An old legend from Lincoln stated that the reason the bride would always have bridesmaids was that it was a way of distracting evil spirits – they would see a number of women all dressed alike and would not know which one was the bride and therefore could cause her no mischief. Bridesmaids and other unmarried girls at the wedding would take a crumb of the wedding cake, pass it through the wedding ring and then sleep with the piece under their pillow. They were then said to dream of the man they would marry. There were many rituals and beliefs concerning future partners – relationships and marriage being of much importance, especially to women.
St Mark’s Eve (24 April) was said to be the night ladies could divine who they were to marry. They used to visit the Maiden Well at North Kelsey, walking towards it backwards and then circling it three times, still backwards, whilst wishing to see their destined husbands. After the third circling, the girl would kneel and gaze into the spring, where she would supposedly see the face of her lover.
Another superstition stated that on the same day, if they set up their table with supper and left the door open, their future husband would walk through the door and join the meal. However, on the same night, the young men were said to be able to find the face of their future bride in the church window, if they went to the churchyard at midnight. The inevitable question arises; if the gentleman was wondering around in the graveyard, would he be in time for supper at his sweetheart’s house? Or perhaps he needed to go to the churchyard to find out which girl’s house he was supposed to be visiting!
Alternatively, when eating an apple, the girl could throw the unbroken peel over her left shoulder and when it fell it would fall in the shape initialling the name of her future partner. Similarly, the practice of naming the chestnuts roasting over the fire was an option – the first to crack signalled the boy the girl would marry. Or on the eve of St Thomas (21 December) ladies would take a peeled onion to bed with them and place it under their pillow, with the belief that one would dream of the man they were going to marry. Although somewhat unreliable, some of these practices were viewed more seriously than others.
Legend had it that if the youngest daughter married before her sisters, they should all dance barefoot at her wedding in order to secure themselves husbands of their own. A tumble when going upstairs was a sign that the person would soon be married, and three lamps burning on a table together was a sign of a wedding in the family.
Roy Palmer reiterates one peculiar belief regarding riches. He tells that it was once thought that if a wealthy woman should marry a man with debts, the creditors could not touch her money if she performed the ceremony naked. He says this particular belief was actually carried out by a bride in Gedney, in 1842 – reported in the The Times newspaper. It was, however, December and the story states the lady was covered with a sheet.
There is an old Lincolnshire saying, once well understood, whereby a countryman would tell his sweetheart that he would marry her, ‘…when the bods (birds) hes two taäils’.5 One can be forgiven for assuming this means the man will never marry the lass – but in actual fact it was an indirect way of telling her he would marry her in the spring, when the swallows arrived.
If you want to know whether your lover is being faithful to you or not, throw an apple pip onto the fire. If it cracks and spits, the partner is faithful, but if it merely withers and burns they are being unfaithful.
Roy Palmer talks of ‘riding the stang’, which was also known as ‘charivari’ and practised for over 700 years. It refers to a tradition of the community gathering together if they disapproved of something, such as adultery, a marriage of a widow, the union of a widower to a much younger bride (often referred to as ‘as thick as thatch’), or the news that a man was beating his wife. They would choose an area in the village and then commence making a racket with any means possible. They would sing and shout, bang pots and pans and cause noisy, discordant ‘rough music’ to demonstrate their disapproval. The actual ‘riding of the stang’ refers to placing the target backwards on a horse and parading them through the streets, surrounded by the noise and people mocking them. Palmer quotes a song that was used in Lincolnshire for a wife beater:
Ran tan tan, the sound of the old tin can.
Mr Timothy Wobblechops has been beating his good woman;
Nather for wop not for why
He up wi’ his fist and he blacked her eye,
But if he does it again,
Which I suppose he will,
We’ll take him to the beck
And give him a good swill.
If that won’t do we’ll skin him
And send him to the tanner,
And if they won’t tan him well
We’ll hang ’im on the nail o’ ’ell.
If the nail o’ ’ell should happen to crack
We’ll put him on the Devil’s back.
If the Devil should happen to run
We’ll shoot him with a gun.
If the gun should happen to miss
We’ll scald him to death with a barrel o’ red hot piss.6
He states that this system was applied to two men at a village west of Gainsborough, whereby one of the men eventually hanged himself and the other ended up in a madhouse.
Rudkin gives an example of a schoolmaster in Holton-le-Clay who was a very bad-tempered man. He apparently gave one of the school boys a harsh thrashing and then tied him by his thumbs to a washing line, where he left him to hang. The villagers were so outraged that they ‘ran-tanned’ the schoolmaster for three nights together. With sticks they spent the nights banging and hammering sheets of iron and old kettles outside his house, whilst singing and humiliating him. Then they burnt a straw effigy of him outside the public house. Certainly a lesson learnt there!
In days gone by when the Church had greater influence in communities than it does in most places today, many Lincolnshire folk were Christian and believed every child must be baptised. This involved placing salt on the tongue of the baby, to drive away the Devil. One of the old superstitions said that a newborn baby’s hands should not be washed until after it had been christened, the accumulated dirt being a sign of its future wealth. Some thought the longer the christening robe, the longer the life of the infant, and the sign of a well-made shawl was that it was fine enough to pass through a wedding ring. Another idea stated that the baby should be made to ‘sneeze’ out the Devil when first born. Some people said that if a child was born with its hands open that it would be a kind and generous person, but if its hands were closed it would prove to be rude and unpleasant.
If church bells were heard ringing the moment a child was born it was believed they would be very lucky – as bells drive away evil spirits, whereas to cut a baby’s hair or nails with scissors or a knife was unlucky. The best way was to bite the nails if they were getting too long. If cut before the baby was a year old, some said it was a sign they would grow up to be a thief. If the mother wanted to keep evil away from her baby, an old saying stated that she should never allow her hands to be idle whilst she rocked the cradle.
While everyone had open fireplaces within their homes, the shapes the soot from the fire created were ‘read’ like tea leaves. The shape of a crescent moon apparently meant a cradle would soon enter the home, whereas a rectangular shape indicated a coffin, and a death.
The Lincolnshire Life magazine tells of an old tradition where midwives and nurses wore belt buckles of intricately knotted patterns so as to distract evil spirits who had come for the mother and child at the most vulnerable time – the birth.7 However, the fancy belts steered their attention away and the mother and baby stayed safe.
Loosening hair would help with a difficult birth, and keeping the ‘silly hood’ – the membrane covering a baby’s head at the time of birth – was thought to bring luck and long life.
The Lincolnshire Life magazine tells that the godparents were given the task of taking a piece of cake with them to church for the baby’s christening.8 The first person they m
et of the opposite sex to the baby was given the cake – and if that person was cross-eyed it was a sign of good fortune. It also states that there used to be a tradition of entering the church via the south/south-west door for the christening, but leaving the north door open. If the baby cried when the water was poured onto its head, that was a sign that the Devil had left the child’s soul and run back to hell through the open north door.
If your daughter was born with hair that grew into a peak on her forehead the belief stated that she would never marry, or would have a very short marriage, hence the term ‘widow’s peak’.
A commonly held belief was that if a woman were to sit on the same chair where a pregnant woman had been seated, she would be the next to become pregnant, but in Lincolnshire this idea extended to sitting on the bed whilst visiting a new mother. The belief in Navenby was that if a young woman was to sow parsley seeds then she would have a child. At one time the new mother was offered an egg from visitors, both for nourishment and also as a symbol of fertility – may she go on to have many more children. If this happened during the harvest time, the mother would be offered a small bunch of wheat.
Ever wondered why baby girls are dressed in pink and boys in blue? One theory suggests that pink dye was cheaper to produce and as boys were once thought to be more valuable than girls they had the superior dye. Charming!
Katherine Briggs relates an interesting story of superstition about two men travelling through Lincolnshire.9 They were on foot and getting weary so they lay down by the roadside to rest awhile. One of the men fell asleep and while he napped, the other man saw a bee buzzing around then settle on a nearby wall and crawl into a small hole. The watching traveller idly put the end of his staff into the hole and blocked the bee’s exit.
He soon wished to carry on their journey and so decided to wake his partner, but his friend was so fast asleep that he would not be roused. Baffled, the man removed his stick from the wall, noticing the bee fly directly out; he watched it fly into the slumbering man’s ear. The man instantly woke up and said he had had a very deep sleep, but a very odd dream. He remarked that he had dreamt his companion had shut him up in a dark cave and he could not wake up until he was let out. After hearing this, the man who had stayed awake was convinced that his friend’s soul was in the bee!
Bees, it seems, held a role of relative importance in old Lincolnshire life. There was a belief that they had to be informed when there was a death in the family, otherwise the bees would search relentlessly for the deceased and when unable to find them would die themselves. They also took part in the mourning process, with a piece of black cloth being draped over the hive. It is said they should be offered some of the funeral wine and informed who the new master of the house would be, or they would leave their hive.
Gutch and Peacock relate an incident witnessed in a house at Stallingborough in the 1800s. It took place a few days after the death of the cottager, when a visitor asked the widow if she had informed the bees of the master’s demise. When hearing this had not been done, she took some cake and went out into the garden, offering the cake to the hive and chanting:
Honey bees! Honey bees! Hear what I say!
Your master, J.A., has passed away.
But his wife now begs you will freely stay,
And still gather honey for many a day.
Bonny bees, bonny bees, hear what I say.10
They were also used as an omen for a death in the family, if one were to see a swarm settling on a dead branch of a tree.
Death, like marriage, had many superstitions and rituals attached to it, such as the idea that upon a death, all the goods within a household should be shaken so that the sad news was known by all.
It was said that if a picture fell from the wall above the fire into the hearth it was an omen of a death in the family. A high wind was also a sign of death, specifically the death of a distinguished person and the failure of the crop of ash-keys was said to portend a death in the Royal family. To eat off a plate with another plate beneath it foretold a death.
If a married woman with normally straight hair suddenly found two curls on her temples it was a sign that she would soon become a widow. Ethel Rudkin tells of a lady from Scawby who found two such curls over her temples; she was terrified, knowing what it meant. Within a fortnight her husband was dead.11
There are many superstitions concerning death in Lincolnshire attached to candles. It is said the guttering of a candle is a sign of a death, as is the way the wax melts down the side of the candle. A candle should not be allowed to die out, or it is thought to bring death to a sailor out at sea. The death of another family member is prophesied within the year if the candle burning next to a dead body should fall out of its holder.
Gutch and Peacock quote a belief reported in the Horncastle News in 1894: ‘A strange legend is current in Swineshead that, ‘If a corpse lies in a house on Sunday there will be three within the week.’12 Also, if the passing or funeral bell is tolled in the church by mistake when the bells are being rung, then a death will follow shortly after. Another sign a death will soon occur is having an odd number of people in a funeral procession.
It was thought that if one were to sew on a Sunday then they would prick their finger and die of the wound. Ethel Rudkin tells of the superstition that if someone tried to attract your attention by waving a shovel at you, that you should throw a handful of earth in their direction immediately or else it was an omen you would soon be buried.13
It was an age-old belief that a person could not die in a bed which contained pigeon’s feathers. With this in mind, on some occasions, if someone was taken suddenly ill and seemed likely to pass away before some particular relative arrived, a small bag of pigeon feathers was placed under the pillow, in order to hold death back.
If you had the misfortune to be bitten by a fox, the belief was that you would die within seven years. And woe betides the person who heard a cock just before midnight. This was a sign of either their own demise or of someone close to them. A pigeon flying into the window of a room where there was a very ill person was seen as a sign that they soon would die. Many superstitions surrounding death were attached to birds – doves, magpies, pigeons, cormorants – and a death bird would often make an appearance at the hour of fatality.
It was customary in Lincolnshire for the window of a dying person to be opened, and then after they had died all the other windows of the house should be opened, with the blinds drawn down.
Belief in the ‘dead cart’ was rife in Lincolnshire at one time. The legend stated that a horseless cart would travel the streets in the early hours, carrying the dead souls away and that if you were unfortunate enough to hear the wheels of the cart as it passed, or to look out of your window and see it, then it was an omen that either you or someone in the house would die within three days. During the funeral of the deceased, it was customary in some parts of Lincolnshire to leave the door of the house open, so that if the spirit of the dead person wished to return home they would not be shut out.
If one were to accidentally fold their tablecloth carelessly, so that diamond-shaped creases were formed, then this was seen as a sign of death. A lighted fire that had been forgotten about but burnt on late into the evening, even without any new fuel being placed upon it, foretold news of a death. Gutch and Peacock state that it used to be considered very bad luck to take hawthorn blossom indoors, as this was seen as a precursor of death.14 They also state that it used to be the practice in most Lincolnshire churches to hang a garland from the roof of the church when a young unmarried woman died. If a woman died during childbirth, the custom used to be to throw a white sheet over her coffin and in some parishes she was carried by maidens wearing white hoods.
If a child was dying in the house, three horseshoes were to be placed at the foot of the bed and struck with a wooden mallet, whilst the father chanted:
With this mell I thrice do knock,
One for God, one for Wod and one for Lok.15
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nbsp; As the Lincolnshire Magazine states, this is a fine example of the overlap between the old pagan beliefs and the new Christian ones – a father hedges his bets and prays to both sides for help. The magazine also states that in days gone by it was the custom for men to carry the coffins of men in the funeral procession, women to carry women and maids to carry maids. Sometimes a bowl was made available at the funeral for friends to leave pins, a long-held belief that this would help keep evil spirits away. Metal was often used to frighten away evil spirits, another example being during sowing season. The horses would be dressed with a metal piece on their head and breast gear to protect their hearts from the evil sprites.
One gentle, old belief, mentioned in Lincolnshire Life magazine, was that a man puts his fire into a woman and that when he dies she turns to the hearth fire for comfort.
Daniel Codd recounts a tale connected with the old Lincolnshire superstition about the elder tree. Elder was sacred to Hecate, the ancient Greek Goddess of death and childbirth. There was a belief that the Elder Queen lived in the roots of the elder tree and that if one were to cut the branches without her permission, one would risk blindness, a loss of health, livestock illness or even a death in the family. People would also be expected to appease the Elder Mother with offerings and charms and if they wanted some of the wood from the tree there was a special way to ask the Lady’s permission: ‘Owd Gal, give me some of thy wood, and Oi will give thee some of moine when Oi graws inter a tree.’16
Codd says there is a story of a baby’s cradle being made with ill-gotten elder wood and that the poor child had been snatched from under his parent’s eyes, never to be seen again. However, if one is caught out in a thunder storm, choose an elder tree to stand under, as legend states lightning will never strike the Elder Mother!
Folklore of Lincolnshire Page 15