Chapter III (1)

Oh! rise, the mistress of this house, with gold upon your breast,
For the summer springs so fresh, green, and gay;
And if your body be asleep, we hope your soul’s at rest,
Drawing near to the merry month of May.

&c. &c.

In the Halliwell-Phillipps’ version each verse ends with

“Oh this is pleasant singing,
Sweet May flower is springing,
And summer comes so fresh, green, and gay.”

In Chester and surrounding villages the children still carry round May garlands, and generally a small child bedecked with ribbons, but the old May songs are no longer used.

At Knutsford a May Queen is annually chosen and crowned in public. This village has many curious and pretty customs. On the occasion of a marriage there, brown sand was strewn in the streets, and on this, fanciful figures of white sand and sometimes the flowers of the season were added.

LIFTING

Hone says that the custom of _Lifting_ was prevalent in Chester, but that instead of being tossed in the air, the victims were swung about in a chair.

However, a correspondent in Adams’ _Weekly Courant_ (printed in Chester, 26th March 1771) complains strongly of the custom of “_Lifting_, or rather the assembling in a riotous manner of a considerable number (I am sorry to say) of females at all the gates and other thoroughfares of this city to extort money from every man whose business may oblige him to pass that way. This is justly complained of by travellers, who, unacquainted with such customs (it not being suffered in any city but this) have given a considerable sum for leave to pursue their journey, and have scarce rode to the other end of the city but must again purchase the liberty of passing on.” It was practised at Chester up to about the year 1860.

The custom is supposed to have reference to the Ascension of our Lord.

HARVEST HOME

When the last field of corn was cut, then the farmer had what was called a “shutting.” The reapers would stand in a ring on some high ground, and one, acting as spokesman, gave out the “nominy”:--

“Oh, yes! oh, yes! oh, yes! this is to give notice
That Mester ’Olland has gen th’ seck a turn
And sent th’ owd hare into Mester Sincop’s standin’ curn.”

Then, taking hands, they all bent down and uttered an unearthly “Wow! wow-w! wow-w!” Other “nominies” followed, and then a liberal allowance of beer went round. This was supplemented by another ceremony. The last stalks of grain were plaited and formed into a threefold strand, at which the reapers threw their sickles. The one whose aim cut it down was the winner. This was called “cutting the Neck.”

CORNAGE

Cheshire has the great distinction of possessing two Forest Charter Horns held by cornage tenure, and these are still in existence.

_The Wirral Horn._--The Hundred of Wirral was mainly divided between the Church and the Palatinate barons. The latter not being resident, the natives were lawless and turbulent; added to which the district was specially liable to incursions from sea-rovers. To reduce the natives to obedience, and as a matter of precaution, Ranulph de Meschines, the third Earl of Chester, about 1121, destroyed such boundaries of property as existed and planted the whole as a forest, so that “From Blacon Point to Hilbre a squirrel might jump from tree to tree”; as the old Cheshire rhyme has it.

The office of chief forester he bestowed upon Alan Sylvester, together with the manors of Storeton and Puddington, to be held by the tenure of blowing a horn, or causing it to be blown, at the “Gloverstone,” Chester, on the morning of every fair-day, to indicate that the tolls payable on all goods bought or sold in the city, or within sound of that horn, during the fair, belonged to the Earl and his tenants there.

After 250 years the citizens of Chester found the forest and its freebooters such a nuisance (for, so far from checking marauders, the forest, as a hiding-place, encouraged them), that they complained to the Black Prince, and begged that he would get his father to abolish it.

In 1376-7, the last year of Edward III.’s reign, the district was disafforested. The horn and its rights had passed, by marriages of female heirs, to the Bamvilles, and then to the Stanleys of Hooton Hall. They continued as titular foresters as late as of 7 Henry VI.

The horn is thus described:--16¾ in. convex, 13¾ in. concave, 9½ in. wide at the mouth, 7 in. in the middle, tapering to 2½ in. at the mouthpiece. The colour is yellow to light brown, with blue or black spots or flakes. It was in the possession of Sir John Stanley-Errington until his death in 1896.

_The Delamere Horn._--What we now call the Forest of Delamere was originally the two forests of Mara and Mondrem, extending, roughly speaking, over all the lands between the rivers Weaver and Gowy. Mara was on the Mersey side, and Mondrem on the Nantwich side.

The land was afforested immediately after the Conquest, though the Saxon owner was, for a time, allowed to keep his estate in it. About 1123 Ranulph de Meschines, third Earl of Chester, added to the forest some waste lands and the villa or township of Kingsley, and conferred on Ranulph de Kingsley the forestry rights to be held in grand serjeantry, and gave him a horn in token of his rights as master forester. It is worth noting that the horns of Wirral and Delamere were _both_ given, and at the same period, by this third Earl of Chester. But it is important to note that the office of master forester was not altogether paramount. Certain other rights belonged to the families of Grosvenors, Weavers, and Mertons; and the rights in the two forests were often kept separate and distinct. Finally, however, the whole of the forest rights were vested in the family of Done of Utkinton, and in 1617 James I. came “a-hunting” in the forest of Delamere and knighted John Done, who attended him as _chief forester_ and _bow bearer_. Sir John died in 1629, and the male line of Dones came to an end. Through the female line the horn and forest rights descended to the Crewes and Ardernes, and then to the present Earl of Haddington, who married Miss Arderne in 1854.

The horn is a beautiful black colour and strongly curved. It is 14 in. on outside curve, but it is only 5 in. across from mouthpiece to mouth. Its greatest width is 1¾ in. at the mouth, and ¾ in. at the other end. The mouthpiece seems of silver gilt, but there is no sign of the other two “golden” bands with which pictures and old documents show it was embellished.

_Forest of Macclesfield._--The third great forest of Cheshire was that of Macclesfield, which was in existence before Domesday survey.

The office of hereditary master forester of the forests of Leek and Macclesfield was held by the Davenports of Davenport by a grant from Hugh Cyvelioc, Earl of Chester (1160).

Now the original grant, as in the case of Mara and Mondrem, did not prevent subordinate rights being granted, and there were no less than eight sub-foresters who exercised rights down to the sixteenth century.

One of these foresterships belonged to the manor of Taxal, which was held by the Downes of Sutton Downes and Taxal. According to depositions about the year 1720, it is said of Reginald Downes, the then owner:--

“That hee when ye King came a hunting allways rowsed ye stagg, and when ye King came to ye forest Mr. D. held ye King’s stirrup and ye L’d Darby held _his_ stirrup; and that the L’d Darby, instead of actually holding ye stirrup, put his strop or whip and held it towards ye stirrup while Mr. Downes mounted.

“That the said Mr. Downes had informed this deponent that he held his land by the blast of a horn on Midsummer Day, and paying a pepper-corn yearly; and that once, about 63 or 64 years agoe, this deponent was with the said Mr. Downes when he blowed his horn at Windcather (a range of high hills above Taxal) on that occasion.”

Another deposition states that the horn required “three blasts.” No special horn seems to have existed.

PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

The hard-headed Cheshireman may be deficient in legend, but he has invented a number of wise sayings and proverbs which can hold their own in quality and quantity with any other county. Some of the oldest, however, given by Ray, are wrapped in obscurity. The following is a selection:--

“---- by a proverbe certan
Good manners and conynge maken a man.”

Bradshaw (_Life of St. Werburgh_).

[He was a contemporary of William of Wykeham.]

“Cheshire, Chief of men.”

“_Stout, bold, and hardy withal, impatient of wrong, and ready to resist the enemy or stranger that shall invade their country._”--Webb.

Fuller says: “_Its gentry is remarkable on a fourfold account--their numerousness ... their antiquity, their loyalty, and their hospitality._”

“Cheshire for men,
Berkshire for dogs,
Bedfordshire for naked flesh,
And Lincolnshire for bogs.”

“By waif, soc and theam,
You may know Cheshire men.”

[Powerful in their legal rights and tenacious of them.]

“As many Leighs as fleas, Massies as asses,
Crewes as crows, and Davenports as dogs’ tails.”

_Some of the great Cheshire families._

“There is more than one yew bow in Chester.”

_As many a Welshman had found out._

“Cheshire born and Cheshire bred,
Strong i’ th’ arm and weak i’ th’ yed.”

_Perhaps invented by neighbours “over the border” who had felt the strong arm._

“To grin like a Cheshire cat.”

_No satisfactory explanation of this has ever been given. It has formed the subject for inquiries innumerable in “Notes and Queries.”_

_There is another version: “To grin like a Cheshire cat chewing gravel.”_

“It is better to marry over the mixen than over the moor.”

_It is better to marry an honest farmer from next door whom you know, than a fine gentleman from a distance who may turn out a fraud._

“Enough and no more, like Mrs. Milton’s feast.”

_Milton married as his third wife Elizabeth Minshull of Wistanstow, near Nantwich, who survived him. She was poor and proud, and her enforced economy was not to the taste of her neighbours._

“When the daughter is stolen, shut the Pepper-gate.”

_Equivalent to “shutting the stable door when the steed is stolen.” This originated in a former Mayor of Chester fastening up the Pepper-gate after his daughter had eloped through it with her lover._

“If thou hadst the rent of Dee Mills--thou wouldst spend it.”

_These Chester mills yielded annually a large rent._

“As fair as Lady Done.”

_The wife of Sir John Done, hereditary bow-bearer of Delamere Forest. Pennant, in his “Tour from Chester to London,” says that “when a Cheshireman would express supereminent excellency in one of the fair sex, he will say, ‘There is a Lady Done for you.’”_

“Higgledy Piggledy--Malpas shot.”

_All share alike._

_The well-known anecdote need not be quoted._

“All on one side, like Parkgate.”

_A single street with one side only, the river being on the other side._

“Every man was not born to be Vicar of Bowdon.”

_One of the most valuable livings in Cheshire._

“To pull Lymm from Warburton.”

_Complete and absolute separation._

“Hanged hay never does cattle.”

_Bought hay, hung and weighed in the scales, is not economical. It will not do (pronounced “doe”) cattle._

“To scold like a wych-waller.”

_I.e., a “salt-boiler” at one of the wyches of Cheshire._

“To catch a person napping, as Moss caught his mare.”

“I’ll tell thee, quoth Wood,
If I can’t rule my daughter, I’ll rule my good.”

“But when? quoth Kettle to his mare.”

_Of these three worthies history is silent._

“Like Goodyer’s pig, never well but when he is doing mischief.”

“He stands like Mumphazard, who was hanged for saying nothing.”

“Like the parson of Saddleworth who could read no book but his own.”

“Roint you witch! as Bessy Locket said to her mother.”

“No more sib (akin) than sieve and riddle that grew in a wood
together.”

“If he were as long as a lither, he might thatch a house without
a ladder.”

“It would make a dog doff his doublet.”

“She hath broken her elbow at the Church door.”

_A woman grown idle after marriage._

“Score twice before you cut once.”

_Used by curriers. Holmes’ “Academie of Armourie.”_

_Don’t cut your leather until you feel sure you have selected the right place._

“Stoppord law, no stake no draw.”

_Stockport or Stopport--only those who contribute to an undertaking may reap benefit from it._

“You may know a Mobberley man by his breeches.”

_An allusion to poachers in the neighbouring Tatton Park. They made their breeches of buckskin._

“The Mayor of Altrincham lies in bed while his breeches are
mending.”

“The Mayor of Altrincham, and the Mayor of Over,
The one is a thatcher, the other a dauber.”

_These places were small and unimportant, and the mayors were therefore sometimes chosen from men in humble ranks of life._

“A Stopport (Stockport) chaise.”

_Two women riding sideways on one horse._

“As thrunk as three in a bed.”

_Thrunk = crowded._

“It is time to yoke when the cart comes to the caples.”

“_In some part of England they call a horse a caple._”--Chaucer. Latin = _Caballus_.

“Good to fetch a rich man sorrow and a dead man woe.”

“As much wit as three folks--two fools and a madman.”

“She hath been to London to call a strea a straw, and a waw a wall.”

_Adopting the London pronunciation and forgetting, or being ashamed of, the county dialect._

“To come home like the parson’s cow, with a calf at her foot.”

“To look a strained hair in a can.”

“To shed riners with a whaver.”

“_To surpass anything skilful or adroit by something still more so._”--Wilbraham. _Riner_ = _a toucher used at quoits_.

“Too-Too will in two.”

_Strain a thing too much and it will not hold._

“Well, well, is a word of malice.”

“You been like Smithwick, either clemed or bossten.”

_Too little or too much._

“Afraid of far enough.”

“Afraid of him that died last year.”

_Of that which is never likely to happen._

LOCAL RHYMES

Holt liars, Farndon bears,
Churton greyhounds, Aldford hares.

In Stoak there are but few good folk,
In Stanney--hardly any.

Gobbinshire, Gobbinshire from Gobbinshire Green,
The ronkest oud beggar as ever was seen.

_Gobbinshire was a name of the lower portion of the Wirral peninsula._

Sir Randle Crewe, the Lord of this manor,
Was born in Nantwich, the son of a Tanner.

Middlewych is a pretty toun
Seated in a valley,
With a Church and Market Cross
And eke a bouling alley;
All the men are loyal there,
Pretty girls are plenty,
Church and King, and doun with the Rump
There’s not such a toun in twenty.
--_Cavalier Ballad._

“Congleton rare, where they sold the Bible to buy a bear.”

_The inhabitants once laid by money for a new Bible, but the town bear having died, they devoted their savings to buying a new bear for baiting._

When the Chester and Birkenhead railway was made, the name of Ledsham was given to a station which was nearest to Sutton, and this gave rise to the following:--

“I want to go to Sutton please.”
“There aren’t no Sutton _now_.”
“It’s taken t’name o’ Ledsham, sir.”
“For an estate? or how?”

SUNDRY SAWS

Farm servants dissatisfied say:--

Maily bread an maily pies,
Skim Dick full o’ eyes,
Buttermilk astid o’ beer,
I’m sartin I shanna stop here.
(_South Cheshire._)

Come aw ye buttermilk sellers that have buttermilk to sell,
Ah’d have ye give good mizzer, and scrub yo’r vessels well;
For there’s a day o’ reckoning, an hell will have its share,
An’ the devil will have you nappers as Mossy ketched his mare.

“Go fiddle for shives (slices of food)
Amongst old wives.”

_Said in contempt._

“Laus-a-dees
What times be these.”

“Stare-agog, stare agog
Tumbled o’er the tatoe-hog.”

Children irritate bulls by shouting:--

“Billy Billy Belder
Sucked the cai’s elder” (udder).

PHENOMENA

Dee’s valley mild till close of year
Means three months cold in store, I fear.

THE MOON.

When hoo fulls at ye midnight, or soone after that,
In ye sommer, great heat,
In ye winter, hard frost.
When hoo fulls at ye midday, or soone after that,
Winter cries, “O ye rain,”
Summer says, “Cheshire’s lost.”
--_Old Cheshire Household Book_, 1675-85.

(_Hoo_ is the old English “she.”)

A winde from Sandbach in the Easte
Blows good to neither man nor beast.

Malpas ales and Malpas gales
Cheer the farmer, fill his pails.

Whenever Chester chimes at Congleton do sound
A flood, like Noah’s, will wash away ye ground.

_The towns are thirty miles apart._

It rains, it pains, it patters i’ the docks,
Mobberley wenches are weshin’ their smocks.

As long as Helsby (hill) wears a hood,
The weather’s never very good.

If Wednesday, Thursday, or if Friday
Happen this year to be May day,
Then begin some harmless thing
And it will thee much credit bring.
--Randle Holme, _Harleian MSS._

LEGENDS

The Celtic legend already alluded to comes from Alderley Edge. It is a version of _Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table_.

A farmer going through Alderley Edge, on his way to the fair to sell a beautiful white mare, was accosted by a venerable old man dressed as a monk, who said:

“Sell as thou wilt that steed of thine
’Tis fated that the steed be mine.”

The farmer found no purchaser, and, returning at night, met the monk by two enormous iron gates, through which they entered into a huge cavern where numbers of milk-white steeds were stalled, and by each lay an armed warrior asleep. The wizard paid the farmer, who asked the meaning of the mysterious troopers, and was told that they would, when England

“Was thrice lost and thrice won
’Twixt dawn of day and setting sun,”

come to her aid.

When the wizard ceased, the farmer found himself alone on the hill, and the gates closed behind him.

A dragon legend is connected with Thomas Venables, son of Sir Gilbert Venables, cousin-german to William the Conqueror:--

“It chaunced a terrible dragon to remayne and make his abode in the lordeshippe of Moston in the Countye of Chester, wheare he devoured all such persons as he laid hold on, which ye said Thomas Venables herringe tell of ... dyd in his awne person valiantly set on the saide dragon, where first he shotte hym throwe with an arrowe, and afterward with other weapons manfullie slew him, at which instant the dragon was devouringe of a childe.”

A greater fund of legendary lore is found with regard to the lakes or meres of Cheshire:--

BRERETON--BAG OR BLACK MERE.

“Here is one exceeding strange, but attested in my hearing by many persons, and commonly believed. Before any heir of this (Brereton) family dies, there are seen in a lake adjoining, the bodies of trees swimming upon the water for several days together.”--Camden.

Sir Philip Sidney, in _Seven Wonders of England_, says:--

“The Breretons have a lake, which, when the sun
Approaching warms (not else) dead logs up sends
From hideous depth, which tribute when it ends
Sure sign it is the Lord’s last thread is spun.”

CAPESTHORN--RUDESMERE, OR REEDSMERE.

In the grounds of Capesthorne is a fine sheet of water called Reedsmere, containing a floating island about 1½ acres in size, which in strong winds is blown here and there. A country legend accounts for this floating island by a story that a certain knight was jealous of his lady-love, and vowed not to look upon her face until the island moved on the face of the mere. But he fell sick, and was nigh to death, when he was nursed back to health by the lady, to reward whose constancy a tremendous hurricane tore the island up by the roots.

ROSTHERNE MERE.

“All kinds of legends are current about Rostherne, as is the case with most lakes which are reported to be deep. One is, that a mermaid comes up on Easter Day and rings a bell; another, that it communicates with the Irish Channel by a subterranean passage; another, that it once formed with Tabley, Tatton, Mere, and other lakes, a vast sheet of water that covered the country between Alderley Edge and High Leigh.”--Hope, _Holy Wells and Traditions_.

COMBERMERE

Has also a bell legend.

BELLS

The Curfew is still tolled at nine o’clock at Chester Cathedral, and the big bell used to be tolled whenever the Dean or Bishop was going to preach, but this has been discontinued. “Curfew” is tolled at many of the country churches, sometimes throughout the year, and sometimes only at harvest-time.

At Frodsham Church a small bell, which stood over the chancel arch, was called the “Dag-tale” bell, or “day-telling” bell--probably from being used to denote the hours of the day to those working in the fields. At Holmes Chapel, in the parish of Sandbach, there is an entry in 1723 for “bell ropes to Dag-tail 12s.”

The “Pancake” bell is still rung at Congleton on Shrove Tuesday at 11 A.M., and at Tarvin; and at Barthomley and other places it was called by the expressive name of the “Guttit” bell.

Ray says:--

“At Nantwich they have a custom like that in Scotland; when anyone is dead a Bellman goeth about the streets in the morning that the dead person is to be buried, tinkling a bell he has in his hand, and now and then makes a stand and invites the people to come to the funeral at such an hour.”

Prebendary Garencieres of Chester Cathedral, in his will of 1703, says:--

“I would have no other invitation to my funeral than by notice given by the Clerk to the parishioners of Handley and Waverton, and by the Belman to the people of Chester, of the time when, and the place where my corps is to be buried.”

Congleton still preserves three ancient leather belts, on which are strung a number of metal bells with rolling clappers. Two belts have seven, and one has five, and each bell has a different tone. They are said to have been worn by three church officials on the Congleton “Wake” day, the Feast of St. Peter _ad vincula_, or “St. Peter in Chains.” At midnight of that day three acolytes ran round the town summoning the people to church, thereby representing the clanking of chains. About one hundred years ago the bells fell into the hands of a family of chimney-sweeps, but were ultimately seized and preserved by the town authorities. They are unique.

The following is a Cheshire distich on bells:--

Higher Peover kettles, Lower Peover pans,
Knutsford sweet music, and Rostherne great drones.

BIRDS

Two cocks answer one another:--

1. “Cocky Keeko!
The women been master here.”

2. “Cocky Keeko!
It’s the same everywhere.”
(_South Cheshire._)

The “Golden Plover” is called “The Sheep’s Guide” by the Longdendale shepherds, who say the bird’s note warns the sheep of danger.

It is considered bad luck to take the eggs of, or to kill the Robin, Wren, Spotted Fly-catcher, and Swallow, hence the following:--

The Martin and the Swallow
Are God’s Mate and Marrow,

or,

“Are God Almighty’s birds to hollow” (= to _hallow_ or _keep holy_).

Eggs of game-fowl are placed in Magpies’ nests to be hatched, in order to make the game-cocks fight better.

The calling of a green Woodpecker indicates rain.

The name of “Boggarts muck” is given to Owl pellets, the idea being that the small bones therein are those of fairies eaten by boggarts.

The Cuckoo was called “The Welsh ambassador” in Cheshire, because this herald of spring was generally heard first on the Welsh border.

GAMES

Randle Holme gives an entertaining list of children’s games in the Stuart period, nearly all of which are now obsolete. He does not mention one which is more popular in Cheshire than the Southern Counties. This is the game in which a horse chestnut is threaded on a string and struck at with chestnuts similarly threaded. The chestnut is called a “coppity-co”:--

“Coppity-co,
My first blow”

is the rhyme used. The word is now softened into cobbity-co (so in _Shropshire_) and even into comity-co (_Chester_, 1909).

“Cobbity-cuts
Put daïn your nuts.”
(_South Cheshire._)

_Cop_ is old English for _top_ or _head_.[67] Somnolent church-goers in olden times had reason to remember this fact.

Paid Richard Pennington for whiping dogs and cobing
sleeping folke £0 10 0

(_Bunbury Church Accounts._)

[67] So at Chester, the top of the river bank is called “The Cop,” and a “cop-hedge” is, in Cheshire, a bank with a hedge on top of it.

A similar official at Tarvin was familiarly known as “The Cobber,” and at Tarporley as “The Awakener.”[68]

[68] The following anecdote, which is vouched for, is too good to omit:--At a certain Cheshire church, where the farmers slumbered peacefully during the afternoon sermon, the incumbent was surprised on a certain Sunday to see the farmers, one after another, waking up suddenly and vigorously rubbing their faces. At last, looking up in a gallery to the left of the pulpit, he saw a boy with a pea-shooter, and at once discerned the cause of the commotion. He shook his fist at the lad, but to no effect, and at last cried out, “Young man, desist!” but the boy, bent on his work, replied, “Never thee mind! get along with thy sermon; I’ll keep the beggars awaken for thee!”

Another curious game is “Dot.” Children move in a ring round one representing “Dot,” and sing:--

“Dun yo’ wot, ’oo were Dot?
He were not a bad lot;
Whereabouts was his cot,
Oi’n furgotten to jot.”
(_North Cheshire and Malpas._)

At this point “Dot” puts his hand out, and the one touched has to take his place. This is practically a “counting-out rhyme,” and there seems every probability that it is a very ancient one.

The Manor of Edge, in the Hundred of Broxton, was held, according to _Domesday Survey_, by Edwin, a Saxon thane, who, although he was compelled to become tenant to Norman Robert FitzHugh, managed to retain for himself the two Edges. Contemporary with him was Dot, the Saxon lord of sixteen manors, some of them conjointly with Edwin; but, more unlucky than he, Dot lost all his manors and fled to Wales. His grandson, Cadwgan Dot, was father of Hova Dot or Dod, from whom the Edge and Broxton Dods claim lineal descent.

The following are additional “counting-out” specimens:--

Orcum, Borcum,
Boni, Corkum,
Ericum, Bericum, bo-ni-bus.
O.U.T. spells out.
(_Chester._)

One, two,
Sky-blue;
All in
But you.
(_Chester_, 1904.)

MUSIC

Although Cheshire cannot be described as a musical county, yet it has no reason to be ashamed of its past musical history.

“Cheshire Rounds” was a celebrated tune and dance--sometimes danced by a couple (whose gyrations resembled the movements of the sun and moon) and sometimes by a single person. The only known portrait of Doggett (who founded the celebrated waterman’s badge) shows him dancing the “Cheshire Round.”

Miss Stanley writes from Alderley Park--

_Sep. 8, 1798._ We had yesterday what is generally called a harvest home supper, but _here_ a “shutting.” Old Peter danced the Cheshire Round on the table after supper with Charlotte Alcock, one of the women.

A play-bill of the time of William III. shows how popular the dance was then--

In Bartholomew Fair, at the Coach-house, on the pav’d stones at Hosier Lane end, you will see a Black that dances the _Cheshire Rounds_ to perfection.

The Morris Dance has always been a favourite, especially in the Knutsford district, where it was danced to the following:--

[Music:

Morris Dance is a very pretty tune,
I can dance in my new shoon;
My new shoon they are so good,
I could dance it if I would.
This is it, and that is it,
And this is Morris dancing.
My poor father broke his leg,
And so it fell a chancing.
]

Just over the border, in Lancashire, the version runs--

My new shoon, they are so good,
I could dance Morris if I would;
And if hat and sark be drest
I will dance Morris with the rest.

Three ballads were very popular, viz. “The Miller of the Dee,” “The Spanish Lady” (who is supposed to have fallen in love with the Cheshire knight Sir Uryan Leigh), and “The Cheshire Cheese.”

CHURCHES

The old parish account-books show that much more was spent on music in old times than in the present day, _e.g._ _Bunbury_:--

1762. For a bassoon £5 5 0
1787. John Richardson, for instructing the singers 8 17 0
1801. For a hautboy 0 14 0
1811. For a base violin 6 16 7
1820. Paid Mr. Cotgreave, for leading the singers,
62 nights at 5s. 15 10 0
1821. Do. do. 77 nights at 5s. 19 5 0

In 1785, at Farndon, we find--

To a vestry meeting about a bassoon £0 2 6
To a bassoon 6 0 8

Two new “cleronets” and reeds cost £5 12s. 9d., and a new hautboy £1. 8s.

At the same vestry the churchwarden was empowered to pay £1. 1s. yearly to the singers “so long as they continue to sing such tunes as the inhabitants of the parish shall approve of”; and William Snelson was paid two guineas per annum “to teach the children to sing psalms in church.”...

The abolition of the old church band has _not_ been of benefit to many churches and villages.

Passing mention must be made of Handel’s visit to Chester, in 1741, when he tried over the music of the “Messiah” before its first performance in Dublin, and of the great Chester Musical Festivals held at various intervals from 1772 to 1829, and of the celebrated political song called the “Glorious Sixth of May,” which stirred Chester like a second “Lillibulero,” just one hundred years ago.

WELLS

A wishing well, called “Billy Hobby’s Well,” was in the field which is now the Grosvenor Park, Chester, and a local poet sang thus in 1823--

I lov’d the tales that idle maids would tell,
Of wonders wrought at Billy Hobby’s well;
Where love-sick girls with leg immured would stand,
The right leg ’twas--the other on dry land,
With face so simple--stocking in the hand--
Wishing for husbands half a winter’s day,
With ninety times the zeal they used to pray.

Other wells round Chester were “St. Giles’ Well” at Spital Boughton, “Jacob’s Well” near St. John’s Church, “Aganippe’s Well” at Newton, and the “Abbot’s Well” at Christleton, which supplied the monastery at Chester with water. It still exists, but the others are extinct.

Another wishing well was at Gayton, and a holy well at Alderley Edge. St. Plegmund’s Well is in the parish of Plemstall (three miles from Chester). It has been customary for many years to take the water used for christenings in the church from this well.

A chalybeate spring existed in Delamere Forest, and was resorted to by invalids in the eighteenth century.

The largest well now existing is the “Synagogue Well” at Frodsham, which is close to the site of the ancient castle there, and may have been connected with it. It still has a copious supply of water, and has been cleansed and repaired, much to the detriment of its former picturesque appearance.

There is no history attached to it nor any explanation of the curious name. Major Egerton Leigh gives a fancy history of it in his _Ballads and Legends of Cheshire_.

No traces of well-worship exist; but up to a late period the inhabitants of Nantwich used to sing a hymn of thanksgiving at the “Blessing of the Brine.” An ancient pit, called the “Old Brine” or “Biat,” was decked on Ascension Day with flowers, and a jovial band of young people celebrated the day with song and dance. Aubrey says: “In Cheshire, where they went in perambulation, they did blesse the springs--_i.e._ did read the Gospel at them, and did believe the water was better.”

A remnant of _fire-worship_ existed at Alvanley, where, on the Toot Hill, fires were made in the spring and autumn, through which the villagers jumped.

ROBERT NIXON

Mention must be made of Robert Nixon, the great Cheshire prophet, whose fame not only rivalled that of Mother Shipton, but may be said (seeing that he is mentioned in _Pickwick_) to have lasted longer. The earliest history is Oldmixon’s, published in 1714, which says that “in the reign of James I. there lived a fool whose name was Nixon,” and that Thomas Cholmondley of Vale Royal (d. 1652) “took him into his house, where he lived when he composed this prophecy.” But other writers place him at a much earlier period. His prophecies really fall into the two periods of civil war, viz. the Wars of the Roses, and the Great Rebellion. If, therefore, Nixon was a real personage, it is obvious that if he lived in the reign of James I. he cannot have uttered some of the prophecies attributed to him. The discovery of an “Irish Analogue of Nixon’s Prophecy” (_Notes and Queries_, October 21, 1865) throws great doubt on the whole matter. The subject still requires much investigation.

The following are a few of Nixon’s prophecies:--

When an eagle shall sit on the top of Vale-Royal House,
Then an heir shall be born, who shall live to see great troubles
in England.

It is said that the Cholmondley family was at this time nearly extinct, but in due course an heir was born, during which time an eagle perched on the house-top.

Between a rick and two trees
A famous battle shall be.

The “rick and two trees” may be Warwick, Coventry, and Daventry, and the battle, Edgehill, 1642; or Rickmansworth, Elstree, and Edwinstree, and the battle the second fought at St. Alban’s, 1461.

The following is unintelligible:--

There will be three gates to London of imprisoned men for Cowsters. Then, if you have three cows, at the first gate sell one, and keep thee at home. At the second gate sell the other two, and keep thee at home. At the last gate all shall be done.

_Old Mab’s Curse_ is directed against any one of the Minshull family who shall sell the family acres--

Mabel’s dole, of pious fame
From royal blood they say she came;
Poor and needy folks do tell
That Mynshull’s land no one dare sell,
For Old Mab’s curse on him would light
That ere should sell land, stone, or bight.

The belief that bees must be told of their master’s death is widely spread, also that a winter crop of primroses betokens a death in the house. Powdered alabaster is considered a good remedy for the ailments of sheep, and the beautiful tomb of Sir Hugh Calveley in Bunbury Church has, in consequence, it is said, suffered much mutilation.

We find Trowle, the shepherd boy in the Chester play, making much of his tar-box as a specific, for the diseases of sheep and cattle were serious matters for an agricultural people, as the following show:--

Paid for a book concerning ye disorders of cattle £0 1 0[69]

and in the accounts of St. John’s Church, Chester, the following occurs five times in 1747:--

Paid for a book about the horned cattle £0 0 8

[69] Bunbury Church Accounts.

One other point remains to be noticed. There is a widely-spread belief that the indentures of apprentices in Chester contained a clause stipulating that they should not be compelled to eat salmon more than three days in each week. No such indenture has ever been seen, and the late Mr. Frank Buckland offered, in vain, a reward of five pounds for the sight of such a document. The tradition exists wherever there is a salmon river, but investigation shows that it is without foundation.

Such is some of the folk-lore of Cheshire, and there may still be a great deal which has never yet been recorded. It behoves every one to use his utmost endeavours to put into print every song, legend, saying, or custom that he may meet with. Such relics of the past can only now be obtained from aged people, and in a few years this source will fail, and the rising “school-board” generation will neither know nor care for such things. It is well to remember also (to quote another Cheshire proverb) that “the unlikeliest places are often likelier than those which are likeliest.”

It has been impossible to give all references, but especial mention must be made of Hazlitt’s and Ray’s _Proverbs_, Mr. Robert Holland’s various papers, _The Cheshire Sheaf_, and some _Bird Notes_ of Mr. T. A. Coward.

TWO CHESHIRE SAINTS

By the Archdeacon of Chester

We are justified in giving this title to St. Werburgh and St. Plegmund, of whom specially this chapter will treat, since both belonged to the old kingdom of Mercia, of which Cheshire was a part.

We owe our knowledge of St. Werburgh to the metrical life of the Saint written by Henry Bradshaw, a monk of St. Werburgh’s Monastery, who died in 1513. The full title of his work (which was printed in 1521 and reprinted by the Chetham Society in 1848) is _The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge, very frutefall for all Christen people to rede_. It purports to be a translation into English verse from the original Chronicle or Passionary stated by him to be preserved in the Monastery. He makes frequent allusions to the Venerable Bede (whom he styles his author), as also to “Master Alfrydus, William Malmsburge, Gyrarde, Polycronycon, and other mo(re).”

St. Werburgh was born about 650, and was the daughter of Wulfhere, King of Mercia (whose name is perpetuated in Wolverhampton) and Ermenhild his wife. She was thus descended from four royal families. Her father was the second son of Penda, King of Mercia, who claimed descent from Woden. Her mother was the daughter of Earconbert, King of Kent, and was thus a descendant both of Tytillus, King of East Anglia, and of St. Edwin, King of Northumbria. She was also connected with the kings of France, as St. Ermenhild’s grandfather and great-grandfather both married princesses of that royal house. We may say that she was of saintly as well as of royal lineage, for five of her grandfather Penda’s children (pagan though he himself was) earned the title of saints; whilst her mother’s family included the names of St. Hilda, St. Etheldreda, St. Ethelburga, and St. Sexburga (her mother).

Wulfhere and his queen chiefly lived at Stone in Staffordshire, where St. Werburgh, under the care of her good mother, grew up. Bradshaw gives a very interesting picture of her early years, in which her religious disposition, fostered no doubt by her mother’s influence and example, manifested itself in various ways. Thus:--

“First in the morning to church she would go,
Following her mother the queene every day,
With her boke and bedes, and depart not them fro,
Hear all divine service and her devocyons say:
And to our Blessed Saviour, mekely on her knees pray,
Daily Him desiring, for His endless grace and pity,
To keep her from sin, and preserve her in chastity.”

She was an only daughter having three brothers. She listened with earnest attention to every word of instruction and advice; abjured giddy pleasures; and found her truest joy in contemplation of heavenly things, and holiest bliss arising from a pure conscience, chastened by fasting and sanctified by prayer.

Bradshaw gives a full description of her young days, and fondly lingers over the narration of her virtues. She attracted many suitors, but courteously dismissed them all. Among these was the Prince of the West Saxons, who made offer of marriage and of all his worldly goods:--

“Landes, rentes, and libertees all at your pleasure;
Servantes every hour, your byddynge for to do,
With ladyes in your chambre to wayte on you also.”

She gently but firmly declines, saying:--

“But now I shewe you playnly my true mynde,
My purpose was never maryed for to be;
A lorde I have chosen, Redeemer of Mankynde
Jhesu the Second Persone in Trynyte
To be my Spouse.”

The suit of Warbode, a powerful knight and chief steward in her father’s household, was attended with disastrous results. He had gained an evil influence over King Wulfhere, and induced him, if not to become an actual apostate, to adopt a distinctly hostile attitude to Christianity. When his suit, though favoured by his master, is declined by St. Werburgh, he retires in wrath and plots revenge. He poisons the King’s mind, and persuades him that his sons Wulfade and Ruffyn are plotting against him, leads him into the forest, where they are found in St. Chad’s cell being instructed by the good Bishop in the Christian faith; and then in his blind rage the King slays them both, and rushes back to his castle. No sooner did he return than he was seized with sore pains, the mark of God’s vengeance. Stung with remorse, he repented of his apostasy; repaired to St. Chad; professed his contrition; promised to destroy all idols and temples in his realm and to build monasteries; and founded the Abbey of Peterborough and a priory at Stone--

“To the honour of God, and these martyrs twayne.”

And now St. Werburgh begs her father to be allowed to become “a religious,” and to enter the Abbey of Ely, where her great-aunt, St. Etheldreda (or Awdry) was the Abbess. Wulfhere is reluctant and slow to consent, but at length he yields; and, when the matter was once settled, does his part nobly.

After her year of probation, St. Werburgh made her holy profession with great solemnity, and her biographer holds her up to the women of his day as an example of virtue and humility.

On the death of Wulfhere, his widow, Ermenhild, herself repaired to the convent of Ely, where her mother, St. Sexburga, had succeeded her sister, St. Etheldreda, as Abbess, and vied with her daughter in piety and devotion. Wulfhere was succeeded as king by his brother, Ethelred, to whom, according to Giraldus Cambrensis, is due the building in 689 of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Chester. Ethelred fully appreciated his niece’s character, and, seeing her holy conversation, made her Lady and President at Weedon, Trentham, and Hanbury, thus making her ruler of the nuns within his realm. He himself also took the vows and became a monk, resigning the crown to his nephew, Cenred, St. Werburgh’s brother, who, after a short reign of five years, followed his uncle’s example; went to Rome the year of grace 708, and was “professed to Saint Benette’s religion,” and “frome this lyfe transitory, with vertu departed to eternal glory.”

Bradshaw goes on to describe “the gostly devocion of Saynt Werburge, and vertuous governans of her places,” and, if the chronicler is to be trusted, she showed a marvellous capacity for ruling her abbeys. Her behaviour and character is thus described:--

“She was a minister rather than a mistress,
Her great pre-eminence caused no presumpcion,
Serving her systers with humble subjection.
. . . . .
Piteous and merciful and full of charity
To the poor people in their necessity.
. . . . .
She never commanded systers to do anything
But it was fulfilled in her own doing.”

Even from these short extracts we can readily gather what a gentle, lovable personage she must have been, and how in all her relations of life she manifested a truly humble and Christian spirit. Her life was mainly spent between Weedon, Trentham, Repton, and Hanbury, and we can imagine what a gracious influence she exercised upon the religious houses there and their occupants, and so upon the surrounding neighbourhoods. It was at Trentham that she died, enjoining, however, that her body should rest at Hanbury. When she felt her end approaching she gave directions as to her successors and officers in the monasteries, and as to how their affairs should be conducted in the future; then, calling the sisters round her, she gave them her last exhortation, to live in temperance, obedience, and love, recited the Creed, received the Blessed Sacrament, and--

“The third day of February ye may be sure,
Expired from this life, caduce and transitory,
To eternal blyss, coronate with victory,
Changing her lyfe, miserable and thrall,
For infinite joy, and glory eternal.”

This was probably in the year 699. The people of Trentham buried her in that place, watching over the body lest it should be removed. However, the people of Hanbury came, and, a deep sleep having fallen upon the watchers, were enabled to carry the body safely to Hanbury, where it was interred in the chancel. Nine years afterwards, in the summer of 708, it was moved from the grave to a duly prepared shrine with great pomp, in the presence of her cousin King Ceolred and the bishops and the clergy. Here, says the chronicler, the body remained whole and substantial “for nearly 200 years, till the coming of the pagan Danes,” when “it was resolved and fell to powder lest the wicked miscreants with impious hands should dare to touch it.”

It was in 875, to save the remains from such violation, that the people of Hanbury were inspired to bring them to Chester, as the Danes, having destroyed Weedon and Trentham, had come as far as Repton. It was then that--

“The relique, the Shryne full memorative,
Was brought to Chestre for our consolacion,
Reverently receyved, set with devocion
In the mouther Church of Saint Peter and Paule
(As afore is sayd) a place most principall.”

A full description is given of the solemn reception of the shrine and its treasured contents, and also of the gifts wherewith rich and poor vied with each other to enrich it.[70] The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was probably somewhere on the site of the present cathedral. Ethelfleda, daughter of King Alfred, built a separate minster to St. Werburgh, joining it to the east end of the older church. This building (rebuilt, we are told, by Leofric, Earl of Chester) gave place to the Norman structure of Hugh Lupus, in the erection of which he was assisted by the advice of St. Anselm. But through all these changes and vicissitudes the name of St. Werburgh was associated with the dedication of the church, and her shrine found its home there.

[70] According to the Ely Book (_Liber Eliensis_) the relics were brought to the Abbey of Ely (Wall’s _Shrines of British Saints_). Certain portions of them may have been carried to either place, or there may be some confusion as to the name.

The shrine was no doubt visited by pilgrims from all parts, and as time went on was adorned and beautified. The shrine proper was a box or receptacle in which the relics of the saint were deposited, and was often made of the most splendid and costly materials, and enriched with jewels in profusion.

Bradshaw speaks of this portable shrine as “a riall relique” (royal relic), and also tells of the “many riall gyftes of jewels to the shrine.” It was carried about in processions and in times of danger and emergency, and was “set on the towne walles for help and tuicion”; to save Chester from the attacks of the Welsh; and again,

“The devout Chanons sette the holy Shryne
Agaynst their enemies at the sayd Northgate,”

“when innumerable barbarik nations purposed to disstroye and spoyle the city.” Similarly we are told “howe in 1180 a great fire, like to destroye all Chestre, by myracle ceased when the holy shryne was borne about the towne by the monkes.” As various miracles were ascribed to her agency in her lifetime, so now her relics were regarded as powerful instruments in warding off evil whether from individuals or the community at large. The shrine would be visited by suppliants from every quarter, who would invoke the aid of the Saint to remedy their various ills. For the portable shrine a suitable resting-place would be erected, one probably giving place to another as successive generations altered the style and character of the building. Round this stately and elaborate structure would be places where the suppliants could kneel, and also receptacles for the offerings which their piety and gratitude inspired. Of the earlier structures no trace remains, but the fifteenth century one has in recent years been placed at the west end of the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral, as being probably near the spot where it originally stood. At the foundation of the See, and up till 1870, the lower portion formed the base of the Bishop’s Throne, the crown being lowered so as to form the balustrade in front of the Bishop’s seat. In this adaptation certain stones were removed, and were built up in the wall which enclosed the staircase which led from the Bishop’s study directly into the Cathedral. In removing this staircase in 1885 these stones were discovered, and have again been placed on the shrine, which is thus restored to its original proportions. The shrine was adorned with canopied niches, in which were sculptured figures bearing their names on scrolls, representing the Kings and Saints of the Mercian kingdom.

It will be gathered from what has been said that though Saint Werburgh probably spent no portion of her life in Cheshire, yet she was for more than seven hundred years associated in men’s minds with the county, inasmuch as her shrine had its home in Chester. In those days she would be looked upon as a Cheshire Saint, and from far and near religious pilgrims would come to say their devotions and to tender their offerings at her shrine in the Church which was dedicated to God’s service in her name. We are therefore justified in speaking of her under this heading. And she has left her name in the county in other ways. Nine churches in England (six of them in the old kingdom of Mercia) are dedicated in her name. One of these is in Cheshire at Warburton, _Werburgh town_. That place gave its name to an honoured Cheshire family, which has given its scions to the service of their country in many directions, and which still holds a position of high renown and esteem in the county. We may thus legitimately term St. Werburgh a Cheshire Saint. We cannot do better than follow her favourite precept and common saying: “Please God and love Him, and doubt not anything.”

The other subject of our paper is St. Plegmund, to many perhaps an unknown name, though he rose to a high position, and must have exercised a wide and beneficent influence on Church and State both in his own day and for succeeding generations. He, like St. Werburgh, was a native of Mercia, though we cannot give his birthplace or his parentage. But we can connect him very closely with the county and with the neighbourhood of Chester, where his name is still preserved in the name of a parish, that of Plemstall. This has been variously written at different times, as Plegmundstall, Plegmondesham, &c. It was here, in fact, that he established himself as a hermit in an Isle of Chester; for though Plemstall is no longer an island, it has been clearly shown that in earlier times the locality would justify such description.

Plegmund was born in troublous times about the middle of the ninth century. The Danes had overrun the land, destroyed the monasteries, the only places of learning, and driven the monks from their books. Some there were, however, who determined, in spite of all difficulties, to pursue their studies and to pray in solitude for better times, and of these Plegmund was one. He had very probably been a monk, though this cannot be said with certainty. At any rate he adopted the hermit’s life, and set up his stall or habitation at Plemstall, then doubtless an island amid fens and marshes, and by its situation affording a place of safety in times of disorder and unrest. His lonely dwelling, of which no trace remains, may have been on the site of the present church or a short distance away, and nearer to the well which still bears his name. Here he lived the hermit’s life; but we must remember, as Dean Hook tells us, that a hermit was not an anchorite. The latter never quitted his cell, but was an absolute recluse. The hermit was a more independent character; he moved about as occasion demanded. If he had a settled abode he would go to places of resort near at hand, and by his preaching seek to benefit the wayfarers who might be passing by.