Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 32

THORNTON.

At the Westgate came Thornton in With a hap, a halfpenny, and a lambskin.

A Newcastle distich relating to Roger Thornton, a wealthy merchant, and a great benefactor to that town. A _hap_ is a coa.r.s.e coverlet of any kind.

ISLE OF MAN.

All the bairns unborn will rue the day That the Isle of Man was sold away; And there's ne'er a wife that loves a dram, But what will lament for the Isle of Man.

EARSDON.

Hartley and Hallowell, a' ya' bonnie la.s.sie, Fair Seaton-Delaval, a' ya'; Earsdon stands on a hill, a' ya', Near to the Billy-mill, a' ya'.

IX.-SUPERSt.i.tION-RHYMES.

Although the spread of education has doubtlessly weakened in an extraordinary degree the hold which superst.i.tion formerly maintained on the mind of the public, yet vestiges of the more innocent portions of superst.i.tious belief are still in considerable repute amongst the lower orders, and may be found in all their force in many of the rural districts. It may be a question how far a complete eradication of these would benefit the cause of religion and morality, treason though it be in these times to doubt the efficacy of argumentative education. But all of us cannot be philosophers; and need we reprove a pretty village maiden for plucking the even-ash or four-leaved clover? The selfish tendencies of the age, in their opposition to every action which partakes of poetry or romantic belief, will effect their mission without the aid of the cynic.

CHARM-RHYMES.

The subject of rural charms, many of which are lineal descendants from those used by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, is one of great interest and curiosity; and it were much to be wished that a complete collection of them were formed. The following one is taken from a ma.n.u.script of the time of Queen Elizabeth; the others are for the most part still in use.

_This charme shall be said at night, or against night, about the place or feild, or about beasts without feild, and whosoever cometh in, he goeth not out for certaine._

On three crosses of a tree, Three dead bodyes did hang; Two were theeves, The third was Christ, On whom our beleife is.

Dismas and Gesmas; Christ amidst them was; Dismas to heaven went, Gesmas to heaven was sent.

Christ that died on the roode, For Marie's love that by him stood, And through the vertue of his blood, Jesus save us and our good, Within and without, And all this place about!

And through the vertue of his might, Lett noe theefe enter in this night Noe foote further in this place That I upon goe, But at my bidding there be bound To do all things that I bid them do!

Starke be their sinewes therewith, And their lives mightles, And their eyes sightles!

Dread and doubt Them enclose about, As a wall wrought of stone; So be the crampe in the ton (_toes_): Crampe and crookeing, And tault in their tooting, The might of the Trinity Save these goods and me, In the name of Jesus, holy benedicite, All about our goods bee, Within and without, And all place about!

_Warts._-Whoever will charm away a wart must take a pin and go to an ash-tree. He then _crosses_ the wart with the pin three times, and, after each crossing, repeats:

Ash-tree, ashen-tree, Pray buy this wart of me!

After which he sticks the pin in the tree, and the wart soon disappears, and grows on the tree instead. This must be done secretly. I need scarcely observe that the ash is sacred amongst all the Teutonic and Scandinavian nations.

_Another._-Take a bean-sh.e.l.l, and rub the wart with it; then bring the bean-sh.e.l.l under an ash-tree, and repeat:

As this bean-sh.e.l.l rots away, So my wart shall soon decay!

This also must be done secretly.

_The Hiccup._

Hickup, hickup, go away, Come again another day: Hickup, hickup, when I bake, I'll give to you a b.u.t.ter-cake.

_The Ague._-Said on St. Agnes's eve, sometimes up the chimney, by the oldest female in the family:

Tremble and go!

First day shiver and burn: Tremble and quake!

Second day shiver and learn: Tremble and die!

Third day never return.

_Cattle._-Reginald Scot relates that an old woman who cured the diseases of cattle, and who always required a penny and a loaf for her services, used these lines for the purpose:

My loaf in my lap, My penny in my purse; Thou art never the better, And I am never the worse.

The same writer gives a curious anecdote of a priest who, on one occasion, went out a-nights with his companions, and stole all the eels from a miller's weir. The poor miller made his complaint to the same priest, who desired him to be quiet, for he would so denounce the thief and his confederates by bell, book, and candle, they should have small joy of their fish. Accordingly, on the following Sunday, during the service, he p.r.o.nounced the following sentences to the congregation:

All you that have stol'n the miller's eels, Laudate Dominum de caelis; And all they that have consented thereto, Benedicamus Domino.

"So," says he, "there is sauce for your eels, my masters!"

"An old woman came into an house at a time whenas the maid was churning of b.u.t.ter, and having laboured long, and could not make her b.u.t.ter come, the old woman told the maid what was wont to be done when she was a maid, and also in her mother's young time, that if it happened their b.u.t.ter would not come readily, they used a charm to be said over it whilst yet it was in beating, and it would come straightways, and that was this:

Come, b.u.t.ter, come, Come, b.u.t.ter, come; Peter stands at the gate, Waiting for a b.u.t.tered cake; Come, b.u.t.ter, come!

This, said the old woman, being said three times, will make your b.u.t.ter come, for it was taught my mother by a learned churchman in Queen Marie's days; whenas churchmen had more cunning, and could teach people many a trick that our ministers now-a-days know not."-Ady's Candle in the Dark, 1656, p. 59.

"There be twenty several ways," says Scot, 1584, "to make your b.u.t.ter come, which for brevity I omit, as to bind your churn with a rope, to thrust therein a red-hot spit, &c.; but your best remedy and surest way is to look well to your dairy-maid or wife, that she neither eat up the cream, nor sell away your b.u.t.ter."

_Effusion of Blood._-From Worcestershire.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Baptized in the river Jordan; The water was wild and wood, But he was just and good; G.o.d spake, and the water stood, And so shall now thy blood.

Charms were formerly always used when wounds were attempted to be cured.

So in the old ballad of Tommy Potts:

Tom Potts was but a serving-man, But yet he was a doctor good; He bound his handkerchief on the wound, And with some words he staunched the blood.

_Bed-charm._-The following is one of the most common rural charms that are in vogue. Boys are taught to repeat it instead of a prayer:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lay on; Four corners to my bed, Four angels round my head, One at head and one at feet, And two to keep my soul asleep!

There are many variations of it. Ady, in his Candle in the Dark, 1656, p. 58, gives the first two lines as having been used by an old woman in the time of Queen Mary.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lie on!

All the four corners round about, When I get in, when I get out!

The two following distiches were obtained from Lancashire, but I cannot profess to explain them, unless indeed they were written by the Puritans to ridicule the above: