fires were made in churches in movable pans. A year later, we read:

"1700. For hearbs for rubing ye pewes 1 0."

In courts of justice, might be seen large nosegays, not for ornament, but as preservatives against the pest. The Rev. J. R. Boyle, F.S.A., has gone carefully over the churchwardens' accounts of St. Nicholas', now the Cathedral of the city of Newcastle, and reproduced some curious items in his guide to the building. Here follow a few of the items:

"1684. For juniper and erbes for ye vestry 0 10.

1684. Paid for erbes and fflowers for Mr. Maior's pew 2 times 3 0.

1686. Erbes for ye church at Easter, Whitsuntyde, and a.s.sizes 6 0.

1688. Paid for holland [holly] and juniper for ye vestery, and erbs 1 11.

1690. Paid for sweet herbs for strawing in ye pews, etc. 1 0."

Mr. William Kelly, read before the Royal Historical Society, on July 12th, 1877, an important paper on "Visitations of the Plague at Leicester." He gave particulars of the Mayor addressing a letter to Justice Gawdie, who was about to visit the town in his official capacity. He was informed that the plague had broken out in houses near the castle, and it was concluded that his lordship would not come to preside so near the infected places.

The result of the communication may be gathered from the following entry, copied from the chamberlain's accounts:

"1594. Item, paid for charges of makinge readye of All Hallowes Churche for the judges to hold the a.s.syses in, because the other parte of the town was then infected with the sicknes xvs. vjd."

We have previously stated, that persons wishing to leave a plague-stricken town, for the purpose of travelling, were obliged to obtain pa.s.ses. Mr.

Kelly gives a copy of one of these doc.u.ments, which we reproduce _in extenso_. It reads as follows:

"Villa Leic. Theise are to certifie all the Queenes Majesties officers and lovinge subjects, to whom theise presents shall come, that the bearer, Alice Stynton, the wief of John Stynton, of the towne of Leycester, pettye chapman, dothe dwell and inhabyte in the parish of St. Nicholas, in the said town, in a streete called the Sore Laine, neyre unto the West Brigge.

The which John Stynton hathe not bene in Leycester sythence one fortnytt after St. James Daye last; but travelinge abrode in Northamptonshier about his lawfull affaires in gaytheringe under the Greate Seale of England, by lycence, for a poore house at Waltam Crosse.

And this bearer, his wief, with hym all the said tyme, untill her nowe comyng hom to Leycester, which was aboute a weeke past. The which bearer her dwellyng ys not neyre unto places suspected of the plage, but ys cleyre and sound from the same, G.o.d be thancked, neyther ys there any att this present sicke thereof in the said streete or parish, G.o.d be praised.

Do therefore request you to permytt and suffer her quietlye to travell to her husband, and also to permytt and suffer her said husband and her quietlye, upon ther honest behavire, to travell aboute ther lawfull busynes withoute any your hyndrance, and you the constables to helpe them to lodginges in ther said travell yf such nede shall require. In witnes whereof, we the mayor and alderman of the saide towne of Leycester have hereunto subscribed our names, and sette the seale of office of the said mayor, this vjth daye of October 1593, A 35 Eliz."

The records of Beverley supply some important notes respecting persons leaving the place. We gather from George Oliver's history of Beverley, that the plague raged with great violence in the year 1610, death and desertion were greatly thinning the town; the corporation made an order, directing that a fine of ten shillings be imposed on every individual leaving the town, even to go to fairs and markets, without the mayor's special permission. If the preceding measure was insufficient to detain persons in Beverley, it was resolved to imprison or otherwise punish, at the discretion of the justices, those offending.

The head of every family had to report periodically, during the time of the plague, to the constable in his ward, the state of the health of his household. If the disease attacked any member of his family, or those under his charge, and he neglected, within a specified number of hours, to report the matter, he was liable to a fine of forty shillings, to be placed in the town's chest.

The town of Derby suffered greatly from a plague in 1592-3. It appears to have been imported in some bales of cloth from the Levant to London, and quickly spread into the provinces. In the parish register of St.

Alkmund's, Derby, under October, 1592, is this statement, "Hic incipit pestis prestifera." It took twelve months to run its destructive course.

The register of All Saints', Derby, under October, 1593, says: "About this time, the plague of pestilence, by the great mercy and goodness of Almighty G.o.d, stay'd, past all expectac'on of man, for it rested upon a.s.sondaye, at what tyme it was dispersed in every corner of this whole p'she: ther was not two houses together free from ytt, and yet the Lord bade his angell staye, as in Davide's tyme: His name be blessed for ytt."

The inhabitants of Derby suffered greatly from a plague in 1665. In the Arboretum of the town is a memorial of the visitation, in the form of a stone, bearing the following inscription:

"Headless Cross, or _MARKET STONE_.

This Stone FORMED PART OF AN ANCIENT CROSS AT THE UPPER END OF FRIAR GATE, AND WAS USED BY THE INHABITANTS OF DERBY AS A MARKET STONE DURING THE VISITATION OF THE PLAGUE, 1665. IT IS THUS DESCRIBED BY HUTTON IN HIS HISTORY OF DERBY.

'1665. Derby was again visited by the plague at the same time in which London fell under that severe calamity. The town was forsaken; the farmers declined the Market-place; and gra.s.s grew upon that spot which had furnished the supports of life. To prevent a famine, the inhabitants erected at the top of Nuns-green, one or two hundred yards from the buildings, now Friar-gate, what bore the name of _Headless-cross_, consisting of about four quadrangular steps, covered in the centre with one large stone; the whole near five feet high; I knew it in perfection.

Hither the market-people, having their mouths primed with tobacco as a preservative, brought their provisions, stood at a distance from their property, and at a greater from the townspeople, with whom they were to traffic. The buyer was not suffered to touch any of the articles before purchase; but when the agreement was finished, he took the goods, and deposited the money in a vessel filled with vinegar, set for that purpose.'"

Tobacco has long been regarded as an efficacious preservative against disease. There is a curious entry in Thomas Hearne's Diary, 1720-21, bearing on this matter. He thus writes, under date of January 21st: "I have been told that in the last great plague in London none that kept tobacconists' shops had the plague. It is certain that smoaking was looked upon as a most excellent preservative. In so much, that even children were obliged to smoak. And I remember that I heard formerly Tom Rogers, who was yeoman beadle, say that, when he was that year, when the plague raged, a school-boy at Eaton, all the boys of that school were obliged to smoak in the school every morning, and that he was never whipped so much in his life as he was one morning for not smoaking."

Charles Knight, in his "Old England," gives an original drawing of the Broad Stone, East Retford, Nottinghamshire. He says, on this stone, money, previously immersed in vinegar, was placed in exchange for goods, during the Great Plague.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BROAD STONE, EAST RETFORD.]