Chapter M: A. Courtney

ADDENDA.

Helston Borough Bounds, page 20.--At the close of this ceremony eleven dozen buns are thrown amongst the crowd to be scrambled for. One is always reserved for the Mayor.

Wells, page 65.--Some wells in Cornwall (not holy) were famed for their wonderful virtues: I will mention two. The water of the first, which was west of Penzance, was esteemed a sovereign cure for sore eyes. People from far and near visited it, and even carried away the water in bottles. It was, however, best if possible to walk to the well before breakfast, and there bathe the eyes. The second was at Castle Chûn, between Penzance and St. Just; its water endowed the drinkers with perpetual youth. Both have dried up within the last fifty years.

Ghosts, page 99.--The following quaint story was told me by a girl whose grandmother was the friend mentioned.

In the last century there lived in Trezelah (a hamlet in the parish of Gulval, near Penzance), a widow who had been deprived of her rights. Walking one day in the fields near her home she saw a strange spotted dog who seemed to know her; she met it a second time, and decided when she next went out to take a friend with her. Again she saw it (her friend did not), and said "In the Name of the Lord, speak to me." It changed into her husband, who told her to be ready at a certain time, when he would fetch her. Soon after, her friend being in the house, the woman, who was giving her children their supper, said "The time is come, I must be gone;" she then put on her sun-bonnet and went out. She was away about an hour, when she suddenly appeared with a great noise, as if someone had hurled her in through the door. Her story was that her husband had taken her up in his arms and carried her over the tree-tops as far as Ludgvan Church, where he deposited her on the Church-stile, from whence she saw a great many spirits, some good and some bad. The latter wanted her to join them, but her husband bade her remain where she was. What they told her was never known; but by their aid she got back her rights. Then her husband bore her home again by the way they had come; but before he parted from her said "I must take something from you; either your eyesight, or your hearing." She preferred losing the latter, and from that hour could never hear a word. One of her shoes that in her flight through the air had caught on a tree-top, seven years after was placed on her window-sill.

Farmers' Superstitions, page 141.--"If you can throw fire over a witch you will break the spell." "Bleeding a white hen on a millstone prevents danger from the mill; for they say a mill will have blood every seven years."

Charms, page 144.--"Some were provided with little bags of earth, teeth, or bones taken from a grave." "Most of the very religious folks had a verse of scripture, concluded with the comfortable assurance that by the help of the Lord the white witch hopes to do them good."--Bottrell.

Epilepsy, page 154.--Another authority says that the thirty pence collected by thirty young men at the Church door is deposited for a half-crown, from which the centre is cut. The flat ring left is worn by the epileptic person day and night.--Through Rev. A. H. Malan, M.A.

"The Bundle of Charms," Rev. A. H. Malan, M. A., is unavoidably
omitted.

Burning the Witch, page 180.--Still played. A pole about five feet long is placed with its ends resting on low stools, or bottles. On this a person sits lengthways with crossed ankles. He (or she) holds in his hand a long stick with a slit at one end, into which the paper effigy of the witch is stuck. This must be burnt at a candle placed on the floor at a short distance from the sitter; he must not support himself in any way, nor leave his perch.

NOTES

[1] A very general one for poor people in some parts of the county on Christmas-eve was pilchards and unpeeled potatoes boiled together in one "crock."

[2] Scat, a blow, a slap.

[3] Uther is still used as a Christian name in Cornwall.

[4] The Cornish manner of pronouncing the name of St. Clare.

[5] Supposed to have been shads, vulgarly here called "Chuck-cheldern," from the number of bones in them.

[6] Burn, a, load, a burden.

[7] A fuller account of Tregeagle and his wonderful doings may be found in Bottrell's Traditions, West Cornwall.

[8] A monastery existed there, and in 1883 portions of the building were still standing.

[9] A gentleman's seat in the parish of Gulval, near Penzance.

[10] There is a small enclosure near the castle, where several members of the family of Hosking were interred, owing to a quarrel that Mr. Hosking had with the vicar of Ludgvan over some tithes. The last funeral took place in 1823. On one of the stones is inscribed, "It is virtue alone that consecrates this ground," and "Custom is the idol of fools."

[11] The Penzance Promenade is built on part of it. In my childhood it was said to be one of the resorts of "Spring-heeled Jack," of whom I then lived in mortal dread.

[12] A small stream coloured by running through tin mining works.

[13] Marazion is no longer a Corporate town.

[14] Dennis is a very common Cornish surname.

[15] "Old Monk" is a term of contempt in Cornwall, applied to old or young men. "I saw the old monk coming down the garden" (a youth of twenty).

[16] The word Meryons is also used in Cornwall as a term of endearment, "She's faather's little Meryon."

[17] See ante, "Cornish Feasts and Feasten Customs."

[18] Fuggan, a cake made of flour and raisins often eaten by miners for dinner.

[19] Didjan, a tiny bit.

[20] Some say you must neither whistle nor swear, but you may sing and laugh.

[21] All men are boys in Cornwall.

[22] Train-oil is expressed from them.

[23] To "bulk" pilchards is to place them, after they have been rubbed with salt, in large regular heaps, alternately heads and tails.

[24] St. Ives.

[25] And "Cornish Feasts and Customs."

[26] The illiterate Cornish often double their negatives: "I don't know, not I;" "I'll never do it, no, never no more."

[27] Hazelen mot--root of a hazel tree.

[28] Braggaty--spotted.

[29] Double--a ring.

[30] Fuggan, a flat cake.

[31] Brend, to knit the brows.

[32] Tap a shoe, to sole.

[33] A similar superstition prevails about breakages, and a servant who has had the misfortune to break a valuable piece of china will sometimes smash a common basin or tea-cup to arrest the ill-luck.

[34] "Pitch a tune," to give the keynote.

[35] "Arish mow," a rick of corn made in the field where it was cut.

[36] Scat, to slap.

[37] A gill.

[38] Cornish for hogshead.

[39] Anker.

End of Project Gutenberg's Cornish Feasts and Folk-lore, by M. A. Courtney